SALON

Friday, Dec 28, 2012 10:30 PM UTC

APNewsBreak: Sen. Crapo won’t fight DUI charge

By

Topics: From the Wires,

APNewsBreak: Sen. Crapo won't fight DUI charge(Credit: AP Photo/Matt Cilley)

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Sen. Michael Crapo, the Idaho Republican arrested on suspicion of drunken driving, doesn’t plan to fight the charges when he appears in court in January, a spokesman said Friday.

Meanwhile, results from a secondary blood alcohol test performed at the jail show the conservative three-term senator registered a higher level about an hour after being arrested than when he was first tested by the police officer who stopped him.

Police have said Crapo registered a blood alcohol level of 0.11 percent when he was pulled over early Sunday in the Washington suburb of Alexandria, Va., after running a red light. But a secondary test performed after Crapo was brought to the jailhouse — the one that will be used in court — registered at 0.14, nearly twice the legal limit, according to a law enforcement official with knowledge of the arrest. The official wasn’t authorized to release information publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

“He does not plan to contest the charges,” said Crapo spokesman Lindsay Nothern, adding that Crapo has consulted with a local Virginia attorney ahead of his Jan. 4 court hearing.

A blood alcohol level of 0.14 means Crapo tested 1/100 of a percentage point below the level that would have mandated jail time under Virginia law. The legal limit in Virginia, which has strict drunken driving laws, is 0.08 percent.

Crapo has apologized and taken responsibility for the incident in a statement, but he hasn’t spoken publicly about the arrest. Crapo returned to Washington from Idaho on Wednesday as lawmakers pursue a solution to the looming fiscal cliff, but he wasn’t immediately available to comment Friday.

A number of factors could explain the discrepancy between the preliminary breathalyzer test, performed on the street when Crapo was pulled over shortly after midnight, and the jailhouse test, conducted just before 2 a.m. The higher level at the jailhouse could indicate Crapo was drinking shortly before getting behind the wheel and his body was still absorbing the alcohol. But another possible explanation is that blood alcohol testing simply isn’t a perfect science, said Michael Hlastala, a breath testing expert and former physiology professor at the University of Washington.

“It could be consistent with rising blood alcohol levels,” Hlastala said. “But it just depends on the way the person was breathing, and other factors.”

Alexandria police say Crapo was alone in his vehicle when he ran a red light, was pulled over and failed field sobriety tests. He was taken to the Alexandria jail and released on an unsecured $1,000 bond about 5 a.m. Sunday. Crapo is scheduled to appear in court on Jan. 4 — the day after the start of the next Congress. Crapo was handily re-elected in 2010 and won’t have to run again until 2016.

It’s still not clear where Crapo was coming from when he was arrested, and the senator hasn’t explained the circumstances of the arrest. Court records show Crapo residing in Southeast Washington, a short drive over the Potomac River from the historic suburb where he was arrested.

The 61-year-old’s arrest two days before Christmas stunned colleagues and constituents alike, not only because of his squeaky-clean image but also because the senator, a Mormon, had said previously he abstains from alcohol, in accordance with his church’s practices.

Many of Crapo’s Republican colleagues, including Sen. Jim Risch, Idaho’s senior senator, have come to his defense, suggesting Crapo can overcome the indiscretion and remain a viable leader. Crapo’s home-state newspaper, the Idaho Statesman, ran an editorial with the headline: “We can all learn from Sen. Crapo’s mistake.”

___

Miller reported from Boise, Idaho.

More By Josh Lederman And John Miller.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 0 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

vote
Who is "Company Doe"? Corporations accused of wrongdoing win battle to keep identities secret
38 points39 points | 1 comment
vote
"Slave descendants seek equal rights from Cherokee Nation": long, detailed narrative of legal and historical complications in red-white-black relations
29 points30 points | 1 comment
vote
Who is "Company Doe"? Corporations accused of wrongdoing win battle to keep identities secret
5 points6 points | comment
vote
Steven Soderbergh's Liberace biopic shows the famously flamboyant entertainer as a person, not a stereotype
6 points7 points | comment
vote
Experts: Fox News spying scandal a game-changer - I think that crackdown is ideologically driven and I think it’s hard to come to a different conclusion given the vigor with which this justice department has gone after people. So I think it is about a method of control that is badly misplaced.
4 points5 points | 6 comments

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations