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WEEKLY DWI REPORT

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Charlynn Begay

Aug. 3, 4:35 pm

Aggravated DWI

On Aug. 3, Josie Bowman, a deputy with the McKinley County Sheriff’s Office responded to a rolling domestic or a domestic violence case that occurred in a moving vehicle.

He was dispatched to the Indian Village Inn on State Highway 122 and had no problem finding the car in question.

The vehicle pulled to the side of the road and the driver, Charlynn Begay 34, of Smith Lake, got out and started walking to his unit. The right side of her face was red and she had a bump on her right temple.

She told Bowman that she and her husband, Mitchell Begay, 47, of Gallup had gone to Indian Village shopping when they got in an argument and he began hitting her with her phone.

They left the store and headed back to Gallup and as she drove back, she said, her husband began hitting her again several more times with his fist. She said she told him to get out of the car but he would not leave.

She said he then hit her with her phone, breaking it. She said her husband had been drinking all day and had passed out in the front seat of the car.

Bowman said he went to her car and found Mitchell Begay passed out. He said he had to rub his chest to wake him up. Bowman said he placed him in his unit after charging him with battery on a household member.

He then went back to Charlynn Begay and asked her if she had been drinking. She said she only had one drink. She agreed to take a field sobriety test, which she failed and was arrested.

Later she agreed to take a breath alcohol tested and posted samples of .19 and .17.

 

Don Smith

July 28, 9:13 pm

Aggravated DWI

Gallup Patrolwoman Iris Pinero was told by a Gallup detective who was working an event downtown that there was a report of a driver possibly hitting another car. She was also told that the driver was seen drinking liquor before the crash.

She found the driver on Fourth Street in a vehicle facing a red car. The driver of the red car said the other driver, Don Smith, 52, of Lupton, Ariz. almost hit her vehicle.

Pinero said she asked Smith, who said he had had only one beer to drink, if he was willing to take a field sobriety tests. He agreed but when he took the tests, he failed and was arrested.

He refused to blow into the breath test machine and Pinero said she took this as a refusal so he was charged with aggravated DWI.

He was also charged with having open liquor bottles in his car and having no driver’s license or insurance.

 

Felicia Belone

July 27. 10:13 pm

DWI

Gallup Police Officer Justin Benally said he was dispatched to search for a car which a witness said had a driver and passenger who were highly intoxicated.

The caller was following the car and said it pulled into Heritage Plaza. Benally found the vehicle and did a traffic stop.

Before he met Belone, 40, of Gallup, he was told a witness saw her try to hide a can of beer while she was in the vehicle. She agreed to take the field sobriety tests and failed so she was arrested.

She then agreed to take a breath alcohol test and blew two samples of .15. She was charged with DWI and having an open container in her vehicle.

 

Richard Lovato

July 14, 2:48 pm

2nd DWI, Aggravated

Gallup Patrolman Douglas Hoffman said he responded to a report of a one-vehicle rollover on Apache Circle about 3 pm.

When he got to the site, he found that the two passengers in the car were outside the vehicle while Lovato, 57, of Gallup was still in the car.

There were no injuries in the accident and Lovato admitted he had been driving. Lovato admitted he had been drinking and Hoffman said he had to be helped to walk. He refused to take a field sobriety test and was found to have a one shot bottle of vodka on his person.

He also refused to take a breath alcohol test and was charged with aggravated DWI. Hoffman said later he learned that Lovato had two prior DWI convictions.

 

James Tushawa

July 11, 6:07 pm

Aggravated DWI

Gallup Patrolman Terrance Peyketewa was in the area of the Crystal Carwash on East Aztec Avenue looking for a possible drunk driver who had been seen almost hitting one of the attendants.

He soon spotted the vehicle traveling on East Aztec at a high rate of speed. He said he saw the driver then stop to talk to two pedestrians so he conducted a traffic stop.

There was only one person in the vehicle, James Tushawa, 38, of Churchrock.

Peyketewa said he noticed Tushawa was wearing no shoes and appeared to be highly agitated  as he said his mother lived down the street.

Tushawa refused to tell the officer his name. Since he showed signs of being intoxicated, he was arrested for DWI as he became more agitated.

He also refused to take a breath test and was booked for aggravated DWI.