SEATTLE - A state patrol trooper who stopped a woman on Wednesday for not wearing her seat belt got a big surprise when he ran a check of the woman's background.

The trooper found that the driver, Leah A. Slemmer, had been arrested 49 times and convicted eight times for driving with a suspended license, five times for driving without a valid license, and four times for driving under the influence.

State patrol spokesman Jeff Merrill said that when Slemmer was stopped Wednesday evening on Interstate 405 near the SR 520 interchange, she admitted to the trooper that her license was suspended and that she was "having a bad day."

Records showed that the 54-year-old Monroe woman was also required to have an interlock device, which was not present in the car, Merrill said. Slemmer told the trooper she was helping her sister get her car from an impound lot.

Merrill said that troopers occasionally run into similar repeat offenders, but in Slemmer's case "you would have to work awfully hard at things to make that many contacts with law enforcement."

In addition to the litany of driving and license violations, Slemmer's record shows multiple arrests for robbery, assault and theft. "This is a career criminal," Merrill said.

Merrill said that due to the volume of calls at the time Slemmer was stopped on Wednesday and cited, but not booked into jail. The car was released to her sister.

The citation requires that the woman appear in court, and Merrill said that sentencing guidelines likely mean that Slemmer will be headed back to jail.