Drunken driver drinks Wite-Out while in police custody

[djack16]

What would have been great is if the officer had him lick a mistake off his paperwork.

[nebraska_deputy]

This is true I have arrested people that high before and 8 hours later they still are not below the legal limit. And if I remember right this was this 4TH Offense, this wasn't his first time around the block. But back to my original point if people had some common sense they wouldn't get into trouble and maybe save a life or two.

[sweetcynic]

The funny thing is all they have to do is stop drinking a few hours before they go home. Or nurse a drink for the last couple hours and they wouldn't have these problems.

It takes way more than a couple hours to sober down from a .28 though.... The fact that he could drive at all(even unsafely) at a .28 + prior DUIs = probable alcoholic

[PB3021]

Would'nt the wite-out erase the breath test results?




Sorry, I know that was bad.

[nebraska_deputy]

The things some will do to try to stay out of jail. The funny thing is all they have to do is stop drinking a few hours before they go home. Or nurse a drink for the last couple hours and they wouldn't have these problems.

[nuthead]

I like both.

I don't think he realized that they could test his blood... He probably figured if he drank the white out it would get him out of the breath test.


Or maybe he's just an idiot.

Or both.

[nebraska_deputy]

Published Wednesday July 23, 2008
Drunken driver drinks Wite-Out while in police custody
BY TODD COOPER
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

Maybe he was trying to mask his breath.

Maybe he needed something to wash down the burrito he had eaten.

Maybe he just wanted to bleach his teeth.

World-Herald Video
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Drunken driver drinks some Wite-Out Whatever the case, as a repeat drunken driver sat waiting for Omaha police personnel to test his breath, he opened up a different bottle and drank.

The substance? Wite-Out.

Apparently fueled by liquid courage, Juan Briceno took a gulp of Liquid Paper or Wite-Out or whatever brand of chalky correction fluid that was sitting on an Omaha police desk.

It didn't work.

This week, a jury convicted Briceno of felony fourth-offense drunken driving for the May 2007 arrest that led the burly 33-year-old Omaha man to consume correction fluid.

Briceno now may be headed to a correctional facility. He faces up to 20 years in prison or five years of probation when he is sentenced in October.

He'll have a nice souvenir: Briceno's swig was captured by police surveillance videotape.

Prosecutor George Thompson, a deputy Douglas County attorney, gave this account:

About 7 p.m. on May 1, 2007, a mechanic heard an engine revving and tires peeling out in his lot near 24th and I Streets.

The mechanic called police and gave a description of the car and driver.

Omaha police found Briceno eating a burrito at a taco stand.

After he failed field sobriety tests, officers took Briceno to Central Police Headquarters, where breath tests are taken.

In the video, Omaha Police Officer John Neaman leads Briceno to a chair next to a desk.

As Neaman sorts through paperwork, Briceno picks up the correction fluid bottle and taps it on the desk.

Neaman leaves.

Briceno twirls the bottle some more, then rolls it on the desk.

He glances over his shoulder, then untwists the cap and raises the bottle to his lips.

Briceno takes a gulp, caps the bottle and sets it back down.

He wipes his mouth with the back of his left hand, then with his T-shirt.

Neaman returns. Briceno buries his mouth in his right palm.

An Omaha police evidence technician then enters the room to administer the breath test. She immediately points out Briceno's mime-white lips to Neaman, the officer.

Neaman picks up the bottle and, incredulous, studies the whites of Briceno's lips and hand.

The bottle label warns users that correctional fluid is flammable and can be harmful or fatal if inhaled. But the question is: Did it work? Did the correction fluid counteract the other fluids on Briceno's breath?

Officers simply escorted Briceno to Creighton University Medical Center for a blood test.

Turns out, Briceno may have wanted to save the Wite-Out for the hospital's reports.

Medical personnel registered his blood-alcohol content at .28, three and a half times the legal limit.