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Officer James Serio stopped a 2009 Ford Focus driven by Jennifer Wright, 44, for not using headlights in the rain on the eastbound highway late Monday morning, Jan. 23, they said.
Wright first drove into the fast lane and stopped the car, then cut across three lanes of traffic to the shoulder in front of M & J Truck Sales, Serio reported.
When he asked for her credentials, Wright "began aimlessly searching her purse," repeatedly looking in the same spot, Serio wrote.
Meanwhile, her passenger was "constantly going in and out of his pockets," he reported.
Neither of the two would look at him during the stop, he said, adding that each was "pale, red-eyed and unable to formulate full and coherent sentences."
Backup Officers Joseph Convery and Gaetano Fernandes arrived and Wright was asked to exit the vehicle.
She then began walking into traffic, Serio reported.
Wright swatted his hand away and kept going when he tried to pull her back, then began swinging wildly and dropped to the ground as he and Convery tried to take her into protective custody, he said.
Convery picked Wright up and got her out of the way before the two other officers helped him try to get her into handcuffs, Serio said.
At that moment, he said, she reached around, grabbed his gun and tried to pull it from the holster.
That failed, so Wright again dropped to the ground, spun around and kicked him multiple times, Serio reported. She was finally subdued and taken to headquarters, he said.
A search of the car turned up a bag of crystal meth under the passenger seat and a glass pipe with drug residue, police said.
Wright was charged with aggravated assault, disarming a law enforcement officer and resisting arrest, among other counts. She remained held Tuesday in the Bergen County Jail pending a first appearance in Central Judicial Processing Court in Hackensack.
A&D Towing removed the vehicle to be impounded.
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