Officer Derek Backus Arrested Drunk Driving

[WaTcHeR]

08.09.2006 - SYRACUSE, N.Y. - An off-duty Syracuse police officer has been charged with drunken driving in the crash that injured two teens last week.

According to police reports released yesterday, 26-year-old Officer Derek Backus had a blood alcohol content zero-point-one four (0.14) the afternoon of August 2nd, almost twice the legal limit.

Backus, of Baldwinsville, was charged with driving while intoxicated and operating a motor vehicle with a blood alcohol content of zero-point-zero eight (0.08) or more, both misdemeanors, and failure to keep right, a violation.

Investigators and witnesses say Backus' vehicle crossed the center line of Oswego Road in Clay and crashed into a car driven by 17-year-old Matthew Rusch, of Liverpool.

The Syracuse Post-Standard reports that Rusch suffered a dislocated knee and broken leg, while passenger, Jillian DeMaree, also 17, of Liverpool, broke both legs.

www.wcax.com/Global/story.asp?S=5259415&nav=4QcS

[KC]

Former police officer indicted

A grand jury has handed down an indictment against a former Syracuse Police officer. Derek Backus, 26, is charged with two counts of second degree vehicular assault.

Police said Backus and a group of other off-duty officers consumed one or two beers each in a parking lot behind their East Patrol facility on Erie Boulevard last month. He was later involved in a head-on collision on Route 57 in Liverpool that injured Jillian DeMaree and Matthew Rusch, both 17.

Backus was also charged with DWI for having a blood-alcohol level of .14 at the time, which is almost twice the legal limit.

news10now.com/content/all_news/?ArID=85542&SecID=83

[KC]

kc said:

Backus and a group of other off-duty officers consumed one or two beers each in a parking lot behind their East Patrol facility.

Friends shouldn't have let friends drive home. Can you believe it, cops drinking at work and driving home or maybe even going on duty.