The off-duty Texas Department of Public Safety Trooper charged with driving while intoxicated in Hutto had not been drinking, according to an affidavit.
Trooper Shannon Gray was taking a muscle relaxant for back pain when she fell asleep at the drive-through window at a McDonald’s restaurant in Hutto, the affidavit said. Under state law a driver can be charged with driving while intoxicated if the person loses mental or physical facilities because of alcohol or drugs, according to the affidavit.
A witness saw Gray swerving in a Toyota Tundra on the road and driving into a grassy ditch before she turned into the McDonald’s in the 600 block of Texas 79, the affidavit said.
The witness notified police at 10:15 p.m. that Gray’s vehicle had been stopped by the menu in the drive-through at the restaurant for several minutes, delaying cars that pulled up behind her, according to the affidavit.
When a police officer tried to talk to Gray in her vehicle, she kept opening and closing her eyes and could not answer questions, including what her phone number was or what section of the DPS she worked in, the affidavit said. She was slurring her speech and stuttering, according to the affidavit. There was no smell of alcohol coming from the car, the affidavit said.
Paramedics called to the scene said Gray had not had a seizure and that her blood pressure was normal, the affidavit said. Gray told police that she was not diabetic but that she had taken a muscle relaxant to fall asleep, according to the affidavit.
She said she was prescribed the drug for back pain, the affidavit said.
She said she had taken the muscle relaxant while she was driving but it usually did not affect her driving abilities, according to the affidavit. She declined to provide a sample of her blood, and no sample was taken at the Williamson County Jail because “no alcohol intoxication was suspected,” the affidavit said.
Gray will be suspended, said Tom Vinger, a spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety. Gray has been a DPS trooper since 1995 and worked in the state Capitol complex downtown, he said. No information was immediately available from DPS about any previous charges or disciplinary action against Gray. Read More
No comments:
Post a Comment