Cops collar ‘colander head’ ex-porn star for DUI with daughter in car

Stock image | St. George News

ST. GEORGE – A former porn star who made national headlines in 2014 for wearing a colander on her head in her Utah driver’s license photo was arrested in St. George Thursday for driving under the influence of alcohol with a child in her vehicle.

Jessica Steinhauser, booking photo posted March 6, 2015 | Photo courtesy of Washington County Sheriff's Office, St. George News
Jessica Steinhauser, booking photo posted March 6, 2015 | Photo courtesy of Washington County Sheriff’s Office, St. George News

The St. George Communications Center received a call at about 2 p.m. Thursday reporting that a woman was passed out on a couch in the Washington County School District building, 121 W. Tabernacle St. in St. George. An officer responded to the location and spoke with the woman, later identified as Jessica Steinhauser, 41, of St. George. As he talked with her, the officer could smell the odor of alcohol on her breath, according to a probable cause statement filed by Officer Colby Carter in support of the arrest.

“The woman, later identified as Jessica ‘Asia’ Steinhauser, said she drove her daughter to the district building for test taking,” Carter said in the statement.

After speaking with the officer, Steinhauser showed him her vehicle, which was parked in front of the building, and then attempted to leave in the vehicle, according to the statement. The officer stopped and detained her.

Carter then arrived at the scene and was told by the first officer that Steinhauser had the keys to the vehicle and the vehicle was registered to her; she had also admitted to driving the vehicle to the building with her daughter inside.

Carter asked Steinhauser if she would submit to field sobriety tests to ensure she was able to safely operate a vehicle, and she agreed to take the tests.

“I had Jessica give me her purse and books from her hands so she could take the tests,” Carter said in the statement. “I observed that the ground was flat on the sidewalk and was clear of debris for the test.”

Steinhauser’s eyes appeared glassy, according to the statement, and Carter had to explain the test instructions to her twice. She did not correctly follow the instructions as she attempted the tests, and, during one test, Steinhauser fell into a grassy area.

Officers then administered a portable breath test, and Steinhauser blew 0.254 percent – well above Utah’s legal blood alcohol limit of 0.08 percent. She then consented to a breath test with the intoxilyzer machine and blew a 0.202.

Steinhauser was arrested and booked into the Washington County Purgatory Correctional Facility on one class A misdemeanor charge of driving under the influence of alcohol with a child under the age of 16 riding in the vehicle.

Steinhauser, who once worked as a pornographic film star under the name “Asia Carrera,” made headlines in 2014 when she wore a colander on her head in her Utah driver’s license photo. Hats cannot be worn in Utah driver’s license photos unless they are considered religious clothing, but Steinhauser reportedly cited religious reasons at the Department of Motor Vehicles and was permitted to wear the metal colander.

In a November 2014 interview with the Salt Lake Tribune, Steinhauser called herself a proud atheist and a member of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster – a sort of anti-religion religion whose members also call themselves “Pastafarians.”

According to current bookings information, Steinhauser has posted bail and has been released from custody.

Persons arrested or charged are presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law or as otherwise decided by a trier-of-fact.

Related posts

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @STGnews

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2015, all rights reserved.

Free News Delivery by Email

Would you like to have the day's news stories delivered right to your inbox every evening? Enter your email below to start!

36 Comments

  • ladybugavenger March 6, 2015 at 10:21 pm

    So much going on here…should have just put a dog collar on her…oh wait! She probably would have started performing.

    • Simone March 8, 2015 at 12:00 am

      What a rude thing to say.

      • ladybugavenger March 8, 2015 at 8:46 am

        Oh come on, the headline says “collar” the suspect…who talks like that? When I hear collar, I’m thinking dog collar. She like the attention she wore a commander on her head, hello? She was a porn star, famous in her own right. And you call what I say rude hahahaha

        • ladybugavenger March 8, 2015 at 8:47 am

          *colander..,there I go spelling words wrong again

      • ladybugavenger March 8, 2015 at 8:51 am

        Holy cow, just think how rude I would be if I didn’t use my filter 😉

        • Bender March 8, 2015 at 11:36 am

          Yet the mean and stupid seems to evade the filter and comes through loud and clear.

          • ladybugavenger March 8, 2015 at 3:19 pm

            Youre not talking about me right? I’m not the one who put someone’s life in danger driving with double the blood alcohol evel and yet people say what I said was rude and I’m sure you weren’t calling mean and stupid…maybe if I get a DUI and i was a porn star and I wore a colander on my head then i would get some support and protection around here, stupid huh?

