Mishawaka police stop mayor's son on suspected drunk driving, take him home with no report

MISHAWAKA — A few minutes after midnight on Oct. 28, a handful of Mishawaka police officers milled around a curb near the intersection of Mishawaka and Indiana avenues as they watched over a man suspected of drunk driving.

In body camera footage The Tribune obtained, the officer who initiated the stop said he saw the driver speeding and turn without using a turn signal. The driver smelled of alcohol and stumbled as he exited the car, according to the officer, who also noted the car's license plate was expired.

The man police pulled over that night was 22-year-old Joseph Wood, the son of Mishawaka Mayor Dave Wood. Despite the primary officer's characterization of Joseph Wood's behavior, Wood was not arrested.

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In fact, there is no indication from the footage Wood was ever given a sobriety test on the scene. There is no mention of the incident in the police department's daily log and no police report was filed. Instead, body camera footage shows, Mishawaka police Capt. Eric Beckham instructed Wood to lock his car and drove the 22-year-old home.

Representatives from the Mishawaka Police Department, including police Chief Ken Witkowski, did not respond to requests for an interview to answer questions about whether Wood was not given a breathalyzer test and what the department's policy is for incidents involving public figures.

A spokesman for Dave Wood provided a written statement to The Tribune on Wednesday saying the mayor did not learn about the traffic stop until after it concluded.

"The Mayor’s expectations are well known, public safety and law and order are job number one. His expectation is that everyone be treated fairly under the law," the statement read. "The Mayor did not find out about the traffic stop involving his adult son until after the fact."

In response to public records requests, the police department provided body camera videos from five officers who responded to the traffic stop. The department said there is no body camera footage from Beckham from the incident.

'He's bombed'

Joseph Wood was first pulled over by officer Andrew Branson around 12:20 a.m. on Oct. 28 on Indiana Avenue near Merrifield Park. In talking both to Wood and to other officers who arrived on scene, Branson explained that he pulled the car over after it "flew down" 4th Street and make a turn without using a turn signal. Branson then has Wood step out of the car and tells him he won't handcuff him but instructs him to keep his hands behind his back because he had a gun visible on the passenger's seat.

Wood tells Branson his name is Joe Wood and other officers arriving to the scene quickly realize they've pulled over the mayor's son.

The video footage shows several police interactions.

“That’s Dave Wood’s son; he’s bombed," Branson told a lieutenant responding to the scene.

"When I saw the address, I tried to run it while I was driving. I said 'well it’s either the mayor or one of his kids,'" the lieutenant, Michael Dube, responded.

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"There's nothing we can do," Dube goes on to tell Branson. "You didn't put the drink in his hand."

Other officers begin to arrive and congregate in a loose circle around Wood as he sits on the curb and chats with the officers.

Branson asks Wood if he had been drinking as the officer patted him down for weapons near the start of the interaction captured on video. Wood said no. About 10 minutes later, Branson asks again if Wood has had any alcohol. Wood says he was watching a movie with his father and had one beer.

At different times in the video, Branson comments to other officers that he could smell alcohol on Wood, though he says at one point Wood "might be under" the legal limit. Wood had a gun in the car with him, though Indiana law no longer requires residents to have a permit in order to carry a gun per state law.

'I'll take care of it'

Throughout the incident, the presence of Capt. Eric Beckham looms large.

Wood first mentions Beckham about three minutes into the video encounter when he asks Branson who his shift supervisor is. Branson runs through a few names before Wood recognizes Beckham. A minute later, another squad car pulls up as Wood is sitting on the curb and Wood asks "Is that Beckham?"

Branson responded saying it was a different officer and said he wasn't sure if Beckham was working that night.

"He should be," Wood says.

Videos indicate Beckham was first contacted by the lieutenant on scene, who called the captain about seven minutes after Wood was pulled over.

A few minutes later, Branson tells other officers in the video he was instructed "to wait for Beckham."

Around 12 minutes after the beginning of the traffic stop video, Beckham arrives and tells officers "let's get these cars rolling." Other officers then begin getting in their cars and driving off.

Wood appears to recognize Beckham when he sees the captain. Body camera video shows Beckham beckon to Wood and the two men walk to the front of Wood's car and speak out of earshot of Branson's body camera for about 20 seconds.

Beckham then tells Wood to lock up his car. As Wood does so, Beckham turns to Branson to ask if Wood hit anything or if he "was just driving like an ass." Branson answered there was no accident.

"I'll take care of it," Beckham then tells Branson.

Branson's footage ends showing Wood and Beckham walking back away from Wood's car toward Beckham's squad car. A spokesman for Mayor Dave Wood said Beckham drove Joseph Wood back to the Wood family house.

There was no body camera footage from Beckham turned over as part of The Tribune's records request.

Unanswered questions, inadequate public log

Mishawaka city officials provided body camera footage from the traffic stop, but police department representatives have not responded to interview requests, leaving a number of unanswered questions about the incident.

A voicemail left at a number associated with Beckham was not returned Wednesday. An email and phone message left for Mishawaka Police Chief Ken Witkowski seeking information about why Wood was not tested or arrested were not returned.

It is unclear whether there was a basis to arrest Joseph Wood or at least give him a breathalyzer test. It is also unclear why Beckham did not have a body camera during the incident or whether the Mishawaka Police Department has policies governing incidents involving an elected official or their family.

The state's public access counselor says the police department also violated Indiana law by not placing a summary of the incident on the department's publicly available call log. State law requires law enforcement agencies to include information about incidents officers respond to, such as the time and location of an event, the names of anyone arrested an the nature of the agency's response, in a publicly available log within 24 hours of the incident taking place.

The Mishawaka police log provided to reporters on Oct. 29, which would include incidents that took place on Oct. 28, does not list the traffic stop involving Joseph Wood at all. The log does list an incident three hours after Wood was pulled over in which an officer who responded to the scene of Wood's stop arrested a different man for a DUI.

According to Indiana Public Access Counselor Luke Britt, traffic stops involving an infraction need not be included in the daily log, but a stop involving suspicion of drunk driving should have been documented.

“If it was a suspected crime, meaning the officer legitimately thought there was an intoxicated person behind the wheel, they would need to log that," Britt said.

The police department released a sparse summary of the traffic stop in response to The Tribune's records request. That "call for service information report" lists only that a call was generated at 12:22 a.m. on Oct. 28 at Mishawaka and Indiana avenues, but does not detail what the call was about and only lists three officers as responding when in totality, body camera footage shows six cops on the scene.

Response from mayor's office

The Tribune was unable to find contact information for Joseph Wood or any social media accounts. A reporter left a message for Mayor Dave Wood requesting an interview and assistance reaching his son.

Mayor Dave Wood was in Indianapolis on Wednesday and unable to answer questions about his son's traffic stop, according to Matthew Lentsch who serves as Mishawaka's director of development and governmental affairs and acts as a spokesman for Wood.

Lentsch said the mayor did not learn his son had been pulled over until Joseph Wood was dropped off at his house later that morning. The mayor was "not happy," upon hearing about the incident, Lentsch said.

Lentsch declined to answer questions about how police handled the incident, but said it is inconclusive whether Joseph Wood was over the legal limit for blood alcohol content at the time he was driving.

“All I can tell you is the mayor is a man of integrity; a principled man. Joe’s a 22-year-old and there was a traffic stop and what you saw is what we all saw," said Lentsch.

Dave Wood, a Republican, has served as Mishawaka's mayor since 2010 and announced his re-election campaign in December.

Email Tribune staff writer Marek Mazurek at mmazurek@sbtinfo.com

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Mishawaka mayor's son stopped for suspected drunk driving, taken home