Dozing under the Influence

At 5 a.m. on the morning of Sunday, April 7, police responded to a radio report of an unconscious driver pulled over in a red Lexus on the shoulder of the southbound lanes of the West Side Highway. The arresting officer saw that the vehicle's automatic transmission was set in PARK, with the engine running. Asleep in the driver's seat, a man was holding a plastic cup containing alcohol. The officer attempted to wake the man, who responded, "No," with the smell of alcohol on his breath. The officer tried numerous times to rouse the driver, who then became combative, waving his arm and trying to push the officer. The officer asked the driver to get out of his vehicle. The driver refused and started throwing punches at both the arresting officer and another officer who had arrived on the scene. When the officers managed to get the driver out of the car, the man pushed two of the officers into oncoming traffic heading southbound in the left lane of the highway. The officers arrested the driver, who then spat on two of them. The driver refused to take an alcohol test back at the precinct station.