Arrest happened back in June but it hasn’t been reported until November.
POCAHONTAS, Ark. – The Randolph County Tax Collector is battling a DWI charge out of Oregon County, Missouri that has somehow not been reported by local media before now.
Jennifer Marie Zitzelberger, 43, was charged with the DWI allegation back on June 1, 2019. She also was charged with failing to signal, which was what began the traffic stop. Missouri State Highway Patrol pulled her over after observing the alleged infraction near Myrtle, Missouri. When the officer spoke to her, he smelled alcohol, he noticed her eyes were glossed over, and she said she had drank “probably two or three beers,” the probable cause affidavit said.
She blew a .080 at the stop. A field sobriety test showed multiple signs of impairment, leading to her arrest. Later, her BAC test was found to be .113 percent.
Zitzelberger, who was first elected as Randolph County’s tax collector in 2018, is fighting the case and has pleaded not guilty. She has retained Daniel Thomas Moore of Popular Bluff for legal counsel. Prosecutor Justin Kelley is trying the case for the state.
The case has been delayed until December 4, 2019, after Zitzelberger made a motion for a continuance this week in court. Her appearance will be required during the next court date.
She also filed a motion for a change of judge in the case this week, too. The request for assignment was sustained and sent to a presiding circuit judge.
The first report appears to have been buried on page 2 within this week’s edition of the local Pocahontas newspaper, The Star Herald, five months after the arrest. The newspaper did not publish the story online or on its front page this week as it did some other content, such as a black man’s arrest for an alleged gas station robbery and their top story: kids going to trick or treat. The struggling small-town newspaper has no history of pressing journalism but has a rich history of protecting local officials in scenarios like this.
NEA Report will track this story and update our readers with new developments.
Pretty sad when some small towns would rather print stuff about a Black Man robbing a store and making sure it gets alot of attention because of how they worded it, but see nothing wrong with what this lady did and try to hide it. Hate when some people will do anything to take focus and attention off of something that everybody should know about. They know by making sure they put in the article about the Black man commiting a crime, that it would once again start a racist issue as always. Hey, maybe somebody should look into why that little girl Dusty that ran away twice over the summer came up missing again. Over in the Valley View area. She is 6 or 7 yrs old. She has a mental disability. She was found the first time at a Auto place off of Keller’s Chapel Road, it is a junkyard. The second time she ran off, she was found in the back yard at a doctors house over on Friendly Hope, about 4-6 miles away. Then a few weeks ago, she ran off again! I know her parents do not take care of this little girl and her brother. The parents are useless. The dad usually goes to Walmart on Parker and will continuesly ask the Auto center to put tires on a rim for him. He brings it all in. He doesn’t buy any of it from the store. He cares for his cars more than anything. He also thinks he’s God’s gift to women. His wife thinks all women want him, when in reality, they are saying silent prayers that they are happy that most men are NOT like him. Sorry for being mean. If anybody has ever met these two idiots, you would understand why I truly don’t care for these things. The kids deserve so much better than this. These parents are completely selfish and idiots at the same time. Just like a issue that happened in my neighborhood. A child was heard from inside his house being beaten by the step-mom with a belt. A neighbor called DHS about it. DHS said they couldn’t do anything about it unless you saw actual bruises! Umm! I believe at that point, it has gone way too far!! So, I spoke with the kids the next day. I told them, especially the boy that if he even felt scared that something was going to happen again, run to my house. A few weeks later, he did. Not a pretty sight when me and the step-mom got into it. Anyways. Sorry for the rant.