Police Walk Drunken Driver to Front Door of Station

Riverside, IL - Riverside police had an easy time transporting a stumbling drunken driver to the station from his car, which had been pulled over precisely in front of the Riverside Police Department at 31 Riverside Road.

An officer saw a car stopped in traffic at 1:57 a.m. Jan. 11 on Riverside Road at the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad crossing as a train crossed, according to Riverside police.

When the train cleared, the car didn’t move right away, and the driver appeared to be passed out, police reported.

The car started to move across the tracks after a few minutes, but it moved so slowly, it held up the traffic behind it. The officer pulled the car over right in front of the police station.

Police report the driver, Javier J. Magana, 22 of the 3900 block of West 67th Place in Chicago, wouldn’t roll his window down more than a crack to hand over his license, and the officer could smell alcohol inside the car.

Magana was asked to step out of the car, and when he did, the officer smelled the strong scent of alcohol, police reported, and Magana had an “extremely hard time standing.”

Magana failed all standard roadside safety and sobriety testing, and he was arrested for drunken driving.

The officer walked Magana in handcuffs from the street, through the front lobby of the police department and into the booking and processing room.

Magana told police he had been drinking two or three beers at a restaurant in Berwyn before he was stopped. He refused to blow into a Breathalyzer.

Police reportedly recovered open bottles and cans of beer in the car. Two passengers were cited for illegal transportation of alcohol after they acknowledged drinking in the car.

Magana was charged with driving under the influence of alcohol, violation of the minimum speed limit and transportation of open alcohol by a driver, police reported.

“Nothing shocks me anymore when it comes to drunk driving arrests and their behavior when they interact with police officers,” said Riverside Police Chief Thomas Weitzel in a statement.