Busted Car Headlight Leads to DWI Charge, Crack Pipe

A local woman is facing numerous charges after a traffic stop on North State Street last month.

Dawna Marie Perkins, 52, of Concord, was arrested at 1 a.m. on June 16, and charged with driving while intoxicated, possession of drugs, and felony possession of controlled drugs.

An officer traveling north on North State Street observed a Chevrolet Cobalt driving south with a defective passenger side headlight, according to an arrest report. The officer turned around and followed the vehicle and alleged that it was driving on top of the white solid line on the right. Around Swenson Granite, the vehicle drifted left and crossed the double yellow line, straddling it. The vehicle was pulled over.

The officer alleged then when the driver, Perkins, rolled down the car’s window, he could smell alcohol coming from the vehicle.

“I observed that her eyes were bloodshot red and glossy and noticed that her speech was slurred,” the officer alleged.

The officer spoke with Perkins about how much she had to drink and her lack of having a license in her possession. She later agreed to step out of the car to perform a field sobriety test and was allegedly “unsteady on her feet.” The officer noted that she was wearing a cast on her foot but allegedly continued to smell alcohol and again asked how much she had to drink. After preforming the tests, Perkins was arrested.

After being placed in the cruiser, Perkins reportedly asked the officer to grab her keys and cigarettes to take with her, located in the pocket of her driver’s door. The officer located an opened pack of Pall Malls with 11 cigarettes and a glass smoking pipe.

When shown the pack of cigarettes, Perkins allegedly exclaimed and denied the pipe was hers. When asked to reveal whose pipe it was, she allegedly refused but stated it was used for smoking crack. A test later revealed the presence of cocaine, according to the report. Perkins was arraigned on June 30.

Previously, Perkins was arrested in June 2012, for allegedly stealing a chair from the Family Dollar store on Fisherville Road, according to a post on Patch. 

In December 2005, according to the Concord Monitor, she was arrested and charged with domestic simple assault and violation of a protective order, after allegedly hitting a man during an argument about money.

Editor’s note: The following story was derived from information supplied by the Concord Police Department. It does not indicate a conviction. Click this link to find out how to get a name removed from Patch arrest reports.