Now, we're seeing dashcam video of the encounter and speaking with a retired Houston Police Department captain to see how he believes the situation should have been handled.
The night of May 6 ended with Cynthia Ramirez in cuffs in front of her San Leon home, which was much to her surprise, as she told ABC13's Lileana Pearson.
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"It was unfair. At the end of the day, in the simplest terms, it was unfair," she explained.
What led up to that and Ramirez spending a night behind bars is becoming clearer. It started when a Galveston County deputy started following Ramirez as she neared her driveway and initiated a stop.
The deputy told Ramirez she was pulled over for a non-functioning license plate light, but when she was non-communicative about it, he started asking other questions.
The dashcam captured this exchange:
"Where are you coming from?" the deputy asked. "How much did you have to drink tonight?"
"A drink," she said.
"A drink?" the deputy repeated.
"At my friend's," she said.
"How long ago? How long ago?" he asked.
"Do you need anything else?" she questioned.
"How long ago did you have that drink?" he asked.
"Do you need anything else?" she questioned again.
"Yeah. Now I'm investigating a possible driving while intoxicated," the deputy said.
The line of questioning continued for a while.
"What kind of drink did you have? OK, you want to play this game. OK. Put your hands behind your back," the deputy could be heard saying.
Eyewitness News asked retired HPD Captain Dr. Greg Fremin to look at the video, who says this all came down to decorum.
"Do you have the right to not say anything? Yeah, you do, but that's not going to bode well for you on a traffic stop. It's a rare arrest to have happened like that, for a minor traffic violation," Fremin said.
Dr. Fremin says he has no problem speaking out when an officer or deputy is wrong, but believes this wasn't one of those times.
"All she had to do was really cooperate with him and answer his questions. She chose not to, and unfortunately, that's what led to her being arrested," Fremin said.
Ramirez feels differently.
"I want to believe it was just a one-off and not a systemic issue. And that's where I'm scared," she said.
Again, court records show Ramirez was booked for not having a license plate light, not for DWI or something similar. In fact, she says no sobriety tests were performed. She ultimately paid $186 to bond out and go home.
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