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Charges: Mom drives off drunk with 8-year-old daughter hanging on to auto

“She’s on the curb just crying and the mom is already gone, just drove off, she didn’t stop or look down”.

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An eight-year-old Minnesota girl has her neighbors to thank for calling 9-1-1 as she pleaded with her mother to not drive drunk. The police saw the girl had a bruised foot, which occurred when she fell from the truck, and also corroborates what the neighbor said happened.

Terry told them exactly what he saw: namely the girl banging on the auto window for her mother to abandon her idea to get behind the wheel.

But as the mother drove off, her daughter fell off the vehicle.

Giancherio had returned to her driveway when police arrived and appeared to be drunk.

Heller told KARE he ran to get his mom, Corrine Reilly, who dialed 911.

In an interview with the girl’s mother, Giancherio initially denied that her daughter fell from her vehicle. I am a mandated reporter technically.’.

“She was holding onto the handle of the driver’s side and just yanking it”, he said.

Officers also say she didn’t know what time of day it was and had trouble speaking.

A preliminary breath test she gave police registered a 0.3 – nearly four times above the legal limit – while officers noted she had red, bloodshot eyes, her speech was slurred and she was having a hard time standing still when she was apprehended. “She could have fallen off, or got hit by another vehicle”.

The girl told officers her mom drank “half a bottle”.

Giancherio faces five charges related to driving under the influence and endangering her child.

Police also told KARE that after leaving her daughter in the street, Giancherio drove to a liquor store to purchase more alcohol.

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Surveillance video shows her buying a large bottle from a liquor store within minutes of the incident, and she has been charged with criminal vehicular operation, child endangerment, and drunken driving, reports the Star Tribune. Giancherio was at her home Friday evening after posting bail but declined to speak with a KARE 11 crew.

Image source KARE-TV