BILLINGS — A 38-year-old woman is facing a one felony and two misdemeanor charges for allegedly crashing into a Montana Highway Patrol vehicle while drunk near ZooMontana, nearly hitting a trooper, then driving off.
Zeta Elizabeth Scollard was charged Monday in Yellowstone County Justice Court with felony criminal endangerment and misdemeanor charges of driving under the influence and failure to report an accident.
She faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted of the felony.
Prosecutors said in charging documents that a trooper was conducting a traffic stop at 9:04 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 27, on Zoo Drive when another vehicle hit his patrol car and continued driving.
The trooper cleared the traffic stop and pursued the other vehicle with lights flashing. The driver stopped in the parking lot of the Hampton Inn on Gabel Road.
The driver, identified as Scollard, told the trooper she was drunk, knew she had hit the patrol car and run and acknowledged she could've killed trooper, according to court documents.
Scollard was unable to answer simple questions and told the trooper she had drunk too much, according to court documents. She refused a field-sobriety test, then refused to voluntarily give a blood or breath sample after she was taken to jail.
Troopers performed a blood draw after obtaining a warrant.
The amount of damage done to the patrol car was not immediately available.
Scollard is being held in Yellowstone County jail on $10,000 bail.
