New Jersey police officer has been charged with drunk driving last month.
A Middletown police sergeant crashed into a motorcyclist in upstate New York on July 13, breaking his leg, and then left the scene, police in that state said.
The arrest of Carl F. Roth, 49, of Leonardo, is the third reported DWI bust of a Garden State cop this summer.
Also last month, two cops from the Gloucester Township force were busted on DWI charges in different Jersey Shore towns on the same day.
In all three arrests, news that the suspects were cops was kept quiet until they were reported by local media.
The Asbury Park Press on Thursday said Roth was suspended without pay.
New York State Police said they responded to an accident scene about 9:11 p.m. at the intersection of Route 23 and County Route 17 in Ashland, which is about 55 miles southwest of Albany. Police found the seriously injured biker lying in a ditch.
The driver had fled, but police found a New Jersey license plate at the scene.
Police tracked Roth’s white 2011 Mercedes to a neighboring town and arrested him after 11 p.m.
He was charged with second-degree vehicular assault, leaving an accident involving a serious injury and driving while intoxicated, among other violations.
Also last month, Gloucester Township cop James Ryan was pulled over about 3 a.m. July 18 in Longport after going the wrong way on a one-way street. It was at least his second DWI charge since 2011, NJ.com reported this week. Later that day, Steven Lenker was arrested in Atlantic City after hitting a pedestrian and a parked car.
In April, a now-former police officer in Somerset County’s Franklin Township overdosed on heroin while on duty in his police vehicle. Details of that episode were kept under wraps until last month, when he was charged with DWI and heroin possession. Matthew Ellery was sentenced Friday to five years of probation and Drug Court, MyCentralJersey.com reported.
In June, the public learned for the first time that Lower Township police Lt. John Chew had been busted a year earlier on a charge of being more than four times the legal blood-alcohol limit for driving.
Source: New Jersey 101.5