An extremely drunk Farmington mother started driving, gazed at her 8-year-old daughter hanging on to the pickup truck from the outside and kept going until the child fell off, according to charges.
Charges: Extremely drunk mom drives off as pleading daughter clings to pickup
August 3, 2015 at 12:51PM
Rena M. Giancherio, 46, was charged last week with criminal-vehicular operation, child endangerment and drunken driving stemming from the incident last Monday outside the home.
A preliminary breath test given at the Farmington Police Department measured her blood alcohol content at .30 percent, nearly four times the legal limit for driving in Minnesota.
According to the criminal complaint:
Shortly after 3:30, a neighbor told police that Giancherio had just driven off and the driver's daughter had a grip on the pickup's door handle while standing on the running board. The girl fell off and injured her foot, but the mother kept driving, even though the child was yelling and banging on the window. By the time police arrived, Giancherio returned and parked in her garage.
The sobbing girl told officers she was trying to get in the car, but her mother kept driving. The girl had a bruised foot from her fall.
Giancherio denied to officers what they had been told. The girl heard her mother, became "very upset … and called her mother a liar," the complaint read.
Despite officers being able to smell alcohol on Giancherio and noting her slurred speech and watery eyes, she denied that she had been drinking. The girl said her mother drank a half of a bottle of liquor and offered to go find the rest of the "booze" for the officers, the complaint continued.
Video surveillance from a nearby liquor store showed Giancherio in the store buying a "large bottle with a clear substance" just minutes before the incident.
Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482
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