Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
PHOENIX (AP) — A woman photographed by police wearing what appeared to be a wedding dress during her arrest on a charge of impaired driving in southern Arizona is disputing police claims that she was taken into custody as she was headed to her wedding.
The image of Amber Young being put into a police cruiser late Monday morning while in handcuffs and wearing a white open-back full-length dress made its rounds on social media. The 32-year-old Young was arrested in Marana, 30 miles north of Tucson, after she became involved in a three-vehicle crash in which one person suffered minor injuries.
Attorney Michelle Behan said her client was arrested on her way to meet a friend for lunch, not to a wedding. She said Young isn't engaged and insisted she was wearing a sun dress, not a wedding gown.
Sgt. Chriswell Scott, a spokesman for Marana police, said body-camera video from the arrest shows Young telling officers that she was on her way to get married and confirming that she was wearing a wedding dress. Scott said Young even gave the time and location of the ceremony.
Scott declined to release the video, explaining the case was ongoing.
Behan said she believed Marana police posted the photo for laughs. "It was not to warn others about impaired driving but rather, I believe, to ridicule and mock Ms. Young," Behan said, adding that her client now has been given the unfortunate moniker of "DUI Bride."
When tweeting the photo, Scott wrote, "Don't drive impaired, till death do we part doesn't need any help."
He said his aim was to warn people about the dangers and consequences of impaired driving.
Scott said he took down the photo after people started to criticize Young on social media. "It was just to save her from further embarrassment after we saw this thing had gone viral," Scott said.
Behan declined to say whether her client was impaired at the time of her arrest.
___
Follow Jacques Billeaud at www.twitter.com/jacquesbilleaud. His work can be found at https://www.apnews.com/search/jacques%20billeaud.
Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
