Inset: Isabella Fernanda Saenz (Broward County Jail via WPLG). Background: The intersection of N. Flamingo Road and Sheridan Street in Pembroke Pines, Fla., where Saenz was arrested on DUI and child neglect charges (Google Maps).
A Florida mom was arrested for DUI after cops saw her 5-year-old daughter hanging out of the window while she was driving along a busy road, authorities say.
Isabella Fernanda Saenz, 26, is charged with child neglect and DUI.
A police officer with the Pembroke Pines Police Department was at the intersection of N. Flamingo Road and Sheridan Street on Sunday night when he saw a child hanging out of the rear passenger window with her upper body exposed in a car at a stoplight, a probable cause arrest affidavit said.
The child continued to hang out of the window when the light turned green and the vehicle started moving, cops said.
Saenz moved from the right-hand turn lane to the eastbound lane, crossing over a solid white line, cops said. The officer conducted a traffic stop.
The defendant said she did not realize her daughter was unbelted and hanging out of the window. Saenz's breath allegedly reeked of alcohol and her eyes were glassy, according to police.
She told cops she was driving home from a kid's birthday party. Saenz later said she smoked marijuana and drank one margarita, officers wrote.
Officers put her through a series of field sobriety tests in which she was wobbly on her feet or did not follow instructions, the affidavit stated. Her breath tests showed she had a blood-alcohol content of 0.123 and 0.124. The legal limit is 0.08.
Saenz was arrested and taken to the Broward County Jail, where she has since posted an $8,000 bond. Officers noted that Saenz failed to notice her daughter hanging out of the window, which could have resulted in "serious physical injury or substantial risk of death to the child."
Her next court date was not immediately listed.