Deputy smelled 'intoxicants' on belligerent Bremner

High-profile Seattle attorney Anne Bremner was belligerent during her arrest for drunken driving in June, calling the King County sheriff's deputy a "Nazi" and the "creepiest cop" she'd ever met, according to a heavily redacted copy of the deputy's report Bremner released Friday.

Deputy Brandon Moen wrote that he could smell an "overwhelmingly strong odor of intoxicants" coming from Bremner's breath. As she was being driven to the King County Jail, Bremner, 52, threatened to sue Moen and called him a liar, the report says.

She began "hitting her head" on the plastic partition between the front and back seats in the police cruiser, apparently upset the deputy "wasn't responding to her comments," Moen wrote.

Bremner had sought to keep the deputy's report, video footage and other documents associated with her arrest from being made public. But she reversed course this week in King County District Court in Shoreline, pleading guilty Wednesday to driving under the influence.

At the time of her guilty plea, her attorney Bill Bowman said Bremner would withdraw her legal challenge that sought to keep the documents from being released, and said records would be available by Friday.

But as of 4:30 p.m. Friday, Bremner's case docket showed nothing had been filed with the state Court of Appeals to lift the stay that was keeping the records out of the public eye, according to King County sheriff's spokesman, Sgt. John Urquhart.

Instead, Bremner sent The Seattle Times a redacted version of the deputy's report, partial video footage and audio files of two 911 calls she had made before her arrest. Her name and other information was blacked out throughout the report.

If the stay had been lifted, the Sheriff's Office was prepared to release at least three reports from different officers, an officer's handwritten notes, a report from an investigator who examined Bremner's car, at least two e-mails, police radio transmissions, Bremner's 911 calls, a 911 call placed by another driver who observed her vehicle, and video footage from several areas in the Kenmore police precinct, Urquhart said.

Urquhart, who reviewed a copy of the report supplied to The Times by Bremner, said his office was not responsible for any of the redactions.

Bremner was arrested June 4 after a sheriff's deputy spotted her driving her BMW with a flattened tire in Kenmore.

In early August, Bremner claimed that on the night she was arrested, she had been the victim of a hit-and-run accident and had suffered a brain injury, resulting in behavior that mimicked signs of alcohol impairment.

On Wednesday, District Court Judge Douglas L. Smith fined Bremner $5,000, with $3,875 of it suspended. Smith also ordered her to serve two days in jail and to attend an eight-hour alcohol-education class. She also was sentenced to five years' probation and must have an interlock device installed in her car.

Sara Jean Green: 206-515-5654 or sgreen@seattletimes.com