A Metropolitan Police Department lieutenant rolled over his wife’s Cadillac while driving drunk last month near the Nevada-California state line, according to his arrest report.
The Nevada Highway Patrol arrested Joseph Elvin Winn Jr. in connection with a crash that broke his back on July 1 south of Jean.
Winn Jr. faces two misdemeanor charges for DUI and operating an unregistered vehicle, online records from Goodsprings Justice Court show.
A Metro spokesperson said in an email that “Lt. Winn is currently an active employee” when asked Wednesday about his employment status with the police department.
State troopers responded around 11 p.m. July 1 to the vehicle rollover that occurred near an unimproved desert terrain service road adjacent to Interstate-15, the report said.
Troopers found a white Cadillac on its roof and a shirtless and shoeless Winn Jr. upside down in the driver’s seat, according to the report. The car had an expired California license plate with a tinted cover over it, the report added.
Asked what he remembered before the crash, Winn Jr. said he recalled hitting a bump. The report said Winn Jr. told the trooper he lived in Henderson and was driving his wife’s car to a gas station at the state line. He added that he “wanted to take a side road” when the trooper asked him why he didn’t go somewhere in Henderson to get gas instead.
Winn Jr. told the trooper he didn’t have any drinks or medications before driving and denied being a regular drinker, according to the report. Asked when he last had a drink, Winn said “I don’t drink like that, no.” The trooper repeated the question, to which Winn Jr. responded saying that he did not remember.
The trooper wrote that Winn Jr. answered questions with his eyes closed, and after they asked the lieutenant to open his eyes, the trooper observed him to have bloodshot and watery eyes. The report said Winn Jr. also had the smell of “an unknown intoxicating beverage emanating from his mouth” and answered questions with slow and slurred speech.
Asked if he was having a joyride, Winn “repeated ‘joyride’ with what I understood to be a tone of confusion,” the trooper wrote in the report.
After Winn Jr. was transported to UMC for his broken back, the report said he struggled to pass standardized field sobriety tests, including following the trooper’s finger using his neck-braced head instead of his eyes as instructed.
Two blood samples from Winn Jr. both found him above the legal limit for blood alcohol content, according to the report.
Winn Jr.’s misdemeanor arraignment is scheduled for Sept. 29, online court records show.
Contact Spencer Levering at slevering@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0253.
