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The ranger who arrested Bruce Springsteen was on foot patrol when he said he watched the rock icon drink a glass of Patron tequila.
He arrested Mr. Springsteen not far from the Sandy Hook Lighthouse in a national park on the North Jersey shore, according to a report filed after the musician’s arrest on November 14.
“Springsteen claimed he had received two injections of tequila in the past 20 minutes,” wrote the officer, identified as RL Hayes. The musician, he added, smelled “strongly of alcohol” and had “glassy eyes”.
The National Park Service ranger reported performing a series of field field sobriety tests. Mr. Springsteen “was visibly rocking back and forth,” Ranger Hayes wrote, and took 45 steps during a walk-and-turn test rather than the 18 he was ordered to take.
Mr Springsteen, 71, also “refused to provide a sample from the preliminary breath test,” the report said.
This is where it ends.
There is no mention of Mr. Springsteen’s blood alcohol level. Two people close to Mr Springsteen who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly said it was 0.02%, well below the legal limit of 0.08% from New Jersey.
Mr. Springsteen, who rode a Triumph motorcycle, was charged with impaired driving, reckless driving and drinking alcohol in an enclosed area. The parks service has so far refused to release the full arrest report and has not responded to requests for further information on Mr Springsteen’s blood alcohol level.
It is not known how long after his meeting with the ranger the test was carried out.
Ranger Hayes’ report – a “probable cause statement” – was included in Federal Court documents released Thursday afternoon.
Mr Springsteen’s arrest wasn’t revealed until Wednesday, days after he appeared in his very first commercial – driving a Jeep, in a Super Bowl commercial which was the second game spot on Sunday night. most watched on YouTube.
Mr. Springsteen’s attorney, Mitchell J. Ansell, could not be reached immediately for comment. The musician has not addressed the accusations publicly. Mr Springsteen’s first court appearance will be via video conference, likely towards the end of February, officials from the U.S. Attorneys’ Office said.
Jeep removed the ad from its social media sites on Wednesday.
“Her message of community and unity is as relevant as ever,” Jeep spokesperson Diane Morgan said in a statement. “So does the message that drinking and driving can never be tolerated.”
On Thursday evening, Springsteen had not removed from his Instagram page the video of the ad or the script he had recited calling for the reunification of a divided country.
Mothers Against Drunk Driving, a national advocacy organization, has condemned the park service’s delay in disclosing Mr. Springsteen’s arrest.
“The fact that this arrest was not revealed by New Jersey authorities until after Springsteen appeared behind the wheel of a Jeep in a very expensive Super Bowl commercial is infuriating,” the group’s president said on Wednesday. , Alex Otte, in a press release.
“Victims and families deserve to have every drinking and driving offense prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law as a violent crime and 100% preventable every time.” No excuses, no exceptions. “
Even if a blood alcohol level is below the legal limit, it is not uncommon for a person to be charged with impaired driving based on an officer’s observation during a blood test. three-part sobriety, according to Carmine R. Villani, a New Jersey criminal defense. lawyer with 30 years of experience in CFA matters.
“Everything is done in its entirety,” said Mr. Villani, who is not involved in Mr. Springsteen’s case. “Maybe he had alcohol on his breath. Second, he may not pass all aspects of the test. It is designed to disturb people. It’s a test of shared attention. It is a stressful event, and often people do not do well. “
But if the blood alcohol level ultimately turns out to be well below 0.08%, cases are often easily resolved, Mr Villani said.
“With a 0.02 it shouldn’t move the heart – you wouldn’t be nervous,” he says. “On a 0.02, the science just isn’t there. Someone is just not weakened. “
Mr Springsteen was arrested just after 4 p.m. on a sunny 54-degree Saturday at one of his favorite haunts – Gateway National Recreation Area in Sandy Hook, a sprawling park about 18 miles from his home in Colts Neck, NJ . The scenic waterfront, filled with abandoned military structures and the country’s oldest continuously operating lighthouse, served as the backdrop for one of Mr. Springsteen’s music videos, an album cover and a short film.
Mr. Springsteen’s latest album, “Letter to You,” was released three weeks earlier and garnered rave reviews. The Republican president he urged voters to defeat had just lost his re-election.
He had stopped, as he often does, to chat with fans, said one of those close to Mr Springsteen.
After drinking a glass of tequila, he got back on his motorcycle and started the engine, wrote Ranger Hayes. “The Patron bottle the shot was poured into was completely empty (750ml),” the officer wrote.
Park Service officials did not respond to calls, emails or requests for public documents for additional information on Mr. Springsteen’s arrest and why it was not disclosed.
Just over two months later, on January 20, Mr. Springsteen sang from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, a site also operated by the National Park Service, as part of a televised concert celebrating President Biden’s inauguration.
Then, on Sunday, he was shown driving a white Jeep across snow-swept plains in a commercial during the fourth Super Bowl quarter. It was the first time in his five-decade career that he had agreed to appear in an advertisement, a two-minute call for national unity.
Caryn Ganz and Ben Sisario contributed to the reporting and Alain Delaquérière contributed to the research.
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