Man arrested in possible 9th DUI

Bellevue Police Officer Sean Vest has pulled over more than enough drunken drivers.

He is familiar with the mumbling, slurring, stumbling and belligerence of the intoxicated.

Vest may have thought he'd seen it all. But Friday, the six-year police veteran arrested a man for his possible ninth offense of driving while intoxicated.

Reginald Dawson, 51, of Bellevue has been arrested eight times in the past 15 years for offenses in Missouri, Hawaii and primarily Nebraska, Vest said.

The officer was called to the Cloverleaf Bar, 601 Fort Crook Road North, at 11:18 p.m. Friday after someone reported an intoxicated man outside the business. The caller may have been concerned that the man was about to drive, Vest said.

Vest found Dawson a short distance away, in a car stopped in the middle of an access road off Fort Crook. He was flashing the headlights on and off. Vest said Dawson told him that he was having car problems.

He smelled strongly of alcohol, couldn't speak clearly, lacked coordination, was slightly belligerent and made statements about his drinking, Vest said. He said Dawson refused to take a sobriety breath test at the scene and later at jail.

Dawson was arrested on suspicion of the ninth DUI, driving under suspension and refusing the two breath tests.

Tougher DUI laws that went into effect earlier this month may make Dawson's actions harder to defend. Until Jan. 1, Nebraska courts could consider previous offenses from the past 12 years in prosecuting repeat DUI offenders. But the new state law opens up a person's drunken driving record over the past 15 years. In Dawson's case, four more DUIs were added by looking back three more years, Vest said.

"So there's something good about the tougher DUI laws coming out, he said.

Contact the writer: 402-444-1304, news@owh.com

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