It’s just shy of 1:30 a.m. on a dreary Saturday in Old Town when a familiar story plays out in front of Deputy Sam Roth.
A Ford F-150 heading north on Mason Street turns onto Mountain Avenue, but things don’t look quite right to Roth, the Larimer County Sheriff’s Office in-house DUI expert. Roth flips on his squad car lights and watches the pickup’s driver haphazardly pull into a parking spot and start strolling away.
“Sheriff’s office, stop!” Roth shouts, running up to the 35-year-old man. His breath reeks of alcohol. His speech is slurred, and he admits to swigging a beer and a shot before driving, the deputy writes in an arrest affidavit. Roth tests the man’s coordination and sobriety a few strides from downtown Fort Collins’ emptying bars.
The man fails the test, is handcuffed and spends the night at the Larimer County Detention Center.
Further investigation reveals he was driving with a revoked license after a pair of prior impairment-related driving cases in El Paso County. This Fort Collins stop was his third for allegedly driving drunk and, like the others, it was a misdemeanor.
For the full post in The Coloradoan by Jason Pohl, click here.