NOPD officer charged for DWI
N.O. cop won’t see fleeing charge
He still must face DWI, speeding case
Saturday, June 07, 2008
By Laura Maggi
The Orleans Parish district attorney’s office this week decided against prosecuting an off-duty New Orleans Police Department officer for fleeing from a Crescent City Connection squad car, although Officer Charles Richard still faces myriad charges in traffic court, including reckless driving and driving while intoxicated. …
Richard is scheduled to go to trial June 25 in New Orleans traffic court on charges of driving while intoxicated and recklessly operating a vehicle, as well as speeding and running a red light, said Louis Ivon, the court’s administrator.
Richard was heading across the Crescent City Connection at around 1:37 a.m. on March 3 when Sgt. David Kramer with the CCC Police Department clocked his Dodge Charger going 83 mph in a 50 mph speed zone. Kramer followed the car in his cruiser, with his lights on, but Richard didn’t stop for 2.9 miles, according to a brief police report filed at Criminal District Court.
Kramer followed the car off the Gen. DeGaulle Drive exit and continued as the driver turned right onto L.B. Landry Ave. Richard kept going, according to the report, ending up on Shirley Drive, where he failed to stop for a red light at the Gen. Meyer Avenue intersection.
Richard then crashed into the Naval Support Activity building on Gen. Meyer and was ejected from the car, the report said. At that point, Kramer realized the driver was an off-duty New Orleans police officer, the report said.
An EMS unit took Richard to University Hospital, where a blood sample was taken. The report stated that Dr. Frank Minyard, the Orleans Parish coroner, examined the laboratory report from Richard’s blood and found the ethanol level was high enough to “significantly impair Richard’s judgment.”
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