Vomit-covered, drunk trooper offered woman $1,000 not to report crash, cops say

Police reports in the arrest of an on-duty state state trooper accused of a DWI crash at a Garden State Parkway rest stop describe Sgt. Michael Roadside as a severely drunk, slurring, vomit-covered mess who mishandled his weapon and threatened to pay the other involved driver $1,000 if she agreed not to call 911.

According to a New Jersey State Police Drinking Driving Report obtained by New Jersey 101.5 Tuesday evening through a public records request, when responding officer Sgt. M. J. Durak told Roadside he'd registered a .16 percent blood alcohol content level — twice the legal limit — he responded "I've been way more drunk than that."

The report also says throughout the police response, he blamed his intoxication an anesthetic from a prostate surgery two weeks earlier — even though he had alcohol on his breath, and two open 16-ounce Coors Light containers in his troop car. But he eventually acknowledged having 9 beers at his house, according to a questionnaire Roadside filled out.

According to the report by Durak, when he responded to the crash on Oct. 16 at the Monmouth Rest Area, he found Roadside in his troop car and Kimberly Wilson in her Audi. Wilson had told police dispatchers she'd been in an accident with a trooper whose uniformed shirt was turned inside out, and who appeared to be sitting in the driver's seat sucking a lollipop, Durak wrote.

'He was scaring me'

Roadside told Durak that Wilson had stopped short and he hit her, Durak wrote. The responding officer wrote that he'd immediately noticed a strong smell of alcohol coming from the vehicle.

"I also noticed that Mr. Roadside appeared to be very disheveled, specifically, his clothing was dirty, mussed, he was only partly dressed in uniform, and his shirt was unbuttoned and appeared to have vomit on it," Durak wrote.

Roadside's speech was slow and slurred, and his eyes were watery and bloodshot, Durak wrote.

Wilson told Durak she'd been at a stop sign when Roadside's troop car hit her, according to the report.

In a written statement she provided to police, Wilson said that when she asked Roadside if he'd be calling the accident in or if she should call 911, "he said he would take care of it" — and when she pressed for what that meant, he said he'd give her his name and number. She insisted on calling police, she wrote.

"He said I'll give you a check right now for $1,000. I said I don't operate that way," she wrote.

She continued: "I asked if he was a police officer because he was a mess. His shirt was inside-out and his hair was disheveled. His belly and back were exposed. He said yes, I said where's your uniform and your weapons? He pulled his shirt open to expose his weapons and a Bud Light cap fell on the ground and his magazine that was loaded fell on the ground."

"I yelled at him to get in his car right away because he was scaring me," Wilson wrote. She then called her fiance, and 911, according to her statement.

'What am I, about a one-eight?'

Druak wrote that when he returned to Roadside and told the trooper he'd be taking him to the Holdmel station, Roadside put his car in reverse. Ordered by Durak to put the car in park, Roadside said, "What's going on here? I'm not drunk," Durak wrote.

As Roadside walked to Durak's car, his knees were sagging and he was swaying, Durak wrote. Durak asked Roadside to remove his belt holding his gun and magazines — which were over blue sweatpants that covered his uniform pants, and which weren't properly secured, Durak wrote.

Once Roadside was secured in Durak's troop car, Durak asked him for his licensee, and Roadside said "I have no idea where it is. I'm just getting out of the hospital. I had have bad prostate surgery," Durak wrote.

According to Durak's report, another trooper was already on the scene when Durak arrived, and Roadside told that trooper he wasn't drunk, had prostate surgey, and "whatever's wrong with the car I'll pay for it."

Durak's report also states that when Roadside was administered a breath test at the Holmdel Station, he asked "What am I, about a one-eight?" before being told his BAC was .16, and answering "I've been way more drunk than that."

Durak's report describes both his own troop car and the Holmdel station filling with the smell of alcohol as Roadside spent time in each.

After the investigation, Roadside was charged with driving while intoxicated, careless driving, and having an open container of alcohol in a motor vehicle, according to State Police. He was processed and released.

State Police said in October Roadside had been working a supplemental detail at a construction site at the time of his arrest.

Fairly clean record

According to public records, Roadside had a salary of $105,743 last year. According to his LinkedIn profile, he has been with the State Police State House Security Operations and Policing Unit since 2013.

As previously reported by New Jersey 101.5, Roadside had a fairly clean driving record, with no violations in more than 30 years

According to the state Motor Vehicle Commission, Roadside’s driving record shows a 1981 violation for careless driving, a 1982 violation for speeding, and a 1983 violation for disregard of a stop sign. All of those were before he joined the State Police in 1988. No violations are on record for the time since.

The record would only reflect violations that resulted in a guilty plea or finding, however.

In responding to New Jersey 101.5's public records request, State Police said they would also provide 911 recordings and police scanner recordings associated with the arrest, as well as the dashboard cameras of all the police vehicles involved, though they have not yet been received.

— Dan Alexander and ToniAnn Antonelli contributed to this report