{"id":23883,"date":"2026-03-29T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-29T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/?p=23883"},"modified":"2026-03-28T07:34:21","modified_gmt":"2026-03-28T12:34:21","slug":"thief-river-falls-woman-faces-meth-dwi-charges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/thief-river-falls-woman-faces-meth-dwi-charges\/","title":{"rendered":"Thief River Falls Woman Faces Meth, DWI Charges"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thief River Falls<\/strong> (trfnews.i234.me<\/a>) \u2014 A Thief River Falls woman faces three charges after a March 6 traffic stop.<\/p>\n

The allegations appear in a criminal complaint filed in Pennington County District Court.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors charged Samantha Elizabeth Chaput<\/strong> with a meth-related crime involving a child. They also charged her with fifth-degree drug possession and second-degree DWI.<\/p>\n

Charges Filed In Pennington County<\/h2>\n

The complaint says Chaput was stopped after officers saw her drive away in a blue SUV. Court records say her license was revoked at the time.<\/p>\n

The filing says the SUV stopped in the road, then backed up and pulled over. The complaint says a toddler was in a car seat inside the vehicle.<\/p>\n

The complaint also identifies Jane Marie Drury as the front passenger. The filing says Chaput told officers she thought the passenger wanted her to turn around.<\/p>\n

According to the complaint, officers saw signs of possible drug impairment. The filing lists jaw clenching, eyelid tremors, and a dry mouth.<\/p>\n

The complaint says Chaput completed field sobriety tests. The filing says she showed clues on some of those tests.<\/p>\n

\"Samantha
Samantha Elizabeth Chaput<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What The Complaint Says Happened<\/h2>\n

Chaput denied recent meth use, according to the complaint. The filing says she later said she had used meth before her husband went to prison.<\/p>\n

After the tests, officers arrested Chaput on suspicion of DWI. The complaint says she then had a medical episode and was taken to Sanford Health.<\/p>\n

According to the filing, hospital staff later found suspected drug items. The complaint says a small container held white residue.<\/p>\n

A field test was presumptively positive for methamphetamine, according to the complaint. The filing also says suspected paraphernalia was found under a hospital bed.<\/p>\n

Investigators later obtained a warrant for a blood or urine sample, the complaint says. Chaput agreed to a blood draw, according to the filing.<\/p>\n

Prior Record And Next Steps<\/h2>\n

The complaint also cites a 2020 DWI case and a prior controlled substance conviction. Prosecutors say those prior cases are part of this new filing.<\/p>\n

Charges are accusations, not convictions. Chaput is presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.<\/p>\n

Readers can search Minnesota court records at Minnesota Court Records Online<\/a>. Readers can also review the cited statutes at Minnesota Statute 152.137<\/a>, Minnesota Statute 152.025<\/a>, and Minnesota Statute 169A.20<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I’m Chris Harper reporting for TRF News<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thief River Falls (trfnews.i234.me) \u2014 A Thief River Falls woman faces three charges after a March 6 traffic stop. The allegations appear in a criminal complaint filed in Pennington County District Court. Prosecutors charged Samantha Elizabeth Chaput with a meth-related crime involving a child. They also charged her with fifth-degree drug possession and second-degree DWI.… Continue reading Thief River Falls Woman Faces Meth, DWI Charges<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23886,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_wpscp_schedule_draft_date":"","_wpscp_schedule_republish_date":"","_wpscppro_advance_schedule":false,"_wpscppro_advance_schedule_date":"","_wpscppro_dont_share_socialmedia":null,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"default","_twitter_share_type":"default","_linkedin_share_type":"default","_pinterest_share_type":"default","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_instagram_share_type":"default","_medium_share_type":"default","_threads_share_type":"default","_google_business_share_type":"default","_selected_social_profile":[],"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"today","timeOption":"now","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":"absolute"},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"categories":[12],"tags":[959,1239,4065,772,883,5703,960,827,1026,6413,955,777,824,15687,825,778,786,620],"class_list":["post-23883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crime","tag-charges","tag-child-endangerment","tag-court-complaint","tag-crime","tag-dwi","tag-dwi-charges","tag-faces","tag-falls","tag-meth","tag-meth-charges","tag-minnesota-crime-news","tag-pennington-county","tag-river","tag-samantha-elizabeth-chaput","tag-thief","tag-thief-river-falls","tag-trf-news","tag-woman","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23883"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23883\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23894,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23883\/revisions\/23894"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}