Police hold former cop in record DUI case as precaution

[Jackalope]

Police hold former cop in record DUI case as precaution

By Peyton Whitely and Ashley Bach
Seattle Times Eastside bureau

A former Seattle police detective who registered a potentially lethal blood-alcohol reading after two traffic accidents was arrested at her home Thursday because she was considered too dangerous to the community, the State Patrol said.

Deana Francine Jarrett, 54, of Woodinville, had been charged Wednesday with two counts of driving under the influence stemming from two separate arrests last week.

Jarrett, who also resigned from her position as a federal airport-security officer last week, is being held in the King County Jail on $250,000 bail.

State troopers obtained an arrest warrant from a judge Thursday and booked her into jail again because they considered her such a high risk to drive drunk, according to State Patrol spokesman Jeff Merrill.

When troopers showed up at Jarrett's home Thursday afternoon, she was alone and refused to cooperate, Merrill said. She changed her mind only after troopers removed her air conditioner and prepared to crawl through her window, he said.

The troopers reported that she was "highly intoxicated," smelling of alcohol and slurring her words.

"We really felt there needed to be an intervention immediately," Merrill said. "We need to take extra steps to ensure the community is safe."

Jarrett was arrested on suspicion of DUI twice last week in Redmond. In the second arrest, she recorded a 0.47 blood-alcohol reading, which the State Patrol reported as the highest breath-test reading since 1998, out of more than 350,000 tests taken in the state since then. She held a valid driver's license.

She was released after posting $500 bail for each arrest.

Jarrett's blood-alcohol reading was nearly six times above the legal limit of 0.08, the Patrol reported. A level above 0.40 is potentially lethal, police and medical officials say.

Jarrett also was in a deferred prosecution for a DUI arrest in August 2001, court records show.

She recently had been a passenger screener and supervisor for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. She joined the TSA in 2002 and resigned her position April 12, just after being released from jail, according to TSA spokeswoman Jennifer Marty-Peppin.

Jarrett, who legally changed her surname from Karst in March 2000, was involved in a lengthy sexual-harassment dispute against the Seattle Police Department in the 1990s, court records show.

The court records describe a life that had become mired in battles with alcoholism in recent years, including her then-11-year-old daughter being taken from her home by state officials.

Jarrett started as a Seattle police officer in February 1979 and left the department in July 1998, according to Seattle police spokeswoman Renee Witt.

Jarrett's internal sexual-harassment complaint against Seattle police was upheld by the department in January 1995. And in October of that year, she filed a lawsuit against the department charging sexual harassment and seeking damages.

Her attorney contended in the suit that the harassment included anonymous letters, cartoons in her mailbox and a bomb threat on her truck at her home.

The suit was dismissed in April 1997 by a King County Superior Court judge, a ruling upheld by the state Court of Appeals. The court decision included that some claims were barred because of the statute of limitations and others because the police department "took immediate remedial action."

In 2003, Jarrett sought a domestic-violence protection order against a man she was dating and acknowledged she was undergoing treatment for alcoholism and attended AA meetings, according to court records.

During that time, the King County Sheriff's Office was called several times to Jarrett's Bear Creek residence.

In March 2003, deputies went to the house after a report of an 11-year-old there calling for help because her mother was intoxicated and handling a gun.

The girl, Jarrett's daughter, told officers that she had just returned from a three-week stay at a youth shelter and she wanted to go back to the shelter "because she did not want to be around her mother while she was so intoxicated," according to a report from a King County sheriff's deputy.

Officers said "the house was a mess." Deputies turned the girl over to Children's Protective Services, who returned her to the shelter. It's not clear where the daughter is now.

In February, Jarrett was cited in Redmond for hit-and-run driving and reckless driving. Now, a review of her 2001 DUI case is scheduled for May 1.

Her arraignment on the recent DUI charges is set for Monday morning in the Redmond Division of King County District Court.

Peyton Whitely: 206-464-2259 or pwhitely@seattletimes.com
Copyright © 2007 The Seattle Times Company

Why is her former job so important they have to put it in the headline? When's the last time you read a headline like "Former Lawyer does Something Stupid?"

[jcsdscott]

You know the media anything to makes headlines pop. And of course you know what they say

"Build a thousand bridges no one calls you an architect, but suck one....."

[conalabu]

You know the media anything to makes headlines pop. And of course you know what they say

"Build a thousand bridges no one calls you an architect, but suck one....."

"dick, and you're Virginian." Right? That was what you were going to say?

As far as the topic at hand, I hate to see anyone making the badge look anything other than gleaming, but it looks like this "former detective" has had a rough ride that last few years. Why didn't the media start asking why no one intervened to get her help?

[jcsdscott]

Because it would be too much like right.

You know that they have to villify us at every opportunity.

[Morning Coffee]

I agree the media will do anything to make cops look bad , and i agree intervention should of been done years ago , and i also agree with getting the warrant and putting her in jail on a much higher bond as a precaution and hopefully this will be a road to eventual recovery and saved some lives in the process .