          • Simone March 8, 2015 at 3:58 pm

            Ladybug,For a woman who calls herself a “Christian” you certainly aren’t acting like one. Here’s a Bible quote for you. I suggest you read it,it might help you remember how “Christians” are supposed to act.

            “7 Judge not, that ye be not judged.

            2 For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.

            And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? ~ Matthew 7:1-3

        • ladybugavenger March 9, 2015 at 2:18 am

          I don’t see where I judged anybody Simone, I’m anti meth, anti heroin, and anti drinking and driving, please feel free to judge me. I made fun of the headline using the word collar mixed with her past. I’ll give you a judgment-what she did is wrong! Drinking and driving is wrong!

  • fun bag March 6, 2015 at 10:28 pm

    yuck

  • mshaw March 7, 2015 at 6:06 am

    Pretty ugly for a porn star ha

  • holger March 7, 2015 at 7:08 am

    Nobody cares what you used to do for a living, honey, but when you put a child’s life in danger you need to be put behind bars.

  • Mean Momma March 7, 2015 at 7:17 am

    What a LOSER!

  • anybody home March 7, 2015 at 7:59 am

    This place is a three-ring circus…

  • voice of reason March 7, 2015 at 12:00 pm

    Why is her personal history and back story relevant to anything?

    • anybody home March 7, 2015 at 3:52 pm

      I think that’s a great question. This article turns her into a quasi celebrity because she wears a colander on her head. Probably got a lot of attention at the time that photo was taken, too, but what does that say about the level of news and the general culture in Utah?

      Half the time, this news site reads more like The National Enquirer, and that’s the fault of the publisher and editor. Make better choices, people.

    • ladybugavenger March 7, 2015 at 4:01 pm

      Come on, you know she likes the attention

      • Mesaizacd March 7, 2015 at 5:35 pm

        There you have it folks.! Just as ladybug posted.. nuff said.!

      • anybody home March 8, 2015 at 9:23 am

        Whether she likes it or not is not the issue. The issue is good reporting.

    • Simone March 7, 2015 at 11:05 pm

      It’s not V.O.R.

  • DB March 7, 2015 at 2:29 pm

    “Truth is stranger than fiction because fiction has to make sense.”

  • DrePRoberts March 7, 2015 at 3:49 pm

    This is a sad and troubling story of a lady apparently in need of addiction treatment and support. I am glad that no one was harmed if she was driving impaired and I hope she is able to receive adequate treatment.

    What exactly is this author trying to say with regards to the subject being a follower of the Church of the FSM? What is the claim of an ‘anti-religion’ even supposed to mean?

    This author obviously failed to do any serious research with regards to understanding the CotFSM and its tenants and/or has a very poor concept of comparative religious studies and concepts.

    The CotFSM is not some sort of parity as is often quote by those who have not taken the time to research or understand the religion. CotFSM is as theistic religion the as any of the various Abrahamic, eastern, animistic etc religions. One of the more interesting aspects, and one of the few differences from many other religions, is that faiths core tenant that the religion’s only dogma, is that there is no dogma, which means followers of CotFSM may choose to believe ‘as much or as little about their scripture in the ‘literal’ sense as they wish. This is simply an honest straightforward acknowledgement of what happens in all other religions. Because if we are being honest, not may Catholics believe they are ‘literally’ that crackers and wine literally transubstantiate into the corpse of their profit that they then cannibalistically eat. An honest non-dogmatic recognition that people always, in fact, believe as much or as little ‘literally’ as they wish… Means the FSM religion is much more accepting of people with divergent beliefs… so much so that even people who consider themselves to be mostly ‘agnostic’ or non-theistic are accepted and thus often seem to find themselves also being accepting of the FSM religion.
    The followers of that faith understandthe ‘Church’ of the FSM is not simply a building (which most followers see as a waste of resources that could be better spent on charity, doing actual good in the world, improving the lives of others, etc) as much as it is a ‘Community’ of individuals that believe in shared values and working together concentrating on bring about positive change rather then negative dogmas.

    Having studied a decent bit about the FSM religion (as well as most of the larger modern and historic religions) I find it fascinating how little many self proclaimed ‘religious’ people have bothered to understand about the core tenants of the FSM faith / followers.
    I would recommend intelligent people not fooling themselves into believing the somewhat humorous name and head gear means the whole thing is simply an elaborate joke. It is not and It would be a mistake to believe so.

