Zionsville council president faces drunk driving charges
ZIONSVILLE, Ind. (WISH) — The president of the Zionsville Town Council, Elizabeth Hopper, has been charged with drunken driving and public intoxication, court documents say.
A Zionsville police officer watched a silver Subaru sport-utility vehicle driven by Hopper drive over a sidewalk and curb while turning west onto Hunt Club Road from southbound Ford Road at 5:22 p.m. Monday. “The vehicle then stopped in the right turn lane for Stone Wall Lane and turned its hazard lights on, and put the vehicle in park,” the police report said.
The 46-year-old town councilor lives nearby on Huntington Woods Road.
Hopper indicated to police she had not been drinking, but police said she smelled of “an odor commonly associated with the consumption of alcoholic beverages” and exhibited behaviors that led them to conduct a field sobriety test.
During the field test, the police report said, Hopper exhibited clues of being impaired, so a Zionsville police sergeant gave Hopper a portable breath test, which registered her blood-alcohol count at 0.19. In Indiana, a driver with a count of 0.08 is considering to be driving drunk.
A chemical test performed later at Zionsville Police Department recorded Hopper’s count at 0.221. Hopper was taken to the Boone County Jail in Lebanon after the chemical test results were known.
Hopper was charged with operating a vehicle with a count of 0.15 or higher, operating a vehicle while intoxicated and public intoxication. All three are misdemeanors.
Boone County Deputy Prosecutor Erica Dobbs was assigned to the criminal case.Court records did not list an attorney for Hopper.
Hopper is scheduled for an initial hearing at 2 p.m. Monday in Boone Superior Court 2.
That same day, Zionsville Town Council is scheduled to meet at 7 p.m. inside the new town hall.
