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Vance sheriff's daughter to fight DWI charge

The daughter of Vance County Sheriff Peter White plans to fight a DWI charge. Shahita White, 34, made a brief court appearance Thursday where her attorney, Butch Williams, requested her case go to trial.

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Shahita White in court
HENDERSON, N.C. — The daughter of Vance County Sheriff Peter White plans to fight a DWI charge.

Shahita White, 34, made a brief court appearance Thursday where her attorney, Butch Williams, requested her case go to trial.

Authorities charged Shahita White in July with DWI, more than three months after deputies stopped her near Henderson after drivers called 911 to report a sport utility vehicle swerving through traffic as it headed the wrong way on U.S. Highway 1. Callers said the driver appeared to be drunk.

Deputies who had stopped her called radio dispatchers, saying Shahita White was "blistered" and asking that the sheriff be notified. He later picked up his daughter up from the scene, and she was charged with reckless driving.

Vance County District Attorney Sam Currin initially said he could not pursue drunken-driving charges against her because no roadside sobriety test had been administered.

Later, however, he asked the State Bureau of Investigation review the case after WRAL News uncovered internal memos filed by two Henderson police officers who participated the March 23 traffic stop.

The officers wrote that Shahita White slapped a deputy's arm and refused to cooperate with a second sobriety test after a first one failed to register a reading. They described her as smelling of alcohol, being unsteady on her feet, slurring her speech and having red, glassy eyes.

She pleaded guilty in May to the reckless driving charge and was given a 30-day suspended sentence and placed on unsupervised probation for a year.

No date was set for the DWI trial.

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