12 Arrested in Sonoma County Police Task Force Warrants Sweep

A dozen Sonoma County residents from Petaluma to Windsor were arrested Saturday as part of a DUI warrant sweep operation conducted by the "Avoid the 13 - Sonoma County DUI Task Force."

Between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., 15 officers from Petaluma Police Department, Santa Rosa Police Department, Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office, Windsor Police Department, Sonoma Police Department, SRJC District Police Department, and Rohnert Park Department of Public Safety were deployed throughout the county armed with arrest warrants for DUI offenders that failed to appear in court or violated the terms of their probation.

During the operation, officers attempted to serve 90 warrants which resulted in a total of 12 DUI offenders arrested. The following DUI offenders were arrested for outstanding warrants:

Susan Johnson, age 56, from Rohnert Park
Craig Peters, age 25, from Cotati
Dwayne Gilbert, age 40, from Santa Rosa
Alesandro Altizen, age 30, from Santa Rosa
David Holmstrom, age 21, from Petaluma
Armando Bautista, age 51, from Windsor
James Vale, age 29, from Santa Rosa
Claudia Sevilla, age 35, from Santa Rosa
Karina Gonzalez, age 28, from Santa Rosa
Matthew Williams, age 25, from Santa Rosa
Joseph Rueter, age 29, from Windsor
Joel Tapia-Garcia, age 30, from Petaluma

A team of officers in Rohnert Park were flagged down by at citizen reporting a possible DUI driver with a small child in the vehicle.

Officers stopped a vehicle being driven by Billie Heather Wilson, age 28, from Santa Rosa and determined she was driving under the influence of alcohol with her 6 month old daughter in the vehicle.

Officers learned Wilson had two priors for DUI. She was arrested for her third DUI offense. She was booked in county jail for DUI, child endangerment, and driving on a suspended license from a DUI. Her vehicle was impounded for 30 days. The child was released to a family member.

So far in the first nine days of the campaign, there have been five injury DUI collisions resulting in nine people injured. Two of the injured people were also arrested for DUI out of the same collision. There have been no fatal DUI crashes reported in the same 9 days of the campaign.

Anti-DUI campaigns appear to be working, police said. DUI arrests for the Summer Mobilization Period have increased to their highest level in three years. At the same time, DUI collisions are at their lowest in the same reporting period.

DUI arrests are up 12 percent from the 2010 Summer Mobilization Period from 155 to 175.  DUI crashes have dropped 37 percent from 2010 from eight to five.