Police: Woman drove drunk in Southampton with child in car

A Selden woman was arrested Thursday and charged with aggravated DWI under Leandra's Law after she drove while under the influence of drugs with her 4-year-old daughter in the car, police said.

Southampton Town police said Michelle E. Viola, 31, of Selden, was arrested following the traffic stop on Sunrise Highway in Hampton Bays at 2:40 a.m. and charged with aggravated DWI, driving while ability impaired by drugs, endangering the welfare of a child, two counts of criminal possession of a controlled substance and a public health law violation for possession of a prescription medication outside of its original container.

Police said a motorist placed a 911 call at 12:16 a.m. reporting a blue Jeep being driven erratically on eastbound County Road 39 in Southampton, but responding officers could not locate the vehicle.

Another 911 call was placed at 1:40 a.m., police said, this time reporting the vehicle headed west on County Road 39. This time officers found the Jeep and stopped it on Sunrise.

Police said officers determined Viola was under the influence of drugs and said she admitted having used cocaine and taking a prescription police said was similar to Valium. She also had Soboxone and Flurazepam that were not in their original containers, police said.

Arraignment details were not immediately available.

The girl was unharmed and was released to a relative. Police said Suffolk County Child Protective Services was notified of the arrest.

Leandra's Law is named for 11-year-old Leandra Rosado, who was killed in October 2009 after a van she was traveling in flipped on the Henry Hudson Parkway. The driver, Carmen Huertas, later pleaded guilty to manslaughter in August and was sentenced to 4 to 12 years in prison last month. In November of last year, Gov. David A. Paterson signed Leandra's Law, a child passenger protection act, which makes it an automatic felony to drive drunk with a minor under the age of 15 in the vehicle.