Montezuma County Health Department Director Lori Cooper resigned her post Friday after pleading guilty to a drunken-driving charge.

An interim director is expected to be named this week.

The news was announced at a County Commissioners meeting Monday after Sherrie Blackmer, a former employee at the health department, raised the issue.

Blackmer said she was one of about a dozen employees who left the department between 2007 and 2009 after county officials failed to investigate complaints about Cooper.

"A lot of people are thankful that it's over now," Blackmer said.

Appearing before Montezuma County Judge JenniLynn Lawrence last week, Cooper pleaded guilty to DUI on March 20. According to prosecutors, she was also convicted on a DUI charge in Payson, Ariz., on March 12, 2013.

Under the plea agreement, Cooper could face a mandatory minimum jail term of 10 days, pending drug and alcohol evaluations.

Her sentencing was scheduled for May 6 at 1:30 p.m.

Director of the county health department since 1998, Cooper, 58, of Dolores, was arrested on March 5, and charged by with DUI, DUI per se, weaving and open container in a motor vehicle.

Court records also reveal that 911 dispatchers received a REDDI (Report Every Drunk Driver Immediately) call for a vehicle driving westbound on Highway 160 at a "slow rate of speed" and "weaving."

Police stopped Cooper near East Empire Street and North Dolores Road just after 10 p.m.

Police reported that Cooper swayed in a circular motion while talking to officers and refused to perform voluntary roadside maneuvers at the scene.

Police also alleged that a 200-milliliter bottle of vodka, three-quarters full, was in plain view on the passenger side floorboard.

A Breathalyzer test at the police station indicated that Cooper had a blood alcohol content of .248, according to records.

Undersheriff Lynda Carter said Cooper was released from jail on March 6 after posting a $1,000 bond.

Cooper lawyer Jill Carlson said letters of support from health department employees were submitted on Cooper's behalf but denied that employees were coerced into writing them.

"My client didn't even know about the letters until after they were written," Carlson said.

A Montezuma County sheriff's official said Cooper was enrolled in the department's pretrial services program for a second DUI offense.

The pretrial program requires suspects to comply with court-ordered conditions such as random drug or alcohol testing.