A driver who was south of Bloomfield Sunday morning thought she was close to her home in Illinois. She asked a deputy to follow her home. He gave her a ride to jail.

Marcie Dee Gaines, 38, Sidell, Ill., was arrested by Deputy Devan Goad of the Greene County Sheriff’s Department last Sunday morning, April 18.

At 6:50 a.m. Sunday, Deputy Goad was southbound on US 231 when he saw a southbound silver 2015 Ford Escape with an Illinois plate sitting at the red construction light south of Bradfield Road, south of Bloomfield. When the light turned green, the vehicle didn’t move right away and when it did, with the deputy traveling behind it, Deputy Goad said he saw it go off the west side of the road twice. According to Deputy Goad, the second time it traveled off the west side, it then traveled into the opposite lane and an oncoming vehicle had to slow down and almost stop to avoid a collision. The vehicle was stopped in the area of Lamplite Lane.

Gaines was the driver who said she was just trying to get home from Carle Hospital. That’s in Urbana, Ill. Deputy Goad noticed she was slurring her speech but she said she had not had anything to drink, had not taken any medication and was just exhausted. She said she lived in Sidell, Ill.

When Deputy James Carpenter arrived to assist, Gaines allegedly failed standard field sobriety testing but a preliminary breath test showed .000 for alcohol.

When Gaines was told she could take the sobriety tests again at the sheriff’s department, she asked if the deputies could follow her home instead. She said she was close to home but the deputies told her she was in Greene County which is 2.5 hours away from Sidell, Ill. She said her GPS must be off.

Once at the sheriff’s department, she again failed sobriety testing and consented to a blood draw which was taken by ambulance personnel before she was booked into jail at 9:17 a.m. – results pending.

As of late Tuesday, April 20, Gaines is still in jail, facing preliminary charges of operating a vehicle while intoxicated endangering a person, a Class A misdemeanor, and operating a vehicle while intoxicated, a Class C misdemeanor.