- An off-duty officer who stopped for a suspected DUI was driven home without enforcement.
- The supervisor ordered the body and dash cameras turned off during the stop.
- Internal discipline was issued, but the prosecutor declined criminal charges.
Driving drunk is one of the most dangerous things a person can do behind the wheel of a car. It’s the driving force behind so many initiatives aimed at reducing drunk driving, and one of those is DUI traffic enforcement.
In Michigan, one off-duty officer, stopped on suspicion of drunk driving, didn’t get enforcement, though. Instead, he got a ride home, a day off, and now he’s even been promoted. A video recently released of a stop in June of 2024 shows just how wild this situation was.
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Dashcam video from Officer Noah Noble’s patrol vehicle shows the driver of a Jeep crossover crossing the center line, striking curbs, speeding by more than 20 mph over the legal limit, and stopping in the middle of intersections. At one point, another motorist actually waved Officer Noble toward the Jeep in a manner that appears to be asking someone to give attention to the Jeep driver.
When Officer Noble pulls the Jeep over, he recognizes Officer Austin Mendez, his co-worker. Mendez was off-duty at the time and admits on bodycam that he had three beers and had just left a bar.
Noble calls his supervisor Sgt. Angela Babinec. When she arrives, she instructs Noble to turn off his dashcam and bodycam and does the same herself. At this stage, they simply give Mendez a ride home rather than conduct any sort of field sobriety testing or blood tests.
It wasn’t until four hours later that Babinec alerted Capt. Michael Haveman to the situation. He then began an internal investigation as to what happened. Less than 72 hours later, that investigation was over.
It resulted in Babinec being demoted to officer and to her and Mendez getting an unpaid single-day suspension. According to the Detroit Free Press, Mendez has since been promoted to Sergeant.
The district attorney declined to prosecute Mendez at the time, citing insufficient evidence. Attorney John H. Bryan says he thinks there’s plenty of evidence to get a conviction here, and he’s tried DUI cases himself. He says to use the video evidence, which clearly shows driving violations, and to put the officers involved on the witness stand.
They’ll then have to explain why they drove their co-worker home rather than treat him like they would anyone else who had been in that situation. Whether or not that actually happens is yet to be seen.
Credit: The Civil Rights Lawyer
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