{"id":121278,"date":"2014-03-25T21:39:06","date_gmt":"2014-03-26T03:39:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/health-director-resigns-after-guilty-plea-in-dui\/"},"modified":"2014-03-25T21:39:06","modified_gmt":"2014-03-26T03:39:06","slug":"health-director-resigns-after-guilty-plea-in-dui","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/health-director-resigns-after-guilty-plea-in-dui\/","title":{"rendered":"Health director resigns after guilty plea in DUI"},"content":{"rendered":"
Lori Cooper, center, after the Montezuma County Public Health Department received an award for \"Project Public Health Ready.\" Opal Stalker, left, and Karen Dickson joined Cooper for the photo.
Lori Cooper, center, after the Montezuma County Public Health Department received an award for \"Project Public Health Ready.\" Opal Stalker, left, and Karen Dickson joined Cooper for the photo.<\/span>Sam Green\/Cortez Journal file photo<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

An interim director is expected to be named this week.<\/p>\n

The news was announced at a County Commissioners meeting Monday after Sherrie Blackmer, a former employee at the health department, raised the issue.<\/p>\n

Blackmer said she was one of about a dozen employees who left the department between 2007 and 2009 after county officials failed to investigate complaints about Cooper.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people are thankful that it\u2019s over now,\u201d Blackmer said.<\/p>\n

Appearing before Montezuma County Judge JenniLynn Lawrence last week, Cooper pleaded guilty to DUI on March 20. According to prosecutors, she was also convicted on a DUI charge in Payson, Ariz., on March 12, 2013.<\/p>\n

Under the plea agreement, Cooper could face a mandatory minimum jail term of 10 days, pending drug and alcohol evaluations.<\/p>\n

Her sentencing was scheduled for May 6 at 1:30 p.m.<\/p>\n

Director of the county health department since 1998, Cooper, 58, of Dolores, was arrested on March 5, and charged by with DUI, DUI per se, weaving and open container in a motor vehicle.<\/p>\n

Court records also reveal that 911 dispatchers received a REDDI (Report Every Drunk Driver Immediately) call for a vehicle driving westbound on Highway 160 at a \u201cslow rate of speed\u201d and \u201cweaving.\u201d<\/p>\n

Police stopped Cooper near East Empire Street and North Dolores Road just after 10 p.m.<\/p>\n

Police reported that Cooper swayed in a circular motion while talking to officers and refused to perform voluntary roadside maneuvers at the scene.<\/p>\n

Police also alleged that a 200-milliliter bottle of vodka, three-quarters full, was in plain view on the passenger side floorboard.<\/p>\n

A Breathalyzer test at the police station indicated that Cooper had a blood alcohol content of .248, according to records.<\/p>\n

Undersheriff Lynda Carter said Cooper was released from jail on March 6 after posting a $1,000 bond.<\/p>\n

Cooper lawyer Jill Carlson said letters of support from health department employees were submitted on Cooper\u2019s behalf but denied that employees were coerced into writing them.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy client didn\u2019t even know about the letters until after they were written,\u201d Carlson said.<\/p>\n

A Montezuma County sheriff\u2019s official said Cooper was enrolled in the department\u2019s pretrial services program for a second DUI offense.<\/p>\n

The pretrial program requires suspects to comply with court-ordered conditions such as random drug or alcohol testing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cooper, center, after the Montezuma County Public Health Department received an award for “Project Public Health Ready.” Opal Stalker, left, and Karen Dickson joined Cooper for the photo.Sam Green\/Cortez Journal file photo An interim director is expected to be named this week. The news was announced at a County Commissioners meeting Monday after Sherrie […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":121279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6371],"tags":[13],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-121278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mt-news","tag-frontpage-lead"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121278"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121278\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121278"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=121278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}