Access Atlanta > Entertainment > Radio Talk > Archives > 2006 > October > 08
Sunday, October 8, 2006
10/7: Star’s Cindy arrested for alleged DUI (updated)
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
publicity shot
offical mug shot
Cindy Simmons, the afternoon cohost with Ray Mariner on Star 94 since 2003, told listeners Friday that she had been arrested for an alleged DUI last Thursday night. Here’s a link to the story
Cindy, who has myspace page, responded to my email with the following: “Thanks for your email and for inquiring about my situation. Yes, I did discuss it on the air this past Friday and covered everything. At this point, I’ve been advised not to discuss it any further.” That doesn’t help me much in terms of solifying details since I don’t have the audio from Friday afternoon and she doesn’t seem to be addressing it anymore on the air today. On her Cindy’s diary on star 94, she only alludes to the situation by writing “It’s been a rough last couple of days and I just wanted to thank everyone for their support.” and “This too shall pass.”
At about 6 p.m., Cindy did email me a 13-minute MP3 clip of her talking about the arrest Friday. She had been a bridal shower and had a couple of drinks earlier in the evening. She didn’t say what she drank or when. She said close to midnight, she drove three of her girlfriends to their cars. A cop pulled her over for not coming to a complete stop at a stop sign and asked her to take a few sobriety tests including “follow the finger” and “walk in a straight line.” She felt she did fine on those. When he asked her to take a breathalyzer, she refused. “All I’ve ever heard is if you are ever asked to take a breathalizyer test to politely refuse,” she said.
He proceeded to arrest her on suspicion of DUI, handcuff her, place her in the car and sent her to the Atlanta City Detention Center. “I was stunned. Stunned!” she said. “I was a complete mess… it was humiliating. I was sobbing!” She felt she was not intoxicated and in fact, her three friends for preventative purposes, took the breathalyzer tests and passed.
She spent several hours at the detention center getting frisked, having her license taken away and getting a mug shot taken. “It felt like you were in a movie,” she said. “The main room looks like a DMV. You’re sitting with strangers from all walks of life. You’re frightened. There’s no one there to make you feel better.” Her husband Aaron picked her up and she appeared at municipal court that morning to get a court date, which is sometime in November.
“I knew that I was perfectly fine,” she told the listeners. “I wouldn’t do that to anybody else. I wouldn’t do that to my friends or myself or my famly. I’m not a dumb girl.”
Earlier in the day, I was having trouble tracking down info about Cindy’s arrest from the legal authorities until someone below noted that perhaps she was using her married name. She was. It’s Cynthia Glocker. I asked the public information officer at the Atlanta City Detention Center and she found some skeletal information about the arrest. She was booked at 12:52 a.m. October 6 for failure to stop at a stop sign and DUI. She was picked up by the Georgia State Patrol. I don’t yet have an exact time or location of the arrest yet but hopefully the GSP can get that. She was bonded for $1,100 and released.
Based on the sketchy details I was able to provide George Stein, the well-known DUI lawyer who is heard every Friday on 96rock’s Regular Guys, the fact she turned down the breathalyzer is not a bad thing. He’s skeptical of the reliability of the on-site breathalizers.. He also isn’t a big fan of the sobriety tests. “They’re designed for people to fail,” he said. Good news for Cindy: the City of Atlanta has reasonable prosecutors, he said, who will take circumstances into account. From what I can tell, this is Cindy’s first situation like this so they leniency, he said, is possible. That means no DUI conviction on the record, no license suspension, a fine and community service.
I’m trying to get someone at the Atlanta Police Department to give me more info on DUI procedures since it’s something I’m not familiar with.
