WINONA, Minn. – A Washington state woman, zipping her way at 100 mph from the West Coast, ended her odyssey asleep on a lawn chair on Mankato Avenue in Winona. It had been quite a journey for the woman, who one point – in a police stop between Nodine and Dakota on Interstate 90 — had given her name as Danielle Mefhel Poirier, 36, and her address as Federal Way, a Tacoma suburb. Police, however, aren’t sure she gave them the right information. She first had hit police radar in South Dakota at 112 mph. A state trooper gave up the chase when she crossed into Minnesota. A little later a Minnesota trooper spotted her at a fueling stop. The trooper said she wasn’t cooperative but not doing anything criminal. Two-hundred miles later, on the Four-Mile Grade down from Nodine, she was clocked at 102 mph. Again she was non-cooperative, but this time the officer took her in, to the station house in Winona. A drug evaluation expert had trouble checking for an illegal substance in her system, which it was thought explain her physical symptoms, but her lack of cooperation made the test difficult, police said. She was released, In the meantime, a Winona relative came forward and expressed surprise that she was in town and wasn’t being expected. Then police found found her asleep on that lawn chair on Mankato. She was taken to the Winona hospital for evaluation for substance issues and her mental state. Among pending charges were speeding.
