Body cam shows group home employee being arrested for drunk driving after hitting a mailbox
By: A group home employee was arrested for allegedly driving drunk and crashing into a mailbox while transporting a developmentally disabled patient.
Blue Ash Police say Kelli Barton, 48, crashed into the mailbox on Glendale Milford Road while driving in Evendale Thursday night.
According to a police report, Barton pulled into a Blue Ash gas station and called a co-worker to take over for her. At some point, officers were called.
Body camera footage shows Barton passed out in the backseat of her co-worker’s car when police arrive.
When an officer asks if she’s had anything to drink, she says, “Yes.”
When the officer asks how much, she replies, “Above my limit.”
Barton was then taken into custody and charged with OVI and patient endangerment.
Ohio Valley Residential Services (OVRS) confirms Barton was hired in April to drive patients, but fired after her arrest.
Barton is listed as living in a Cincinnati homeless shelter, and has been arrested in the past on charges like felonious assault and domestic violence.
Because those past charges were dropped, OVRS president and CEO James Steele says they didn’t disqualify Barton from employment.
"We're extremely relieved the client in the car is fine and unharmed,” Steele said.
Before being handcuffed, police say, Barton tried repeatedly to persuade first responders to let her go.
“Look at you, handsome,” she says to one of the paramedics in the video.
“Let me tell you something, what I would do to you, with your blue a-- eyes,” she tells an officer.
At one point, when paramedics are trying to check on her, she says, "I want the little young boys. Ask me how I'm feeling. Let the little young boys tell me."