Over the weekend, a Marion, Va., cop became the third local police officer charged – in less than a month – with driving under the influence.
Sgt. Shawn Levont Conklin, 39, of Glade Spring, Va., was arrested Friday evening and charged with driving while intoxicated, first offense, and refusal to submit to a breath test.
According to a news release from the Virginia State Police, Conklin ran his 1998 Volkswagen off the road around 7 p.m. and got stuck in a snowy yard in the Thomas Bridge section of Smyth County, outside of Marion. The Smyth County Sheriff’s Office responded and called in the State Police.
No one was injured and there was minimal damage to the car.
Ken Heath, a spokesman for the town of Marion, said Conklin, a patrol sergeant, has worked for the department for 10 years.
“It’s disappointing,” said Marion Police Chief Michael Roberts. “We’re taking it seriously, we really are. Policemen are humans and we make errors, but we have to be responsible for them and we will.”
Conklin was taken to Southwest Virginia Regional Jail in Abingdon Friday night, posted bond and was released.
He was suspended without pay from his job, pending what Roberts termed an administrative review, which he said involves examining the department’s code of conduct. It should be completed this week, he said.
Conklin’s arrest comes on the heels of two other arrests of officers charged with drunken driving.
Roberts called the trend “disturbing.”
On Jan. 8, Chihowie police Officer David Conley Cullop Jr., 34, was charged with driving under the influence after police said he crossed the center line and smashed head-on into an oncoming pick-up truck on Chilhowie’s main road. When the Virginia State Police arrived, Cullop also refused tests. He was suspended, but resigned a short time later.
A few weeks later, a Sullivan County, Tenn., Sheriff’s deputy was busted on the shoulder of Interstate 81 in Blountville. Samuel Bledsoe, 47, was charged with driving under the influence when the Tennessee Highway Patrol found him with a flat tire, having vomited on himself and fallen over, according to a THP incident report. He failed several tests, declared he was a deputy, then twice tried to kick his way out of the back of a squad car, the report states.
Authorities finally got him to a hospital for a blood-alcohol content test by putting him in the patrol dog cage. He was fired the next working day.
The particulars of Conklin’s arrest are still unclear. A spokeswoman for Smyth County General District Court said documents were not yet available Monday.
His hearing is set for March 18 in that court.
cgalofaro@bristolnews.com | (276) 645-2531
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