Atlanta City Councilwoman Cleta Winslow was in the Atlanta Municipal Court building Wednesday afternoon, but she didn’t appear with her attorney nor enter a plea to charges that she was driving drunk Tuesday night.
Attorney Antavius Weems said Winslow would issue a statement at a news conference planned for Thursday morning, but it was unlikely the councilwoman would take questions from reporters about the traffic stop that resulted in her going to jail and having her mug shot taken.
Winslow admitted that she had had a few drinks — “two dirty martinis” at a bar on Elliot Street — when an officer stopped her in southwest Atlanta about 11:15 p.m. Tuesday. He wrote that he saw a gray Honda Accord run a stop sign and a red light, and that it was weaving and traveling on the wrong side of the road, all signs of impairment, according to the report.
“She seemed very distant/out of it and had a very slow reaction to his questions,” the report said. “She had glassy eyes and was squinting.”
The officer wrote that she could not figure out how to open the car door.
“She could not find the door handle to exit the car. In fact she was turning the car on and off in an attempt to exit the car,” he wrote.
“Ms. Winslow admitted to having a few drinks, but refused to do any field sobriety test,” the officer wrote.
“Ms. Winslow was having a hard time understanding what was going on,” according to the report.
Once out the car, Winslow swayed and needed help standing. But she declined to take a field sobriety test, which means her driver’s license will be suspended for a year unless she successfully appeals the administrative requirement or she is acquitted.
She refused to turn around so the officer could handcuff her.
Winslow was cuffed and put in the backseat of a patrol car. She was charged with DUI Alcohol Less Safe, driving on the wrong side of the road, failure to stop for stop sign, reckless driving and a red light violation.
She told the officer that she served on the City Council. She said she understood the officer and a supervisor called to the scene were doing their jobs.
Winslow, a member of the City Council’s Public Safety Committee, was booked into the Atlanta Pretrial Detention Center and has been released on $3,355 bond, a jail spokeswoman told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
—Staff writer Mike Morris contributed to this report.
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