Official: Henderson city attorney on job at time of crash

Henderson City Attorney Elizabeth Quillin was on the job when she was arrested Monday afternoon on charges of driving under the influence, a city official confirmed Thursday.

City spokesman Bud Cranor said he did not know what official duty Quillin was supposed to be performing before she crashed her Lexus at Paseo Verde Parkway and Carnegie Street, west of Green Valley Parkway. The crash occurred about 2:45 p.m.

City officials have said they had no record of Quillin requesting any time off Monday, but hadn't made any definitive statements about her being on the clock.

"We believe she was," on duty, Cranor said. "We have no reason to believe other­wise right now."

Cranor didn't want to speculate if drinking while on duty was an offense Quillin could be fired for.

Quillin was placed on paid leave before she was booked into the Henderson Detention Center on Monday night.

Henderson police said Quillin, 51, failed a sobriety test. She faces recommended charges of drunken driving, leaving the scene of an accident and having an open container in a vehicle.

She was released on her own recognizance Tuesday. She is scheduled to be arraigned in Henderson Municipal Court June 20.

According to Quillin's arrest report, witnesses said she was turning left onto Carnegie when her sport utility vehicle went off the road and hit a fire hydrant, a boulder and a tree.

A woman who stopped to check on Quillin said that as she approached the vehicle, it was backed away from the tree and driven forward onto the road, nearly hitting her. Quillin's vehicle then sideswiped a woman's parked car, went off the road and hit another tree.

Police found a full-sized bottle of Barefoot Chardonnay, open and nearly empty, in her back seat and a large puddle of wine on the floorboards in front of the driver's seat, the report said.