Cop's visit is nudes to her

WHEN A STATE trooper knocked on the door of an Altoona home in response to a drunken-driving complaint, he was greeted by a scantily clad woman offering him two yellow roses.

The woman, who was wearing only a green top and underwear, told Trooper Thomas Laskey that she had been entertaining a "cop fantasy," authorities said.

Laskey was not impressed. He told Monica M. Barnhart, 40, that he didn't want any flowers and ordered her to get dressed and come with him.

The trooper said he suspected that what led the woman to drop her pants and pick up the flowers was overindulgence in what was causing her to reek of alcohol.

At the Altoona Regional Hospital, Barnhart was found to have a blood-alcohol count of 0.356, court records show. She was charged with driving under the influence and various traffic offenses.

Barnhart was brought to grief that March 20 afternoon by a vigilant neighbor who told cops he saw her erratically driving a red Chevrolet Monte Carlo on Interstate 99 in Logan Township.

He said that the car was swerving across both traffic lanes at speeds up to 90 mph. He said that he followed the car onto Hudson Avenue, where the woman got out and entered a house.

At the time, she was fully clothed with a green top and jeans, the neighbor said. Although Barnhart didn't live in the house, she knows the homeowner, cops said.

Barnhart eventually admitted that she was driving the Monte Carlo, police said, but told her lawyer, Joel Peppetti, that she is innocent.

- John F. Morrison