Woman charged with DUI held on $500,000 bail
KAYE THORNBRUGH | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 5 years, 5 months AGO
Jensen
Kaye Thornbrugh is a second-generation Kootenai County resident who has been with the Coeur d’Alene Press for six years. She primarily covers Kootenai County’s government, as well as law enforcement, the legal system and North Idaho College. | April 21, 2021 1:08 AM
COEUR d’ALENE — A 75-year-old woman is being held on $500,000 bail after police said she drove backward on Appleway Avenue while drunk.
Hayden Lake resident Pamela J. Jensen is charged with driving under the influence, a felony. Prosecutors also filed a habitual offender enhancement.
Prosecutors said this is Jensen’s seventh lifetime DUI charge and fifth felony DUI charge.
Police reportedly observed a white Buick LaCrosse traveling eastbound on Appleway Avenue with the headlights off around midnight Monday.
The vehicle began to drive in reverse, police said, traveling the wrong way. When police initiated a traffic stop, the vehicle pulled into a parking lot.
The driver, identified as Jensen, reportedly said she did not have a driver’s license, as it had been suspended after a DUI conviction.
Jensen allegedly told police she had been drinking at a Coeur d’Alene bar.
She provided breath samples of 0.14 and 0.13, according to court documents. In Idaho, a blood alcohol level greater than 0.08 is considered legally impaired.
Police arrested Jensen at the scene.
She was convicted of driving under the influence in Kootenai County in 1988, 1993, 2018, 2019 and 2020.
She was previously convicted of several felonies, including forgery in Kootenai County in 1988, theft in Spokane County in 1992 and writing checks that were returned for insufficient funds in Valley County in 2013.
In Idaho, a third felony conviction is punishable by a minimum of five years and a maximum of life in prison.
Judge Anna Eckhart ordered Monday that Jensen be held on $500,000 bail.
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