Woman arrested after allegedly crashing into car on purpose

IDAHO FALLS – A 32-year-old woman was arrested on Saturday after bystanders reported she followed them through town and then crashed into their car.

Samantha Crotteau was charged with felony aggravated battery, misdemeanor DUI, and misdemeanor failure to stop for damage, accident, or leaving the scene.

Idaho Falls Police were called to the intersection of East 3rd Street and South Holmes Avenue around 10:38 pm for a report of a possible road rage incident, according to court documents.

The reporting party told dispatch that his red Ford Fusion was parked outside a home when he and a friend noticed a gray Subaru Impreza driving “in odd patterns.”

They told police the car was doing a “20-point turn.”

The two men pulled into the road and asked the driver of the Subaru, identified as Crotteau, if she needed something.

Croteau reportedly responded that she was trying to sell them drugs and asked them if they “wanted a molly.”

The man later told officers that he thought Crotteau was “on some sort of drug or alcohol” because she was acting strange and slurring her words. He told Crotteau that he did not want to buy drugs, according to the police report.

Crotteau then reportedly drove away but stopped at the end of the road without her lights on. The two men drove past her, and she began following them.

They tried to go through the neighborhood to lose her and eventually parked in a Motel parking lot, where Crotteau allegedly “aimed her vehicle at his and rear-ended” the Ford Fusion.

Crotteau reportedly continued following them after she’d already hit them.

The man told officers he was scared of what else she would try to do, so he sped away on North Holmes Avenue near 25th Street. Both cars were moving at 100 mph.

The two men called the police from the car while they tried to find a safe spot to stop. Eventually, they lost Crotteau and ended up at a Maverik parking lot, where they waited for police.

An officer saw Crotteau speeding past him on Holmes Avenue, and police pulled her over.

When officers talked with Crotteau, police could reportedly “smell the odor of an alcoholic beverage coming from her breath.”

Police reports say her eyes were bloodshot and had a glassy appearance.

When asked how much she had to drink that night, Crotteau said she’d had only “one beer.”

Crotteau’s story was a lot different from the two men. She told officers she was trying to get her friends to leave a bar, and that is when she crashed into the car.

She later changed her story and said she was driving down the road when she was sideswiped by the two men.

Crotteau said she responded to the sideswipe by yelling, “F*** you b******!” and purposefully “bashing” into the Ford Fusion.

Officers conducted a field sobriety test and took Crotteau to Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center. She informed officers she had been previously arrested for DUI and was booked into the Bonneville County Jail.

Although Crotteau has been charged with a crime, it does not necessarily mean she committed it. Everyone is presumed innocent until proven guilty.