Cops: Crossing guard charged with DWI after shift
Joanne Griffiths, 58, of Blue Point, a school crossing guard, was arrested by Fifth Precinct officers at 9:35 a.m. in the parking lot of a Waldbaum's supermarket in Patchogue and charged with driving while intoxicated shortly after her shift, police said. (Oct. 23, 2013) Credit: SCPD
A Suffolk County school crossing guard was arrested for drunken driving Wednesday morning not long after she finished her shift at a Montauk Highway intersection in Blue Point, police said.
Joanne Griffiths, 58, of 59 Ocean Ave., Blue Point, was arrested by Fifth Precinct officers at 9:35 a.m. in the parking lot of a Waldbaum's supermarket in Patchogue and charged with driving while intoxicated, police said.
Griffiths was taken into custody after Suffolk officers responded to a 911 call reporting a possible drunken driver in the parking lot on the south Sunrise Highway service road, police said.
Officers performed a field sobriety test on Griffiths and determined she was under the influence of alcohol, police said. She is scheduled for arraignment Thursday in First District Court in Central Islip.
Police said Griffiths has been a police department employee for 15 years and Wednesday was assigned a 7:15 a.m. to 9:15 a.m. shift at a post on Montauk Highway and Bell Avenue in Blue Point. She was assigned to Blue Point Elementary School, police said.
"There will be a substitute guard at the post for the foreseeable future," police said in a statement. "Her employment status will be determined by the police commissioner.
