Little Rock man arrested for DWI, fleeing with minor daughter in car
A Little Rock man was arrested Saturday after allegedly driving while intoxicated and fleeing from a Hot Springs National Park ranger with his minor daughter in the car.
Thomas Charles Coy, 44, was taken into custody shortly after 3:30 p.m. and charged with felony counts of vehicular fleeing and endangering the welfare of a minor, each punishable by up to six years in prison, and misdemeanor counts of DWI first offense and refusal to submit to a chemical test, each punishable by up to one year in jail.
Coy was later released on
$7,000 bond and is set to appear
Aug. 8 in Garland County
District Court.
According to the affidavit, Ranger Zach Summerlin was eastbound on Airport Road near North Moore Road when he spotted a silver Yukon “driving in and out of the turn lane several times.” Suspecting the driver was texting, Summerlin said he pulled up beside him intending to use a hand signal to tell him to stop texting.
As he pulled alongside, he noted the driver, later identified as Coy, appeared sleepy and didn’t notice him driving beside him. He got behind the vehicle and saw it swerve into the turn lane again several times, almost hitting a car and a motorcycle.
Summerlin said he activated his lights to make a traffic stop, but the driver kept going, continuing to swerve from lane to lane and driving in excess of the 50 mph speed limit. The driver made a wide turn onto Oak Hill Road and stopped in the oncom-
ing lane, but then drove off again as Summerlin followed with lights and siren activated.
The driver finally turned on South Danna Drive and stopped at its intersection with Happy Street. Summerlin said he drew his service weapon and approached, ordering Coy to exit and show his hands and he complied. He asked him to turn around and take two steps backward, and noted he stumbled and had to catch himself.
Summerlin said he had a hard time helping Coy get up and walked him back to his unit, noting he had a strong smell of intoxicants coming from his person. Coy told him his daughter, 13, was in the car and Summerlin said he could hear her sobbing from his patrol car.
He checked on the daughter who stated she was scared because Summerlin was yelling at her dad. He told her to call her mother to come get her and she said her mother was in Little Rock.
Summerlin and Garland County sheriff’s Deputy Shane Tatum, who had arrived to assist, asked Coy how much he had to drink and he initially said, “A bit.” He then allegedly admitted to drinking more than a bottle of white wine and said he was driving back to Little Rock.
After submitting to three field sobriety tests and reportedly failing all three, Coy submitted to a breathalyzer test which registered his blood alcohol content at 0.22 percent, almost three times the legal limit.
Once at the detention center, Coy provided two more breath samples, registering 0.239 and 0.218 percent, the affidavit states. Because of the difference between samples, Summerlin tried to take a third sample but Coy allegedly wouldn’t provide a sufficient sample resulting in the additional misdemeanor charge.