A veteran NYPD detective was busted early this morning for drunken driving after he smashed into a tollbooth at the Midtown Tunnel in Queens — the third cop in recent weeks to be nabbed for alleged DWI, sources said.
James O’Connell, 39, of Long Island, who has 15 years on the force, was allegedly driving home from a holiday party when he smacked into the lane’s gate arm at the toll plaza around 2 a.m.
Sources said there was no damage to the mechanism and that O’Connell, who was off-duty at the time, was not injured.
He was taken into custody and charged with DWI, although it wasn’t clear whether his blood alcohol was over the legal limit or if he refused a Breathalyzer test.
O’Connell, who is assigned to the department’s Technical Assistance Response Unit, was suspended.
His bust comes after the recent arrests of two other alleged drunken, off-duty officers who mowed down pedestrians in separate traffic incidents.
Officer Kevin Spellman is charged is charged with killing 67 year-old grandmother Drane Nikac after he plowed into her with his car on a Bronx Street on Oct. 30.
Spellman’s blood-alcohol level was allegedly .21 percent – more than twice the legal limit — and he ran a red light, prosecutors charge.
Authorities said that the month before, Officer Andrew Kelly fatally struck Vionique Valnord, a pastor’s daughter, as she crossed a Brooklyn street.
Both cops allegedly refused to take Breathalyzer exams. Authorities had to wait hours to receive court orders to draw blood from the men