Given the state’s tough DUI laws, many drivers would be happy if police cut them a break, let them off the hook and sent them home for the night. But 21-year-old Korie Hoke isn’t one of them.

Hoke filed a lawsuit last week against Tempe and its police department, claiming her drunken-driving collision and resulting injuries could have been prevented if not for police negligence.

Hoke left a New Year’s Eve party on Dec. 31 intoxicated and distraught after an argument left her fearing for her safety, according to the suit filed in Maricopa County Superior Court.

Hoke called Tempe police from the party after she found her boyfriend cheating on her.

She told police dispatchers that her boyfriend, the other woman and friends were following her, and she feared for her safety.

Officer Lateef Hampton arrived on the scene just after 3 a.m. to find Hoke hysterical and sitting in the driver’s seat of the car, crying and talking on her cell phone, according to a taped interview that Hampton gave to one of Hoke’s attorneys in March.

The tape was released by the Tempe Police Department.

Hampton said he found several people surrounding the car and trying to get Hoke to open the door, which she refused to do, even for the officer.

Hampton said he eventually persuaded her to open the door.

Hoke admitted to drinking, and others at the party said most guests had been drinking. Hampton said he cited her for underage drinking because she was 20 at the time but did not conduct field sobriety tests or otherwise try to determine her blood-alcohol content.

He said he didn’t think she would be driving because both the boyfriend and Hoke told him the boyfriend took her keys. The boyfriend left soon after Hampton arrived.

Hampton said he tried to make sure Hoke didn’t have any keys.

He had her empty her purse, and he searched the seats and other areas of the car and couldn’t find any keys.

“Obviously, my main concern was for her driving — her level of intoxication. So I wanted to make sure she didn’t have those keys anywhere on her,” Hampton said.

She called her parents to pick her up, and Hampton said he also spoke to her parents, who assured him they would be right there.

Hampton said he decided to leave her to wait for her parents because she was an adult. If she had been a juvenile, Hampton said he would have been required by department policy to wait.

Hoke’s parents arrived seven minutes later, but their daughter was already gone.

Using a set of keys she had hidden from the officer, Hoke drove south on McClintock Drive shortly after Hampton left. She collided with a cinder block wall and rolled her car.

Neither the suit filed last week nor her attorney indicates why she didn’t wait for her parents.

But she alleges in the suit that her failure to wait was Hampton’s fault.

Her complaint says he “negligently left the scene” and left her “alone and severely intoxicated with access to her vehicle and with her car keys with the knowledge that her parents were minutes away.”

Hoke claims that she suffered serious injuries in the collision, including brain trauma.

Hampton said he heard the accident call on the radio and drove to the scene.

“I wasn’t sure it was her,” he told the defense attorney. “But when I showed up on the scene, I recognized her vehicle.”

Hoke was taken to Maricopa Medical Center in Phoenix, where her

blood-alcohol content was found to be above the legal limit, according to Jeffrey Gill, one of Hoke’s attorneys. He wouldn’t say what her blood-alcohol content was.

In an earlier notice of claim against the city, Hoke asked for $1.8 million, Gill said. Tempe denied the claim and plans to defend the case in court, said Andrew Davidson, an attorney with the city.

Gill said Friday police should have taken more precautions to keep Hoke safe.

“There are other options to have taken,” he said. “Wait for the parents, have her vehicle towed or take her into custody.”