That's So White

On March 16, a few months after Lt. Caron Nazario was being stopped at gun point, pepper sprayed, drag from his car and pushed to the ground because two police officers couldn’t see his new car tags in his rea window, Kansas Highway Patrol Officer Austin Shepley was patrolling the streets of Topeka when he spotted a vehicle driving the wrong way down the street. He pursued the car, with speeds reaching upwards of ninety miles per hour, and Shepley because concerned about innocent people being injured or hurt. So he used a TVI—a Tactical Vehicle Intervention—to stop the car. The driver nearly hit the center barrier wall before coming to a complete stop.

Shepley exited his patrol car, drew his pistol and gave the driver commands to shut the SUV off; the driver did not respond. Two Topeka Police officers then arrived on scene to assist, and one noted that he could smell the odor of alcohol coming from inside the vehicle , and that the driver “looked back at me with a confused, frightened, blank stare. He was not registering my commands or responding to them.”

The driver allegedly tried to pull away from officers as they attempted to remove him from the vehicle and they noted that “his eyes were watery, droopy, and he had bloodshot eyes.” Officer Shepley says he could not understand the man as he was “mumbling words with slurred speech.” Shepley read the man his Miranda rights and the man said “No.” when asked if he wanted to speak with the officer at that time, though he did say that this whole thing was:

“All for going the wrong way.”

And then he, refusing a breathalyzer test because he didn’t “feel the need to do so,” called the “donut boy”. His mood changed, however, a judge signed a search warrant for a blood sample—which showed his BAC at ,17, three-times the legal limit—and the man became “slightly aggressive in his tone” and “looked [Shepley] up and down stating he played state sports competitively in high school” and he could “take me”.

This man, driving drunk driving down the wrong side of the street at over ninety miles per hour was arrested and taken into custody without a shot fired, without being grabbed and pushed to the ground, without being pepper sprayed.

But then he was Kansas GQP state Senator Gene Suellentrop.

UPDATE: Kansas Republicans removed Gene Suellentrop out of office.