IC woman charged with child endangerment and drug possession
Hunter
11/04/19
An Iowa City woman was arrested early Sunday after a traffic violation found her under the influence and in possession of drugs with her three children in the car with her.
According to police, they and several other agencies were in the Heinz Road area at around 12:30am Sunday, investigating an unrelated incident. An officer observed 33-year-old Sanjuanita Aranday-Arce attempting to negotiate a loop in a parking lot and ending up driving over the curb twice.
The officer stopped Aranday-Arce as she exited the lot, and she allegedly had slurred speech, bloodshot watery eyes, slurred speech, and the odor of ingested alcohol. She failed field testing and blew a .147 on a subsequent Datamaster test.
Her children, aged 5, 10 and 13, were in the vehicle with her.
A subsequent search of Aranday-Arce turned up baggies containing cocaine and marijuana. A pipe used to smoke the substances was also found.
Aranday-Arce was taken into custody and charged with three counts of child endangerment, first offense OWI, two counts of possession of a controlled substance, and possession of drug paraphernalia. If convicted on all charges, Aranday-Arce could be sentenced to a prison term of over six years.
