Jury convicts woman in DUI stop

NEW LONDON — A woman convicted twice of drunken driving got her third strike — sort of — at a trial Tuesday in New London Superior Court.

After a three-hour trial in front of Judge Barbara Jongbloed, a six-member jury found Patricia Cairns, 52, formerly of East Lyme, guilty of driving with a suspended license. Then, in a second part of the trial, the jurors declared Cairns a "subsequent offender," meaning they found that she had been convicted twice before of drunken driving.

Because of that status, Cairns faces a prison sentence of between one and three years when she is sentenced.

A Norwich police officer arrested Cairns on the evening of April 5. She was charged with drunken driving, interfering with an officer and driving with a suspended license.

The drunken driving and interfering with an officer charges were not part of the trial.

Officer Keven McNeill testified that he was on patrol on West Thames Street shortly after 11:30 p.m. when he spotted Cairns' Ford Taurus weaving in front of his cruiser. Then, he said, the car drove onto the sidewalk as it made a right turn onto South Thames Street and pulled into the parking lot of a condominium complex, nearly hitting a parked car as it came to a stop.

McNeill said Cairns, who was alone in the car, left it and "stumbled" toward him. The officer said he ordered her to get back in her car, but she continued forward and "began yelling profanities at me."

McNeill said he stopped Cairns by grabbing her elbow and arrested her.

Cairns told a much different story when she testified in her own defense. She said a friend she knows only as Rodney gave her a ride in her car from her home in Uncasville to Norwich complex where she has some furniture stored that she wanted to move.

At about 8:30 p.m. that night, Cairns said, Rodney was given a ride by a friend of his to the friend's home nearby in order to get the friend's truck to use in the move.

About 15 minutes later, Cairns testified, "I was standing out in the back (of the condominiums), and I saw two police cruisers pull in."

McNeill was in one of the cruisers, she said. "That's when he came after me. … I really didn't know what was going on. … He grabbed my arm, and he put the handcuffs on."

Jurors deliberated less than an hour before finding Cairns guilty.

Cairns was convicted of drunken driving in 2002 and 2010. She also was convicted of driving with a suspended license in 2004.

She is currently serving a two-year prison sentence after being found in October to have violated her probation for the 2010 conviction.