[ilbegone]

Off-duty deputy stops to help at wreck, is arrested on DUI charges

BY STEVE E. SWENSON, Californian staff writer

Oct 26 2009

An off-duty Kern County sheriff's deputy stopped to help a California Highway Patrol officer with a traffic accident, but he got arrested for drunken driving instead, the CHP said Monday.

The incident happened Friday at 2:15 a.m. on Interstate 5 near Highway 43, officers said.

Jessie Alvarez, 30, of Bakersfield, stopped at a traffic collision in order to help, CHP Officer Maria Pagano said.

But the CHP officer determined Alvarez was under the influence of alcohol. Alvarez was taken to the Buttonwillow substation where officers took a breath sample, she said.

Alvarez was cited and released on misdemeanor drunken driving and driving under the influence with a blood-alcohol of .08 or higher, she said.

Pagano said it is routine at the Buttonwillow station to release a suspected drunken driver to a responsible driver who agrees to drive the suspect home.

Sheriff Donny Youngblood confirmed that Alvarez is the subject of an administrative investigation, but he said on the advice of county attorneys, he could release no further information.

Specifically, he said he couldn't say how long Alvarez has been a deputy or where his current assignment is.

He did say that generally when a deputy is under administrative investigation, he or she is placed on leave during the investigation.

Alvarez is the second off-duty officer to be cited for drunken driving this year. The first was Bakersfield police officer Thomas Villasenor, 31, who was arrested in June after he crashed into a car, police reported.

Witnesses said Villasenor ran a red light shortly after midnight and crashed into a car driven by 53-year-old Dawn Ratliff at Ming Avenue and Old River Road, police reported.

Villasenor was not injured but Ratliff complained of neck and back pain, police said.

The officer, who worked patrol for more than a year, pleaded no contest in July to misdemeanor drunken driving. He was fined $1,754, placed on three years probation and sentenced to two days in jail which he already served..

Villasenor resigned from his job for personal reasons on Sept. 10, police confirmed.