Thelma & Louise Adventure Ends in Jail

by F. Scott Faulkner , April 13, 2012

Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis in the 1991 film

April 7 – Santa Ynez

With a plotline right out of the Hollywood “chick flick” classic that first introduced Brad Pitt to movie audiences, Misty Lopez, 32, and Cynthia Rademacher, 20, led multi-jurisdictional law enforcement agencies on a game of cat-and-mouse that involved vehicle theft and narcotics violations.

On April 3^rd, Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s deputies who responded to a 911 Emergency call from a Santa Ynez motel manager describing a verbal altercation on the premises, made contact with Rademacher on the motel grounds.

Misty Lopez - as Louise?

According to Drew Sugars, SBSD Public Information Officer, pursuant to questioning Rademacher indicated that she had been a passenger in a car driven by Lopez, who had stolen the car in Ventura. The pair had then driven to Lompoc, where they switched license plates with another vehicle. “The two women apparently drove from Lompoc to the Chumash Casino,” Sugars reported to the media, “but then had some sort of disagreement that became rather heated.”

Rademacher was arrested at the motel on charges of being under the influence of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Deputies then contacted Chumash Casino Security units; a short time later the vehicle in question was located in the resort parking structure. Casino security personnel then located Lopez inside the casino and remanded her into the custody of Sheriff’s deputies. She was arrested on the scene and subsequently booked into Santa Barbara County Jail on charges of felony car theft, felony possession of a controlled substance, possession of drug paraphernalia, and giving false ID to a peace officer. She remains in custody.