Intoxicated driver jailed on drug charges

A Lawrenceburg Police officer charged a local woman with drug offenses last week after noticing that she was weaving back and forth across the roadway.

The officer was following the driver of an SUV along Buffalo Road when he noticed that she repeatedly crossed the fog line, failing to maintain her lane of travel.

When the officer made contact, he notes that the driver, identified as forty-five year old Elizabeth Kittrell Hanwich of 3 Carter Road in Iron City, "exhibited sings of being intoxicated." She reportedly told him that she had taken a muscle relaxer earlier that day. Field sobriety tests were administered and the reporting officers indicates that she failed to perform satisfactorily.

During a search of Hanwich's vehicle, officers report seizing contraband that included a meth pipe, plastic bag containing both off-white and clear substances believed to be meth and cocaine, a straw commonly used to inhale dugs, and a butane torch. She told the officer that the items did not belong to her.

Hanwich was taken into custody and the officer reports, "I explained numerous times to her that if she did have something on her it would be a felony once we went inside the jail." Once they were at the Lawrence County Detention Center, however, he reports that a small plastic bag was found stuffed down the back of her pants. The bag contained a white substance that field tested positive for cocaine.

Hanwich was booked under charges that include first offense DUI, possession of a schedule IV narcotic, and possession of drug paraphernalia. She is scheduled to answer the charges in General Sessions Court on February 3, 2017.