A 30-year-old Los Angeles woman was arrested after her white Volkswagen Jetta slammed into two other vehicles in West Palm Beach last Tuesday, leaving her car with heavy front-end damage and blown airbags. When deputies arrived, she reportedly told them she simply wasn't used to driving in the rain.
That explanation didn't hold up for long, according to the Tampa Free Press, which reported that Morgan Bell Brown was booked on suspicion of DUI with property damage after the September 22 crash. Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office deputies located Brown at the scene, per the arrest affidavit, and said she displayed slurred speech, glossy eyes, dilated pupils and an odor of alcohol. A bystander told investigators they heard the crash and watched Brown's car slide into the two other vehicles.
Nine Boxes, Two Refusals
Investigators say they found an open container of BeatBox wine inside Brown's car and bags, along with nine total boxes of the beverage — seven of them already empty. BeatBox wine carries an 11.1 percent alcohol by volume content, according to the seed report. Brown reportedly told deputies she was in town visiting a friend.
Brown refused roadside sobriety tests as well as a formal DUI test, the report states, and she also declined to sign the citation deputies issued her. She was ultimately booked on suspicion of DUI with property damage, refusing a DUI test, and refusing to sign a citation, according to the same account.
Coverage Spreads Beyond Florida
Crash Details Deputies arrived at the crash scene and found Brown's damaged Jetta, whose airbags had deployed. Investigators later found seven empty BeatBox boxes in her bags.
Impaired driving remains a persistent hazard on Florida roads and nationwide. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has studied the odds of a crash when a driver tests positive for alcohol or drugs, underscoring why officers scrutinize impairment so closely at scenes like this one. What happens next for Brown in the courts has not been reported.
