Woman speaks out after DUI arrest following seizure-induced crash
By Kennedy Mason
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CAPE CORAL, Florida (WBBH) — A Cape Coral woman and her mother are demanding accountability after what they say was a humiliating and traumatic mistake — being arrested for DUI after a medical emergency that caused her to crash into a canal.
On Aug. 13, Izabella Montero’s life changed forever. The mother of three had just given birth less than three months earlier when her car veered off the road and plunged into a Cape Coral canal along Southwest Second Terrace around 7 p.m. after picking up dinner for her husband and kids.
“I was supposed to be at my son’s birthday party,” Montero said. “Instead, I was being bailed out of jail for the first time in my life. I don’t even know how to explain it.”
Cape Coral police arrested Montero on suspicion of driving under the influence, noting in their report that she had bloodshot eyes, slurred speech, and smelled of alcohol.
But Montero’s mother, Norma Alvarez, said she immediately knew what had really happened.
“I said, ‘Bella, you had a seizure,’” Alvarez recalled. “I was epileptic for many years. I know what seizures are like. She hadn’t had one since she was 9 years old, but I knew. She was exhausted, postpartum, and had anemia.”
Montero maintains that she told officers repeatedly that she hadn’t been drinking. At the hospital, she says she begged for a breathalyzer and drug test to prove her innocence.
Officers said they could not do a breathalyzer inside the hospital, but she offered to do it outside and even asked for one at the jail.
“I told them, ‘Just do whatever you want so I can go home to my kids,’” Montero said. “I begged them to drug test me.”
Officers did do a horizontal eye test, which she failed.
According to Cape Coral Police, officers developed probable cause to make the arrest during their investigation. However, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) later confirmed Montero had zero alcohol in her system.
The State Attorney’s Office dropped all charges on Nov. 3, citing insufficient evidence.
Montero has now filed formal complaints against three Cape Coral police officers, including Officer Riley Houlihan, calling for an internal investigation into how her case was handled.
In her complaint, Montero alleges that after fracturing her spine in the crash, she screamed in pain but was ignored. She claims one officer told her, “(Expletive) her back,” and refused to help, saying he “wouldn’t get his uniform wet.”
“My tax dollars pay his salary,” Alvarez said. “And he failed her. He failed her. I will not pay his salary anymore.”
The ordeal left Montero publicly humiliated. She says she couldn’t go anywhere in Lee County without feeling judged.
“Everyone I know saw it,” she said. “My kids’ teachers, their therapist, people at Publix — everyone looked at me like I was a criminal.”
Because of the attention and embarrassment, Montero has since moved her family out of Lee County.
Her mother hopes their story will spark change.
“As God wakes me up in the morning,” Alvarez said. “Her story ends with her. It ends here with us.”
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