A now former Hartshorne Police Officer was charged with misdemeanor driving under the influence after a state trooper found the woman crashed out in a ditch on July 5.
Celest Elvia Salvador, 23, of Red Oak, was charged last week in Choctaw Nation District Court with the misdemeanor count of driving under the influence and has since bonded out of jail, according to court records.
An affidavit filed in the cases states a trooper with the Oklahoma Highway Patrol was dispatched to a single-vehicle accident near South Old Highway 69 near Canadian on July 5.
The trooper wrote that when he arrived, he saw a black truck in a ditch with a woman in the driver’s seat and her head lying down against the steering wheel. When he tried to open the front door, he found the door locked with the vehicle still in drive.
According to the report, the woman woke up “disoriented, and had red, bloodshot, watery eyes and a strong odor often associated with an alcoholic beverage.”
The trooper said he recognized the woman to be a police officer employed by the Hartshorne Police Department and identified the woman as Salvador.
When asked what happened, Salvador told the trooper “she did not know,” and when asked why she was on the side of the road, the woman responded that she wasn’t, the affidavit states.
Salvador also told the trooper she did not know where she was and that when told she was in a ditch, she said “no,” the trooper wrote in his report.
She admitted to the trooper she had drunk “six or seven beers, maybe eight,” approximately an hour before she was found, the affidavit states.
When asked to rate herself on a scale from one to 10, with one being sober and 10 being passed out drunk, Salvador said, “passed out, I guess,” and when the trooper asked if she was “pretty lit,” Salvador answered “yeah,” according to the trooper’s report.
After declining a field sobriety test, Salvador was arrested and declined the state’s implied consent test, the report states.
The affidavit states that when asked if she had notified her supervisor, Hartshorne Police Chief Joe Watts, about her arrest, Salvador said no, with the trooper saying that she probably should.
In a statement provided to McAlester Radio, Hartshorne Mayor Ashley Faulkner said Salvador was terminated from her position on July 6 and said the city’s council is set to affirm the termination during their July 21 meeting.
Court records show a disposition hearing in Salvador’s case is scheduled for August 6.