Roache’s Wife Held After Failing a Sobriety Test

The wife and campaign manager of the front-running candidate for San Diego County sheriff was arrested by San Diego police on suspicion of drunk driving early Friday morning and held in jail 3 1/2 hours.

Her husband said he believed it was her second such arrest within the past 10 years.

Jeanette Roache, 42, the wife of Sheriff’s Capt. Jim Roache, stopped at the intersection of Santa Arminta Avenue and Camino Ruiz about five miles from their Scripps Ranch home shortly before 1 a.m.

Police pulled up behind her as she waited at a stop sign. When she did not move forward, police said, officers asked her to take a sobriety test, which she failed. She was booked into County Jail at Las Colinas, where she was released on her own recognizance at 4:30 a.m.

Police said a motorcyclist reported seeing Roache’s car parked at the intersection 15 minutes earlier.

Police spokesman Dave Cohen said Roache was annoyed by the arrest.

“Some might categorize (her attitude) as belligerent,” Cohen said. “She was not complimentary to officers.”

Roache underwent a urine test, the results of which will determine her blood alcohol level. The tests will be available in 10 days to two weeks, a police spokesman said.

Roache said she had been without sleep for about 18 hours and had just returned from a conference on water issues in downtown San Diego.

Instead of going straight home, she said, she searched for a fast-food restaurant in the Mira Mesa area. Roache said she changed her mind and was on her way back home when she stopped at the intersection.

“I came to a stop sign and I must have dozed off,” Roache said Friday. “I had a couple of glasses of wine. I am not an alcoholic.”

Jim Roache said he believed that his wife had been arrested in 1981 or 1982 for drunken driving but that he could not remember the details.

“She was coming home from work and ran into the back of a car,” he said. “I think she went to court and was fined.”

Jeanette Roache recalled the period of the incident as 1980 and 1981.

“I was stopped after an event. I don’t know technically whether it was an arrest or a warning,” she said. “I didn’t go to court. (Drunk driving) was the suspicion.”

State Department of Motor Vehicle records go back only seven years. Roache’s driving record has been free of infractions during that time.

Jim Roache said he could not believe his wife would challenge San Diego police. “My wife has too much respect for the law enforcement community to do something like that,” he said.

Jeanette Roache would not comment on her behavior toward officers.

Jim Roache is battling Assistant Sheriff Jack Drown to succeed 20-year Sheriff John Duffy, who is not seeking reelection this November. During the June primary, Roache collected 32% of the vote to Drown’s 28%.

Drown said he would not use the incident as a campaign issue, but noted that Roache’s arrest “underscores the problems of drinking and driving. More than 100 people were killed in DUI-related homicides. Fortunately, nobody was hurt in this case.”

Drown said he learned of the incident following an early-morning candidates forum at which he and Roache appeared. He said Roache had not mentioned it at the forum.

A San Diego political consultant who has worked on the campaigns of U.S. Sen. Pete Wilson, Mayor Maureen O’Connor and City Councilman Wes Pratt said the incident will be “a minor blip” in the campaign.

“It’s nothing a candidate hopes for, but voters are smart enough to look at Jim Roache and not his wife,” said David Lewis of the political consulting firm Johnston & Lewis. “I don’t believe it hurts (Drown) a whole lot to hear about it, but it would be a poor decision on his part to use in the campaign. And I wouldn’t expect him to.”

Although Drown said he would not bring up the arrest during the campaign, he couldn’t keep the incident from being raised at debate or candidate forums. He said voters may associate the arrest with Jim Roache.

“I think families can get involved in someone else’s problems,” Drown said. “Jeanette’s a player in Jim’s campaign. She’s actively involved.”

Jeanette Roache, the director of community affairs for the Building Industry Assn. of San Diego County, said she was “very much ashamed” of her arrest and hoped that the incident would not further “the public embarrassment I’ve caused” her husband.

“What I have done has nothing to do with my husband’s qualifications to be sheriff,” she said.

The Roaches have been married 24 years.

“My wife’s a good person,” Jim Roache said. “If she’s made a mistake, then I back her in every way. We are only human beings.”