Officer still on job after OWI arrest

Sturtevant Police Department considering action after Saturday crash

BY BRIDGET THORESON
Journal Times

Tuesday, June 3, 2008 10:05 PM CDT

STURTEVANT — The village police department is considering what action to take after one of its officers was arrested for drunken driving.

Timothy O’Neill, 27, was arrested for a first offense of operating a vehicle while intoxicated Saturday. O’Neill, who was off-duty and said he was returning from a Brewers game, allegedly crashed his SUV into another waiting at a stoplight.

His blood alcohol level was found to be 0.19 on a test given at a patrol station. He is currently scheduled for a court date on July 18.

Sturtevant Police Chief Sean Marschke said the department is still deciding how to address O’Neill’s arrest. O’Neill is still doing his job with the Sturtevant Police Department, which includes driving, Marschke said. O’Neill’s driver’s license is still valid, he said.

“The whole decision is, what steps do we have to take different from the steps the Sheriff’s Department is taking,” Marschke said. “We’ve never experienced one of these before, so we don’t really have any past practice on this.”

Marschke said they might pursue administrative decisions or counseling for alcohol use for O’Neill.

According to the reports of the eight witnesses to the accident, at about 11:40 p.m. Saturday O’Neill plowed into a SUV, which was stopped in the right lane at a red stoplight on the Interstate 94 off-ramp at Highway 20.

The force of the blow pushed the SUV 20 feet, the Racine County Sheriff’s incident report said. After hitting the SUV, witnesses said O’Neill’s SUV then sideswiped a car in the off-ramp’s left-hand lane. All involved were wearing their seat belts and no one reported any injuries.

O’Neill told the responding deputy, Chad Schulman, that he believed he was cut off right before he struck the SUV. The officer noticed that O’Neill and the car’s other two occupants smelled of alcohol and had slurred speech.

According to the report, Schulman asked O’Neill to perform some field sobriety tests. O’Neill did not move his eyes smoothly in one test, which is a sign that alcohol may be present.

In the next test, he lost his balance twice while standing on one foot and counting, once at the count of nine and again at 12. A breath sample given at the site had a blood alcohol level of .20. O’Neill was given a citation for operating with a prohibited alcohol concentration.

“He’s been very cooperative with us,” Marschke said. “I think he knows he made a mistake.”

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