Police Log: Driver Arrested For DUI Admits 'Mistake'

An aknowledgement of the recklessness of drinking and driving proved a bit too belated for one driver's own good March 5.

The epiphany, which the driver, Francis Griffin, 30, shared with Woonsocket Police Lt. Edward Cunanan while in the process of failing a walk and turn sobriety test, might have served him better before he began driving home that evening.

Cunanan spotted the blue 2000 Ford SUV driven by Griffin at 1:30 a.m. while traveling on Hamlet Avenue near Park Avenue. The SUV passed Cunanan's cruiser traveling in the opposite direction, swerving and nearly striking the curb as it passed, according to Cunanan's report.

Cunanan turned his cruiser and followed the SUV, as it traveled up Cumberland Hill Road, jerking into the left lane before turning onto Cass Avenue, drifting over the center line and nearly striking the curb before Cunanan pulled the SUV over in a dirt parking lot across from 66 Sweet Ave.

Cunanan reported he could smell alcohol on the breath of the driver, identified as Griffin. His face appeared reddish in color and his left eye appeared bloodshot. Griffin told him he'd been drinking and was coming home from a bar. Later, when Cunanan attempted to conduct a vision test, which requires testing both a person's eyes, Griffin told him his right eye was glass, so they skipped that test. 

Griffin nearly fell when he exited his car to take a sobriety test and missed nearly every step on the walk and turn test, stopping partway through to say he had made a mistake by drinking and driving, but that he was home now, according to Cunanan's report. 

Griffin also failed the one leg stand test, and Cunanan arrested him on a charge of driving under the influence of alcohol, first offense, after that.