Woman accused of being drunk at MADD event

Published 1:00 pm Tuesday, May 16, 2017

MOULTRIE, Ga. — Want to make MADD really, really mad? Show up after drinking at an event where victims speak about how drunk driving impacted their lives.

According to Moultrie police, Lisa Clausen Jeffries became unruly after arriving at about 9:40 a.m. Saturday for the Victim Impact Panel meeting, held at Colquitt County Jail.

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The meetings, whose speakers can include survivors whose loved ones were killed by an impaired driver and law enforcement officers who have worked gruesome accident scenes, are presented by Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

Apparently there was some issue with registration, Moultrie Police Department Lt. Raul Leal said, and Jeffries became “demanding with the MADD people.”

“She was really loud, she was cursing. A portable alcohol sensor indicated that Jeffries had been drinking,” he said, “and police took her into custody.”

Police charged Jeffries, 54, 153 Jana Circle Road, with disorderly conduct. Moultrie police charged her with driving under the influence in March, and the reason she was there Saturday was as part of her sentence.

Having intoxicated participants show up for the sessions is not unusual. In January 2015 police arrested one attendee and charged him with public drunkenness. A MADD worker pointed the man out to police, and he smelled of alcohol, had slurred speech and an alcohol level greater than the 0.08 limit under which a driver is considered impaired.

At that same meeting four other attendees were kicked out because they, too, had alcohol in their systems. They were allowed to leave with sober drivers.

A MADD representative told The Moultrie Observer that no one under the influence of alcohol or other intoxicants is allowed to attend the meetings.