"Winthrop driver charged with OUI sent for mental evaluation" by Aneri Pattani, Globe Correspondent March 20, 2015
A Winthrop woman was sent for a mental health evaluation at her arraignment Friday on charges she was driving drunk with children in her car when she struck a pedestrian, officials said.
That's crazy!
Cerisse Bomarsi, 37, appeared in East Boston Municipal Court on multiple charges, including operating under the influence, operating to endanger, and child endangerment, Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said in a statement. Not-guilty pleas were entered on her behalf.
Judge Debra Shopteese ordered Bomarsi to undergo a mental health evaluation and imposed bail of $5,000 with orders that she remain alcohol-free, subject to random testing, and have no contact with the victim, prosecutors said.
Assistant District Attorney Janine D’Amico told the court that Winthrop police received a 911 call reporting an erratic driver operating a minivan in the area of Main and Revere streets around 3:45 p.m. Thursday.
Soon after, the minivan allegedly struck a 62-year-old Winthrop woman who was walking in the area. She was thrown by the force of the crash and landed underneath a parked vehicle in a Revere Street parking lot.
The woman was taken to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston with cuts to her face and significant injuries to her legs, prosecutors said.
When officers tried to speak with Bomarsi while she was sitting in the driver’s seat of the minivan, her speech was “extremely slurred” and they smelled alcohol on her breath, prosecutors said. After officers asked Bomarsi for her driver’s license, she reached into her purse, retrieved an unopened nip bottle of Smirnoff, and attempted to open the bottle, according to prosecutors.
Officers found a 6-year-old girl and a 6-month-old boy in the back of the van. They were not injured, prosecutors said. The state Department of Children and Families took them into custody, officials said.
Bomarsi struggled with officers and to be lifted out of the van in order to be handcuffed and placed on a stretcher, prosecutors said. She was taken to Massachusetts General Hospital, officials said.
Officers allegedly found two Smirnoff nip bottles on the floor of the van near the driver’s seat, one of them empty and the other nearly empty. Three empty vodka nip bottles and two empty Red Bull cans were also allegedly found under the front passenger seat.
Witnesses told police they saw the minivan cross over the center line before coming to a stop in the middle of the road. The van then unexpectedly accelerated through a red light at the intersection of Main and Revere streets and drove onto the sidewalk, striking a tree, then the victim, and finally a second tree before coming to a stop, prosecutors said.
Bomarsi is next scheduled to appear in court on April 6.
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