Brownwood Chief of Police Mike Corley confirmed that a Brownwood Police officer was arrested for driving while intoxicated Wednesday night.
At approximately 11:00 p.m., Texas DPS Trooper Michael Sams of Texas Department of Public Safety made a traffic stop on a vehicle driven by 40-year-old Danny Hutchins of Bangs for speeding and failing to stay in a single lane on U.S. Hwy 67, inside the city limits of Brownwood, according to an affidavit for probable cause arrest warrant.
The warrant states that Hutchins had a strong odor of alcohol on his breath, glassy eyes and spoke with slurred speech. Hutchins also performed “poorly” on standardized field sobriety tests and was subsequently arrested for driving while intoxicated 1st, according to the affidavit.
The affidavit states that a blood specimen was taken at Brownwood Regional Medical Center prior to Hutchins being taken to the Brown County Jail where as of Thursday morning, he was being held. No bond amount had been set as of Thursday morning.
Corley stated that the arrest was “disappointing.”
He confirmed that Hutchins will be placed on administrative leave with pay and that the department will be conducting their own internal investigation to confirm that their code of conduct was violated by Hutchins.
“I’m disappointed for sure,” said Corley. He explained that the arrest is not only bad for Hutchins but is also bad for the department, as his shift is now one officer short and will have to make adjustments for that.
“It’s just as important what you do to your colleagues as what you do to yourself,” Corley stated.
Hutchins initially faces the charge and administrative leave. If convicted, Corley stated that the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement’s guidelines mandate that he will lose his peace officer license for 10 years. A first time DWI is a Class B misdemeanor according to Corley.
“If a peace officer is convicted of higher than a Class C misdemeanor, they lose their license for 10 years,” Corley explained. “It’s pretty strict in Texas and that really hurts us. DWI is bad and we need to be hard on it. It was a bad, bad, choice for Danny.”
Corley explained that Hutchins has been a very good officer in the past and that currently he was assigned to the night shift.
“He’s been an asset to this department. My objective is not to fire Danny but to do what’s best for Danny. I want him to get help if he needs it,” said Corley.
Corley further explained that the department will start paperwork today and begin their internal investigation on Friday. He explained that DWI is against the department’s code of conduct. The first thing that will happen is that Hutchins will be placed on administrative leave, his badge will be taken from him and he will have no powers as a police officer while on this leave.
“He will not be suspended without pay (at this point),” said Corley as he explained the internal investigation will be much like the criminal case, the department will look at the video of the stop and arrest and look at the level of his blood alcohol content.
“If he violated it (the code of conduct), he will face the consequences and we’ll have to determine what disciplinary action is appropriate,” said Corley.
Corley stated that at this time Hutchins is not proven guilty.
“We’ve got to keep in mind that he has not been found guilty yet,” said Corley. “So we’ll make sure he gets his due process, but on the other hand we’ve got to make sure our code of conduct is upheld.”
Corley stated that Hutchins has not and will not receive any special treatment, he will be treated just as any other person in this circumstance and that he respected the arrest by DPS.
“I respect DPS, they did the right thing,” Corley. “I commend them as they didn’t give him any special treatment and I don’t expect them to give him any.”
Corley explained that this arrest is difficult because it is in a small town and most law enforcement officers know each other.
“In a small town, an arrest like this is hard because the arresting officer likely knows the other officer. It puts an officer in an comfortable place,” said Corley who explained that the arrest was appropriate given the evidence at this time.
The Brownwood Police Department currently is made up of 38 officers including the Chief.
