Pair helped former paramedic suspected of DWI, affidavit says.
By Tony Plohetski
Austin American-Statesman (Texas)
Copyright 2007 The Austin American-Statesman
All Rights Reserved
The call had come in to Austin police about 4 a.m. Tuesday: Someone appeared to be passed out behind the wheel of a Chevrolet Tahoe at a Southwest Austin intersection.
Two officers headed that way, but an ambulance got there first, according to a police affidavit. When paramedics Aaron Langford and Steven Peek looked inside the Tahoe, its engine still running, they recognized the driver was Brian J. Angeline, a former paramedic, said Austin-Travis County EMS Director Richard Herrington.
The paramedics notified police that they weren’t needed at the scene and moved Angeline’s Tahoe from the street to a nearby Walgreens parking lot, according to Herrington and the affidavit.
The police showed up anyway, and after they sorted out what had happened, Angeline was in jail facing a drunken-driving charge and the two paramedics were the subject of an internal investigation.
“The officer wanted to see the patient, and one of the medics tried to discourage the officer from approaching the patient, at which time the medic said some things he shouldn’t have said to the officer,” Herrington said.
“Some things” included the paramedics saying they planned to take Angeline home, and comments such as, “If this was one of your own, you would do the same thing we are,” said Herrington, who has read police reports describing the incident. The reports are not public records because the case is under investigation.
Herrington said Langford and Peek have been placed on administrative duty pending the outcome of the investigation. Angeline, 32, was booked into the Travis County Jail on a misdemeanor drunken-driving charge, then released on bail.
Angeline and Langford could not be reached for comment. Peek declined to comment.
Herrington said EMS is investigating the incident to determine whether the paramedics violated policies and whether they provided appropriate care to Angeline.
“It is absolutely not our policy to interfere with any kind of legal action,” Herrington said. “The crews should have approached it clearly from a medical standpoint.”
Austin police spokesman Kevin Buchman said detectives reviewed the incident and “there doesn’t appear to be a criminal element with regard to the conduct of the paramedics.”
The affidavit said a witness saw Angeline passed out in the Tahoe at William Cannon Drive and Escarpment Boulevard and tried to wake him. The witness told officers that Angeline drove forward a short distance and stopped, still in the street, the affidavit said. The paramedics later arrived and helped Angeline move the Tahoe into the parking lot, the affidavit said.
According to the affidavit, Angeline “had either passed out or fallen asleep behind the wheel of his vehicle with the engine running and his foot on the brake. (Angeline) said he left (the) Sixth Street area at 2:30 (a.m.) to go home.”
The affidavit said Angeline smelled of alcohol, had bloodshot eyes and slurred speech, and was swaying. He refused to submit to a breath alcohol test, the affidavit said, and when officers asked Angeline to submit to a field sobriety test, he “actually began the one leg stand, putting his foot down twice before stopping the test.”
Angeline worked as an Austin-Travis County EMS paramedic until April 2005, when he resigned after six years. EMS spokesman Warren Hassinger said Angeline resigned after a recommendation by his supervisors that he be fired for chronic attendance problems.
The investigation is the second high-profile incident involving EMS paramedics in recent weeks.
Last month, several paramedics were disciplined and three others resigned after officials said they were viewing Internet pornography on city computers while on duty.