    With that said. Why was the author even bringing up the driver’s religion and/or lack-there-of in the first place? Was this some feeble indirect attempt to say that the drivers irresponsible actions were somehow cause by inferior morals linked to their religious beliefs? Such a belief would be laughable at best considering about 1/5 of the U.S. population is non or non-traditional theistic and they are have by far the lowest incidence of committing crimes and the absolute lowest numbers within the prison systems. This is only underscored by the almost non-existent numbers of prisoners who follow the FSM faith. Sure there is one or two that received lots of publicity for asking for equal religious protections… but the numbers are almost non-existent and are far fewer than basically every other document faith that exists.

    How many Christians, Mormans, Muslims, or Hindus have driven impaired and endangered people? How many are in prisons?

    A simple Google shows this story could also have as easily read:
    …born Jessica Steinhauser, eldest of four siblings, child whom had performed at Carnegie Hall twice before the age of 15, at the age of 16 taught English at Tsuruga College in Tsuruga, Fukui, Japank, awarded a full academic scholarship to Rutgers University, where she majored in Japanese and Business, member of Mensa, with an IQ of 156 and mother of two… has been struggling with alcoholism since becoming widowed after husband died in car crash…

    How many reporters would publish an article with the title ‘Cops collar ‘RAG-HEAD’/ ‘Cops Collar ‘YARMULKE-HEAD’ / Cops Collar ‘VEIL-HEAD’…?

    Who would say such an offensive thing? I find this article’s condescending title to be both ignorant and bigoted and is a poor reflection on the author, their editors, and the publication who allowed it to be published. Shame on you.

    Just because some one is down on their luck and or has religious beliefs different than your own, is no reason to be condescending with a false sense of superiority. No matter what ones religion is or isn’t they shouldn’t be jackass to others….that is just being rude.

    • anybody home March 8, 2015 at 10:03 am

      And she’s not alone in Utah. “The director of Utah’s Driver License Division says that about a dozen Pastafarians have had their state driver’s license photos taken with a similar pasta strainer over the years.” (From Wikipedia…)

      Her story is interesting and you’re so right – an entirely different slant could have been put on this article. As I wrote earlier, this place is a three-ring circus, and a lot of the time this newspaper seems to want to be more a National Enquirer than a legitimate journalistic newspaper, adding to that sense.

      The irony to me is the hypocrisy in this culture so driven by its singular religion. Like Mormon wives pole-dancing ‘for health benefits.’ But even better is this from an article in The New Yorker magazine by Hendrik Hertzberg

      “You might think that an organization that for most of the first of its not yet two centuries of existence was the world’s most notorious proponent of startlingly unconventional forms of wedded bliss would be a little reticent about issuing orders to the rest of humanity specifying exactly who should be legally entitled to marry whom. But no. The Mormon Church—as anyone can attest who has ever answered the doorbell to find a pair of polite, persistent, adolescent “elders” standing on the stoop, tracts in hand—does not count reticence among the cardinal virtues. Nor does its own history of matrimonial excess bring a blush to its cheek. …As Richard and Joan Ostling write in “Mormon America: The Power and the Promise” (2007), ‘Smith and his successors in Utah managed American history’s only wide-scale experiment in multiple wives, boldly challenging the nation’s entrenched family structure and the morality of Western Judeo-Christian culture.’ ”
      Seems to me the writer here and the editor need to up their game and stop fiddling around like it’s still Mrs. Gifford’s “crayon-and-pencil” classroom newspaper. Otherwise, they’re doing a great disservice to the readers who are interested in more than opinionated and one-sided details of a person’s life. Even the photo that accompanied the article was rude and out-of-line.

      At the end of every article about an arrest this sentence appears: “Persons arrested or charged are presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law or as otherwise decided by a trier-of-fact.” I’ve often wondered what that “otherwise decided by a trier-of-fact” phrase meant. I guess it means I’m in southern Utah.

  • LevelHeaded March 7, 2015 at 4:48 pm

    Why is this women’s religious beliefs or one of her profession she had ten to twenty years ago in any way relevant to the story at hand?

    This is a very poorly researched / written article that appears to be more concerned with making unfounded condescending personal attacks over irrelevant issues then documenting an event actual event and the title alone is derogatory and insensitive.

    If it is bigoted and of poor taste to call some one a ‘Rag-Head’ or ‘Magic Underwearer’… why would anyone think it is OK to call someone a ‘Colander Head’? Tow thumbs down. One for poor content and another for religious insensitivity.

