Woman wants to sue city after she was arrested in her own home after police smelled alcohol on her
New Hampshire woman, 68, plans to sue her city after being arrested when police smelled alcohol on her breath while watching baseball AT HOME, claiming her filthy home was dangerous
- Colleen Loud, 68, was at home waiting for a baseball game to start when two officers showed up at her door investigating an accident
- After one of them said they could smell alcohol on her breath, the two arrested Loud, claiming the filthy state of her mobile home was dangerous.
- Now Loud has said she has hired a lawyer and plans to sue the city for what she calls a “wrongful arrest.”
A woman is planning to sue a small New Hampshire town after she was arrested in her own home last year by police, who were investigating an accident nearby, because they said they could smell alcohol on her breath.
Colleen Loud, 68, was eating a bowl of ice cream at her home in New Hampton in anticipation of a Yankees game due to start last October when officers knocked on her door and eventually took her into custody.
Police say they were arrested for drunkenness with a breath alcohol test of just over 0.08, which is below the legal limit for driving, and also out of concern for the condition of her home. In documents, an officer accused her of being a hoarder.
Loud later fired back in an interview, saying, “My house is a mess, which is none of their business to be honest with you.”
Now Loud has said she has hired a lawyer and plans to sue the city for what she calls a wrongful arrest.
Sergeant Asa Johnson, pictured here, is said to have told Loud he could smell alcohol on her after knocking on her door
Officer McCue had originally gone to her mobile home door and questioned Loud about the crash
Former North Hampton police chief Kathryn Mone has resigned following an investigation into Loud’s arrest
Officer Matt McCue had shown up on Loud’s doorstep last October, wanting to know if she’d heard a car crash in the bushes outside her mobile home.
After telling McCue she hadn’t, she closed the door on the officer and returned to watching her baseball game.
After this, Sergeant Asa Johnson allegedly knocked on her door, claiming he could smell alcohol.
Told loudly the Boston Globe that she had stopped by a local bar after work for a few beers before the officers showed up at her house.
Johnson gave her an alcohol test and found that her breath alcohol content was just over 0.08 percent, the legal limit for driving.
Loud told the paper she remembers Johnson saying, “We’re taking you into police custody.
“I’m sitting on my recliner waiting for a baseball game. The next moment you take me into custody. Damn it.’
Loud claims that they gave her two choices, call someone to take care of her, or go to the “drunken tank” at night.
They took her out of her house in handcuffs and she spent the night in the Rockingham County Jail.
Loud said, “I feel like I’ve been violated. My rights have been violated. I was in my own house. I wasn’t wavering.
“I didn’t fall down drunk. All I did was literally wait for a baseball game to start on TV.”
The officers had turned up at Granite Post Green to investigate a car that had crashed into a bush
After the city launched an investigation into the incident, the arrest was reported.
In the reports, obtained by the Boston Globe, McCue and Johnson said Loud’s house was full of “mountains of garbage” and they took her in to protect her from it.
Loud told the newspaper, “My house is a mess, which is none of their business to be honest.”
Since the incident, Police Chief Kathryn Mone has retired and Sgt. Johnson has left the police force.
The city investigation also allegedly found that there was no training, policy change, or disciplinary action following the arrest.
According to the report, Mon is said to have said she would rather “be taken to court for taking action than not taking action.”