'He was highly intoxicated': Clarksville officer charged with resisting law enforcement after traffic stop - WAVE 3

CLARK COUNTY, Ind. (WAVE) - A Clarksville Police Department officer is charged with resisting law enforcement for his role in a Sept. 25 traffic stop involving an Indiana State Police trooper.

According to the probable cause affidavit, Bryan Coburn, 46, was the passenger in a car his wife was driving around Clark County, Indiana. According to the documents, the trooper watched his wife, Blake Coburn, make a “very wide right turn,” make two turns without signaling and drift “from the fog line to the center line and back.”

The trooper pulled the car over, at which point Bryan Coburn “began expressing his displeasure that I had stopped their vehicle since it had a Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) licenses plate. He then identified himself as a police officer with the Clarksville Indiana Police Department and told me he had a handgun on him,” the documents said.

The documents show the trooper tried to make Blake Coburn get out of the car to undergo a field sobriety test, which was met with hostility. Bryan Coburn reportedly said his wife was “not doing sh**” several times and told the trooper he was a field sobriety test instructor.

Eventually, Blake Coburn complied with the trooper’s instructions and stepped out of the car. She refused to submit to a portable breath test, and the trooper handcuffed her.

At that point, the paperwork shows Bryan Coburn “opened the passenger door and began to exit his vehicle.”

The document then details the interaction between Bryan Coburn and the trooper as follows:

“I quickly met Mr. Coburn on the passenger side as I began giving him loud verbal commands to get back into the vehicle. Mr. Coburn failed to comply and stated, ‘What are you going to do? You gonna tase me?’ I continued to tell him to get back into his vehicle numerous times as he remained uncooperative. I then reminded Mr. Coburn that this traffic stop was not worth losing his career over. He then laughed and stated, ‘It’s not worth your career.’ Mr. Coburn then sat back into his vehicle , and I shut his door. It was obvious he was highly intoxicated.”

Bryan Coburn then returned to his car and the trooped tried to place Blake Coburn into the back of the police car. Bryan Coburn is then accused of getting out of his car again and grabbing the trooper’s left arm with both hands.

“I quickly pulled away,” the trooper wrote in the document. “In fear for my safety, due to Mr. Coburn’s increasing verbal and now physical hostility, I drew my taser and pointed it at him as I continued to give loud verbal commands.”

Eventually, backup arrived and Bryan Coburn was arrested.

Harrison County prosecutor Otto Schalk has been appointed special prosecutor in this case.

“Obviously, the defendant is an officer in Clark County,” Schalk said. “If he is a witness in a case and worked side-by-side with the prosecution, sometimes there may be a situation where special prosecutor is necessary.”

Schalk told WAVE 3 News the charge comes with a maximum of one year in prison.

“I’ve been asked repeatedly about, ‘Is it different because this is an officer?’” Schalk said. “And if you look at the pillar of our Supreme Court, it says, ‘Equal justice under the law,’ and I think that your occupation should not make a difference as to what kind of treatment you receive in the justice system. At the end of the day, if you commit a crime you should be held accountable for that crime.”

Schalk said an arraignment date is still pending.

Copyright 2021 WAVE 3 News. All rights reserved.

source: https://www.wave3.com/2021/11/10/he-was-highly-intoxicated-clarksville-officer-charged-with-resisting-law-enforcement-after-traffic-stop/

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