Gene Suellentrop: Kansas senate leader who led police on drunken chase called officer ‘donut boy’
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The Republican leader in the Kansas state senate led police on a drunken car chase down a highway into oncoming traffic and referred to an officer as "donut boy", authorities claim.
Highway patrol gave chase in the early hours of 16 March after multiple 911 calls were made to report a white SUV careening down the wrong way of the interstate outside Topeka, Kansas. The officer found after a 10-minute chase that state senate Republican Majority Leader Gene Suellentrop was behind the wheel.
Declining a breathing sobriety test, authorities got a warrant for a blood test. It found that Mr Suellentrop had more than twice the legal limit of alcohol in his system. As they waited for the test at the Shawnee County Jail, he told the officer who arrested him: “All for going the wrong way.
“Donut boy.”
According to an affidavit, the 69-year-old Mr Suellentrop also told Kansas Highway Patrol Officer Austin Shepley that he would be able to beat him up.
“He looked me up and down stating he played state sports competitively" in high school, Officer Shepley says in the affidavit.
“He stated he could ‘take me.’”
Just after midnight on 16 March, a driver called 911 after almost being hit by the SUV driving into oncoming traffic on Interstate 70.
“They about hit me, but I’m okay. I’m fine,” the caller told an emergency dispatcher, according to The Kansas City Star.
At least two other drivers also called 911 to report that they had almost been hit by a white SUV going the wrong way.
“They were in the wrong lane and they met coming up the on-ramp and scared the crap out of me,” a caller said,The Star reported.
Officer Shepley drove west down I-70 and eventually spotted the vehicle. He looked on as the car almost hit two other drivers. Chasing after the car, officer Shepley reached speeds as high as 90mph in an area with a 65mph speed limit. Despite his cruiser lights being on, the SUV didn't pull over.
Officer Shepley used “tactical vehicle intervention" twice and succeeded on his second try to get the vehicle to a halt as the driver finally pulled over, according to police.
Moving towards the car with his gun in his hands, the officer told the driver to turn off the engine several times but to no avail.
Officer Shepley wrote in the affidavit: “As I approached the driver, he had his left hand out the window and looked back at me with a confused, frightened, blank stare.
“He was not registering my commands or responding to them.”
Officer Shepley put away his weapon, and reached into the car and turned the engine off himself. He could smell “the odour of an alcoholic beverage” in the car, the affidavit said.
He pulled Mr Suellentrop out of the car, cuffed him, and placed him in the passenger seat of his police car. Mr Suellentrop's eyes were “watery, droopy, and … bloodshot,” he said, and he had issues staying upright and slurred his words.
Democrats in the state have called for his removal. Republican Senate President Ty Masterson said in a statement on Thursday: “While we continue to respect due process, there are many aspects of the alleged behaviour that are deeply disappointing, and severe consequences will be unavoidable."
He added: “With just a few days in the session remaining, we will finish up our work with Sen Larry Alley fulfilling the duties of the majority leader. Any decisions regarding the future will be made in due course.”
The Independent has reached out to Mr Suellentrop for comment.
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