About 1PM, officers from District E-13 (Jamaica Plain) were informed by a passerby that a car had crashed in the vicinity of the car wash on American Legion Highway.
Officers responded to the car wash and were directed to some tire tracks that ran the length of about 50 yards on the median and stopped on the side of the car wash. There, officers observed a car with two flat tires and a damaged rim. Next to the car, officers observed a male standing by the car who apparently had been driving the car. Officers approached the male and immediately noticed that he was unsteady on his feet and had a wet spot in the crotch of his pants. Officers asked the male for his license and while doing so noticed that the suspect had glassy eyes and an odor of alcohol about him. Officers asked the suspect what caused the accident and he stated that he was returning from dropping off his children in New Hampshire, and he was cut off by a car on American legion causing him to crash. Officers then asked the suspect if he had consumed any alcohol, and he responded varying his responses from 2-3 to 6-7.
Officers then had the suspect take several sobriety tests and he failed all of them but pleaded with officers to give him a break saying, “I have a Class A, can’t you give me a break? I am fu__d! I will lose my job and pension!” Amongst the tests given to the suspect was an alphabet tests which he failed.
After weighing all the evidence before them, the conversation with the suspect, his appearance and his failure of the field sobriety tests, officers formed the opinion that the suspect’s ability to safely operate his car had been diminished due to consumption of alcohol. The suspect, John MacDougal, 54 of West Roxbury was arrested and charged with Operating under the Influence of Alcohol.