“As The World Turns” and “The Young and the Restless” alum Colleen Zenk was arrested last month in Naples, Florida, and charged with DUI resulting in damage to property or person of another, and DUI with a blood alcohol level of 0.15 or higher, which is above the legal limit of 0.08.
According to records from the Collier County Sheriff’s Office and the County Clerk’s Office, Zenk was booked on May 15, 2026, at 7:35 p.m. EDT on two misdemeanor charges, each with a $1,000 bond.
The dispatch report notes the actress was a party to a crash involving two vehicles, with a witness indicating they observed Zenk backing out of a handicap parking spot when her vehicle struck another vehicle parked right next to it. The witness further claimed that Zenk continued to back out after the crash and began to leave the scene, but they were able to stop her a few feet down the road. The witness alleged that they saw Zenk stumble as she exited her vehicle.
After being advised that the crash investigation was over, a DUI investigation commenced with the arresting officer noting that Zenk revealed she had been at Bar Tulia, where she said she stated she had two wine cups while there. After answering “yes” when asked if she’d be willing to perform field sobriety exercises, the officer indicated they observed Zenk having difficulty balancing herself as she exited her vehicle and, while walking to the sidewalk she was asked to go to. Zenk was then asked to perform the Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus exercise, in which she was to follow the tip of the officer’s pen with her eyes without moving her head.
The officer stated Zenk’s eyes made “rapid, repetitive and uncontrollable side to side movements when the tip of my pen reached an approximate 45-degree angle with her face.” Zenk performed the second test, the Walk and Turn exercise, which the officer explained to her, and she responded “yes” when asked if she understood. The officer then stated they observed Zenk unable to “maintain her arms against her body as I told her to do,” and that she took “more than the nine steps I explained to her to take going forward and then nine more coming back on the line.” The officer continued with their report, indicating that “Colleen at any point during this exercise walked using the ‘heel to toe’ method I had explained to her. The line I used to this excercise was a dividing white line on a parking space.” Lastly, Zenk was to perform the One-Leg Stand exercise, with the officer observing her “swaying from side to side” and her not being able to “keep her arms to her sides as I had explained,” with her swaying “so much that I thought she was going to fall to the ground.”
Following the Field Sobriety Exercises, a formal statement from the witness, and another officer on the scene, Zenk was placed under arrest with the aforementioned charges of DUI resulting in damage to property or person of another, and DUI with a blood alcohol level of 0.15 or higher. Zenk provided two breath samples, with the first yielding a BAC of 0.206 and the second a BAC of 0.192.
Zenk bonded out on May 16, 2026, with a court date set for June 10, 2026. Although she did not appear in person at the hearing after filing a Waiver of Appearance at Non-Mandatory Court Appearances, she pled not guilty through her attorney, with a continuance scheduled for July 29, 2026, for pre-trial.
This marks Zenk’s third DUI arrest since April 1, 2010, when the actress was pulled over by police in Wilton, Connecticut, for erratic driving and crossing into the oncoming lane of traffic, resulting in charges of DUI and improper lane usage. On May 28, 2017, Zenk was charged with a DUI, marking her first offense and arrest in Collier County.
On November 17, 2023, Zenk returned to daytime for the first time more than 13 years following the cancellation of “As The World Turns,” where she had portrayed Barbara Ryan since 1978, with a role on “The Young and the Restless.”
On the long-running soap opera, the three-time Emmy nominee played Jordan Howard, the devious aunt who exploited Claire Newman’s (Hayley Erin) insecurities, terrorized the Newman and Howard families, and teamed up with Ian Ward (Ray Wise).
Zenk made her last appearance on the January 24, 2025 episode, when her character drank the poisoned tea given to her by Claire.