Was it the vomit that gave this MBTA cop away? OUI bust in B...

Was it the vomit that gave this MBTA cop away? OUI bust in Boston

A Boston MBTA Transit Police officer who allegedly drove up onto the sidewalk and crashed into a pole while driving drunk is on “modified duty” as his case plays out in municipal court. Massachusetts State Police troopers arrested Jonathan Daveiga, 29, of Boston, in the early morning hours of Oct. 19, and charged him with operating a motor vehicle under the influence of liquor as well as failing to stop or yield. Daveiga pleaded not guilty at his arraignment the next day at Boston Municipal Court’s Charlestown courthouse. He was released on personal recognizance. His next court date has not been scheduled, according to court records. Police say that they found Daveiga’s gray Jeep Grand Cherokee on the curb at the intersection of Leverett Circle and Nashua Street “with the front panel of the vehicle pressed up onto a ‘no left turn’ sign.” A witness to the single-vehicle crash told troopers that he saw Daveiga’s vehicle slowly roll through the intersection before “mounting the curb and striking the sign.” Troopers note that Daveiga told them he drank two club sodas with tequila in Downtown Crossing two hours before they found him and that he “didn’t eat anything.” But the troopers’ senses told them a different story. “Due to the odor of an alcoholic beverage, his slurred speech, vomit inside and outside the vehicle, and his statements of having consumed alcoholic beverages prior in the night, I determined that it was necessary to perform assessments to determine if he was able to operate a motor vehicle,” Trooper John Cherwek wrote. Cherwek conducted three field sobriety tests: the “horizontal gaze nystagmus,” which is when the suspected drinker needs to follow a finger with their eyes smoothly and without jerking movements; the “walk and turn,” where the suspect walks heel-to-toe in a prescribed fashion; and the one-leg stand. Each assessment came with the same result: “Daveiga’s performance on this assessment did indicate impairment.” Troopers say that Daveiga refused to take a portable breath test, which determines blood alcohol. Under Massachusetts law, refusal to take a blood alcohol concentration test when arrested for OUI means an automatic driver’s license suspension. Daveiga is an MBTA Transit Police officer. “We have faith in the judicial process and in the interim have placed the officer on modified duty while said process progresses through the system,” Transit Police Superintendent Richard Sullivan told the Herald. “The Transit Police Department upon learning of the incident made a timely notification to the Massachusetts POST Commission.” Sullivan said that to comment further “would be inappropriate” as it is a pending criminal matter. Daveiga made $183,490 in total pay last year, according to state payroll records. That includes $95,240 in base pay and $80,960 in overtime pay, with the remainder listed as “other pay.” He has earned $163,047 in pay so far this year, including just short of $79,938 in overtime pay.

A Boston MBTA Transit Police officer who allegedly drove up onto the sidewalk and crashed into a pole while driving drunk is on “modified duty” as his case plays out in municipal court.

Massachusetts State Police troopers arrested Jonathan Daveiga, 29, of Boston, in the early morning hours of Oct. 19, and charged him with operating a motor vehicle under the influence of liquor as well as failing to stop or yield.

Daveiga pleaded not guilty at his arraignment the next day at Boston Municipal Court’s Charlestown courthouse. He was released on personal recognizance. His next court date has not been scheduled, according to court records.

Police say that they found Daveiga’s gray Jeep Grand Cherokee on the curb at the intersection of Leverett Circle and Nashua Street “with the front panel of the vehicle pressed up onto a ‘no left turn’ sign.” A witness to the single-vehicle crash told troopers that he saw Daveiga’s vehicle slowly roll through the intersection before “mounting the curb and striking the sign.”

Troopers note that Daveiga told them he drank two club sodas with tequila in Downtown Crossing two hours before they found him and that he “didn’t eat anything.” But the troopers’ senses told them a different story.

“Due to the odor of an alcoholic beverage, his slurred speech, vomit inside and outside the vehicle, and his statements of having consumed alcoholic beverages prior in the night, I determined that it was necessary to perform assessments to determine if he was able to operate a motor vehicle,” Trooper John Cherwek wrote.

Cherwek conducted three field sobriety tests: the “horizontal gaze nystagmus,” which is when the suspected drinker needs to follow a finger with their eyes smoothly and without jerking movements; the “walk and turn,” where the suspect walks heel-to-toe in a prescribed fashion; and the one-leg stand. Each assessment came with the same result: “Daveiga’s performance on this assessment did indicate impairment.”

Troopers say that Daveiga refused to take a portable breath test, which determines blood alcohol. Under Massachusetts law, refusal to take a blood alcohol concentration test when arrested for OUI means an automatic driver’s license suspension.

Daveiga is an MBTA Transit Police officer.

“We have faith in the judicial process and in the interim have placed the officer on modified duty while said process progresses through the system,” Transit Police Superintendent Richard Sullivan told the Herald. “The Transit Police Department upon learning of the incident made a timely notification to the Massachusetts POST Commission.”

Sullivan said that to comment further “would be inappropriate” as it is a pending criminal matter.

Daveiga made $183,490 in total pay last year, according to state payroll records. That includes $95,240 in base pay and $80,960 in overtime pay, with the remainder listed as “other pay.” He has earned $163,047 in pay so far this year, including just short of $79,938 in overtime pay.