UPDATED: Commissioner denies drinking & driving
A Pueblo County Commissioner is responding to questions about a January incident that was caught on dash cam video.
At 11:30 p.m. on January 25, 2013, Pueblo County Sheriff’s Deputies were called to investigate a suspicious vehicle. Inside, deputies found Commissioner Buffie McFadyen and Pueblo County Democratic Party Chairman Ron Greenwell.
McFadyen and Greenwell were sitting in McFadyen’s car at U.S. 50 and Swallows Road. Deputies suspected they had been drinking.
“They asked if I had been drinking. I told them I had consumed a glass of wine, and agreed with their suggestion that calling for a ride would be the safest thing to do.” McFadyen said in a statement to our partners at The Pueblo Chieftain.
Greenwell blew a 0.14 on a Breathalyzer test that night. When The Pueblo Chieftain called Greenwell, he responded: “I have no statement.”
McFadyen says she and Greenwell were dropped off at their vehicles after a trip with friends to the Desert Reef Hot Springs in Florence.
According to the police report, the vehicle was not running and the key was not in the ignition.
No charges were filed. McFadyen’s husband was called to pick up his wife and Greenwell.
The Pueblo County Sheriff’s Office released the following statement regarding this incident on the afternoon of Wednesday, November 6, 2013:
In response to inquiries made concerning the actions of one of our deputies we offer the following… Law enforcement is not an assembly line of responses. It is most often an inquiry or response when life or property is in danger. Responding to a suspicious vehicle is a preliminary investigation and deputies are trained to make a corresponding judgment call based on the totality of the circumstances presented. A deputy may choose to take no action when the facts presented indicate there are no laws violated, there are no victims, no complainant and no eye witness account. It is a decision that falls within the deputy’s discretion and in this case was not second guessed. In this 9 month old contact, it was actually three deputies who concluded the circumstances justified the response. The Pueblo County Sheriff’s Office supports their decision.
Click here to read much more about this investigation from our partners at The Pueblo Chieftain.
