Mindy McCready: Cops Targeted Me
Country singer Mindy McCready testified Tuesday that she thought police pulled her over to "give her a hard time" — not because they thought she was driving under the influence.
She said she used to live in the area where she was stopped and knew some of the officers well.
"Way back when — when I used to have hit records 10 years ago — I would get pulled over a lot and had officers ask me to do the strangest things. Once an officer asked me to dance for his camera," she told jurors.
The DUI case centers on a video of the field sobriety tests McCready took after she was stopped for speeding in May 2005.
McCready, 30, refused to take a breath test, but the arresting officers said she smelled of alcohol, had watery bloodshot eyes and was unsteady on her feet. They said she acknowledged she had been at a night club where she had a couple of drinks.
Her attorney, Lee Dryer, said the singer was not impaired and that the field sobriety tests were not performed properly. He also said she removed her shoes for the roadside test, but then found it hard to complete because her pant legs were too long and rocks were hurting her feet.
Besides DUI, the singer also is charged with driving on a suspended license.
McCready, who had a No. 1 hit in 1996 with "Guys Do It All the Time," has struggled in recent years, beginning with a 2004 conviction for fraudulently obtaining prescription painkillers.
Two days after her DUI arrest she was injured in a beating by her former boyfriend, William McKnight, who pleaded guilty to domestic assault and was sentenced to serve 30 days in jail.
McCready has since sued McKnight over the beating and given birth to his child.
After the DUI case is over she faces a hearing on charges of violating her probation on the drug charge by failing to check in with her probation officer and leaving the state without permission to go to Florida.
Criminal charges in Arizona that her lawyer said stemmed from her efforts to help catch a con artist were dismissed last year.