RALEIGH — Text messages released by the N.C. Highway Patrol on Tuesday confirm that two troopers communicated about Gina Tessener, a Raleigh woman who was wrongfully arrested for drunken driving in Wilmington last month.
But the messages, peppered with profanity, do not show the troopers colluded to make a subsequent traffic stop of Tessener's lawyer husband.
"This woman refused all roadside testing, and blew .00," the arresting officer, Senior Trooper Edward S. Wyrick, texted about Tessener at 12:03 a.m. June 22. "Her husband is a trial lawyer and told me I should be ashamed of myself."
The recipient of the message, Trooper Andrew M. Smith, then responded: "Hahahaha f--- her and f--- him. She say how much she'd had to drink?"
Wyrick wrote back: "She said 1 drink at 7pm."
"F--- her," Smith responded.
About 15 minutes later, Smith pulled over Hoyt Tessener, Gina's husband, as he followed Wyrick's patrol car to the New Hanover County jail in rural Castle Hayne.
The Tesseners could not be reached Tuesday night.
Wyrick and Smith, who were placed on desk duty last week pending the outcome of an internal affairs investigation, also could not be reached.
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