  • Simone March 7, 2015 at 11:49 pm

    I’m going to admit that I thought very seriously about slandering the author of this article in the same way I believe she slandered the woman whom she was charged with writing about. I don’t know the author and I doubt very seriously that she knows Ms. Steinhauser. If she did, I doubt very seriously that she would have brought up her past profession, knowing, as I’m sure she does, how the majority of people around here feel about it. In my opinion neither her past profession nor her religion (or lack thereof) have ANYTHING to do with the situation and I think the references to those should be removed because THEY HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH THE INCIDENT and the only thing writing about it in the way Ms. Cox did accomplishes is making the writer and paper look unprofessional. Yes this woman made a mistake and she deserves to pay for it but she does not deserve a public beating for how she put food on her table and a roof over her head because it is not our business and had ZERO BEARING on the case at hand. I’m going to be brutally honest here, I don’t know her, I don’t know why she chose to do what she did and I’m not a fan of pornographic films but I can tell you that I would have no qualms about accepting a role in one if I needed the money and had a child at home to feed. Yes, I said it. I put my family before myself and what I think about that aspect of the entertainment industry. I hope to God that nobody here has been in that situation but I also hope that you would do the same thing if you were.

    • ladybugavenger March 8, 2015 at 3:04 pm

      I would go to a church and get food. But that’s just me.

  • mshaw March 8, 2015 at 7:32 am

    I wonder if she knows who the father of her child is?

    • DrePRoberts March 9, 2015 at 1:24 pm

      Why would you question her relation with her child’s father?

      A simple web search shows per wiki… “She married nutritionist and author Don Lemmon on December 19, 2003.[2] The couple moved to St. George, Utah, where Carrera gave birth to her first child, daughter Catalina, on March 4, 2005.[2][28] Lemmon was killed in a car accident near Las Vegas on June 10, 2006. At the time, Carrera was almost eight months pregnant with their second child, son Devin.”

      So, the father of her children is her belated husband who died in a car crash.

      Do you have children? Do you know whom the other parent is?

      What would your reason for asking such a question and what does that say about you?

  • fun bag March 8, 2015 at 8:29 am

    Seeing some really good comments here, which is unusual. Isn’t this article written by the same person that wrote about a 16 year old running a stop sign? There just doesn’t seem to be enough real news to write about, so I think what were seeing is pure sensationalism. Gotta sell the ad revenue somehow, right? … Cami has done some real good pieces in the past, but maybe the bar should stay a little higher than this?…

  • My Evil Twin March 8, 2015 at 11:12 am

    Cami, good article. Don’t pay any attention to the whiners that have too much time on their hands. Keep up the good work!

    • anybody home March 8, 2015 at 12:30 pm

      Typical. Anyone who makes an intelligent comment is called a “whiner.” You seem to have serious thinking confused with whining. The whiner epithet (look it up) seems to be the fall back insult around here along with “if you don’t like it, leave.” Didn’t insults like that stop in junior high school? I guess not.

  • Bender March 8, 2015 at 11:34 am

    The real issue here is did she ever get her cable fixed.

  • CaliGirl March 8, 2015 at 3:51 pm

    So does she and other pastafarians wear their religious colanders like Sikh or Muslims? Or just when they want attention or just for drivers license photos?

    • DrePRoberts March 9, 2015 at 1:39 pm

      Pastafarians are not required, but their doctrine does encourage them to wear their ‘holy garb’ (dressing like a pirate) or wear the less involved colander head gear for special occasions and/or as often as it pleases them.

      Choosing to wear their religious head gear in the official sphere (like in license pictures) is often a conscientious decision to express their religious beliefs and publically display Pastafarians’ commitment to supporting religious diversity and freedoms and a strong wall of separation of church and state.

      Pastafarians believe in a strong separation on church and state, but where those walls are not being respected…they intended to express their religious freedoms in the same manners other faiths do.

      You normally only see publicity surrounding Pastafarians where either: 1) discrimination is occurring or 2) where other faiths are refusing to respect the separation between church and state

      They also believe in dressing

    • DrePRoberts March 9, 2015 at 1:45 pm

      Here are two resources I have found for better understanding this faith:
      http://www.venganza.org/about/

      And a PSA from the P.A.S.T.A Foundation
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qcJ3nj6y7I

  • K March 9, 2015 at 8:46 am

    Shes on After Porn Ends on netflix..

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.