Footage released of Angela West's arrest on suspicion of DWI
DALLAS - The Dallas police chief is backing up the officer who arrested the wife of Texas gubernatorial candidate Allen West on suspicion of driving while intoxicated.
Chief Eddie Garcia on Monday released dash and body cam video from last Friday's arrest, including Angela West's field sobriety test and breathalyzer test.
The chief said he released the video in part because he wanted to defend the actions of his officers who’ve been criticized. But whether there is convincing evidence remains to be seen.
In the police video, an officer noticed Angela's car go onto the shoulder. When the officer attempted to pull her over, the car stopped in the middle lane of the three-lane road.
When the officer told Angela to pull further over, she pulled into and stopped in the right lane before being told to completely exit the road.
Angela's infant grandson was in the backseat of the SUV during the incident, according to police and her attorney.
Over the weekend, Allen posted a video saying the officer acted improperly and called for her to be fired. He also said the police chief, district attorney and mayor need to apologize.
"This is crap!" Allen said in the video. "Now, I support the thin blue line, but this is insidious."
Texas governor candidate Allen West demands apology after wife is arrested for DWI
"No police chief can sit idly by while his officers get falsely vilified," Garcia said in the Monday press conference.
The edited video was nearly 20 minutes. It shows Angela take a field sobriety test, where she never seemed to stumble. The chief would not say which portion, if any, she failed.
Angela did agree to blow into a breathalyzer, but that evidence apparently will not be used against her.
The chief said Angela did not blow correctly so the results were "inconclusive."
Attorney Todd Shapiro is representing Angela in this case.
"I anticipate whenever the chemical tests do come back on this test that you're going to see, the world's going to see that she had no substances within her system," he said. "There was no alcohol. There was no drugs listed or otherwise. And I do believe these charges will be dropped."
Shapiro says at the time of being pulled over, Angela was on the phone with her grandson’s mother and trying to look at her GPS.
Chief Garcia says there was a Mcdonald's cup in the car that the officer said allegedly had an odor of alcohol. The cup was not taken by police. Garcia says that is not standard in a DWI arrest.
"There was no alcohol in that cup. It was from earlier in the day where she had gone to McDonald's and gotten an orange-flavored drink," Shapiro said. "It was melted. It was warm. There was no ice. There was no alcohol in that cup."
Angela was taken to Parkland Hospital where her blood was drawn. Then, she was booked into jail.
The blood alcohol level results are not yet back from the lab.
Garcia says he came forward Monday to dispute the claims that Angela was improperly arrested.
"I saw a professional officer. I saw a courteous officer," the chief said. "Regardless of what the lab results show, I believe that she believed that there was probable cause to think that something was impacting her driving."
Allen, a former Texas Republican Party chairman, claims his wife had not consumed any alcohol that night and tweeted a receipt from the restaurant Angela had left a short time earlier.
It’s been two days since the blood test was given. Police gave no timeline on when the results will come back.
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