SILVER CREEK — A former Columbus woman is accused of an aggravated drunken driving charge stemming from a Sunday afternoon incident in a Silver Creek store parking lot in which she reportedly was talking incoherently while exposing herself to customers.
Merrick County Sheriff’s deputies arrested 29-year-old Tracy Gaeth on suspicion of aggravated second-offense drunken driving and possession of an open container of alcohol about 4:45 p.m. Sunday in the Silver Creek C Store parking lot along U.S. Highway 30.
Gaeth, who recently moved from Columbus to Silver Creek, had not been formally charged by the Merrick County Attorney’s Office as of Wednesday afternoon. She remained in custody at the Hall County Department of Corrections in Grand Island.
A sheriff’s investigation of the Sunday incident began with a complaint of a woman sitting in her van in the store parking lot talking in a confused manner and exposing herself to customers, Deputy Jake Bauer reported.
“They were obviously concerned,” said Bauer, who arrived at the scene with another deputy to find Gaeth sitting in the driver’s seat of the van. “Her speech wasn’t making any sense. We suspected there was alcohol on board.”
Bauer said Gaeth was arrested for second-offense driving under the influence-.15+ after performing field sobriety tests.
Gaeth is also facing a second-offense DUI charge in Platte County in connection with an Aug. 26 incident in which she was reportedly driving with a flat front driver’s side tire southbound on U.S. Highway 81 near 265th Street.
“While following the vehicle the driver side tire came off the vehicle,” Platte County Deputy Troy Higgins wrote in his probable cause arrest statement. “The vehicle was swerving at this time and I stopped the vehicle.”
Preliminary breath test results showed a blood alcohol content at nearly twice the legal limit of 0.08 for driving.
Gaeth, who pleaded not guilty in the Columbus case, is set for a pretrial hearing Thursday in county court.
Gaeth was previously convicted of DUI in Platte County in June 2009.
