Former Salem police sergeant acquitted of DUI

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A state judge on Monday found a former Salem police sergeant not guilty of driving under the influence of intoxicants on his way home from a West Salem party last year.

Dustin W. Wann, 45, was acquitted following a day-long bench trial, with a judge, not a jury, deciding a verdict. His attorney argued that while Wann himself admitted to drinking throughout the evening of May 27, 2023, prosecutors had not proved that he drove while drunk. 

That night, Wann was sitting on the backseat of a golf cart which partygoers took on a neighborhood joyride when another passenger fell off and was seriously injured, according to witness testimony. Witnesses said that Wann left the area before police arrived, drove himself home and didn’t answer the door for an officer who went to his house that night.

Prosecutors charged Wann with DUI, alleging he drove himself home while intoxicated. He was not charged in connection with the golf cart crash.

Since Wann didn’t undergo typical tests for impairment that night, prosecutors largely relied on witnesses’ observations to prove that his drinking had noticeably affected his mental or physical faculties. 

“The state’s proven consumption, but they haven’t proved impairment,” Wann’s attorney, Julio Vidrio, said during closing arguments on Monday.

Wann did not call any witnesses or present evidence in his defense during the trial. He sat still as Polk County Circuit Judge Pro Tem James Fun delivered his verdict.

Fun said it is not always illegal to drink alcohol before driving. He also said that while people may expect Wann to have a “moral call” to provide aid to a crash victim, it is not illegal for him to leave the scene of a crash where he wasn’t the driver or on duty at the time. 

He said he was not persuaded beyond a reasonable doubt that Wann was guilty of driving under the influence of intoxicants.

Prosecutors called as witnesses seven partygoers, neighbors and an Oregon State Police trooper who investigated the golf cart crash.

Monday was the second time that Wann stood trial on the charge after an earlier trial in August ended with a hung jury.

Polk County District Attorney Aaron Felton said at the time that the previous trial ended with a 5-1 jury split. Conviction requires a unanimous jury decision. Felton said they didn’t poll those jurors to ask if a majority supported conviction or acquittal.

On the day of the golf cart crash, Wann went to the Alibi Bar & Grill in West Salem, where he ran into some people he knew from previously seeing them at the bar. One patron, the woman who was later injured in the crash, invited him to a party at her house, according to opening statements by prosecutors and Wann’s attorney.

Polk County Deputy District Attorney Connor Amundson said during closing arguments that Wann later admitted to police that he drank the equivalent of five shots of liquor between 6 p.m. and 8:30 p.m., when he left the bar. He then stopped at his home before driving to the party, where he said he drank a beer, part of a mixed drink and part of a shot, according to Amundson.

Overall, the prosecutor said, Wann admitted to at least partly drinking eight alcoholic beverages in around three and a half hours. Witnesses described Wann as appearing drunk during the party. 

One woman testified that he was “not steady on his feet” and “a little stumbly” while dancing with her. She also said that he was slurring his speech, and that he was “loose lipped” about sensitive details related to his police work which she believed he wouldn’t have shared if he was sober. Another partygoer said that Wann was loud and “obnoxious” and tried to wrestle with him. 

When Wann eventually said he was leaving, witnesses recalled the host inviting him to join her and another person for a golf cart ride.

During opening statements, Vidrio said that Wann sat in the back seat and felt a “slight jerking” before seeing that the host had fallen out of the cart.

The crash occurred shortly after 10 p.m., the state trooper testified.

“It was at that point that Mr. Wann decided that he needed to go home, and he did,” Polk County Deputy District Attorney Kaylee Hudson said during opening statements.

A neighbor testified that he was being dropped off at home nearby when he came upon the crash scene. He described the woman lying face-down in the road and said she appeared to be dead. He saw Wann try to drag the woman back into the golf cart

The neighbor said he went to get his parents, and they went outside to find the person in the driver’s seat passed out, with the victim also passed out on his lap. He said Wann unsuccessfully tried to restart the golf cart before eventually leaving.

A partygoer said Wann was walking on a “very direct path” to his vehicle and “wasn’t willing to give us any information on what happened.” He said Wann told witnesses that the victim’s face was bleeding and the golf cart was broken.

The neighbors testified that when Wann drove by them in his truck shortly after and got out near the crash scene. They described him as having glossy, bloodshot eyes, a red face and an odor of alcohol, and said he didn’t directly answer questions about what happened. 

One neighbor said she saw road rash and blood on the victim’s leg. She said Wann told her that he too had fallen out of the golf cart, but she saw no physical signs that he had.

“I got the immediate impression that he didn’t want us there and he didn’t want to be there,” she said.

When the neighbors raised concerns about Wann driving, they said he replied that he only lived a block away before getting back in his truck and driving off.

The state trooper testified that Wann said he left the scene because he believed the crash victim’s family was going to take her to the hospital and he wanted to “get out of their hair.”

Vidrio also said during the trial Wann would have stayed if he knew that a neighbor had called 911.

The crash victim was unresponsive at the scene and eventually hospitalized. The Salem Police Department responded and asked the state police to take over the investigation after learning a Salem sergeant was involved, the state trooper testified.

The trooper said he went to Wann’s house, located around 2.5 miles from the party, a few hours later around 2:20 a.m. He said he rang the doorbell and knocked on the door, but Wann didn’t answer. Two days after the crash, Wann texted him and said he’d been told the trooper wanted to talk with him about the golf cart crash.

During closing arguments, Amundson pointed out that both witnesses who had watched him drink and those who only saw him after the golf cart crash believed he was intoxicated.

“There was something about his behavior, something about how he was acting that made them concerned that he was intoxicated and that he should not be driving,” he said.

Vidrio argued that the witnesses’ testimony was not reliable because police interviewed them in groups instead of separately, and because they revealed details over time that they didn’t mention during initial interviews with police.

He said that most of the witnesses had never met Wann before and that the behavior they observed wasn’t necessarily signs of drunkenness. The redness in his face, for instance, could have been sunburn from watching a baseball game earlier that day, he said.

Vidrio noted that no witnesses said Wann had any difficulty walking back to his truck, getting out and back in, or driving away from the house. He also pointed to the state trooper’s testimony that there was nothing abnormal about the way Wann’s truck was parked outside his house. 

Salem police said in April that Wann was no longer employed by the agency due to an “administrative action” taken four months after he was charged. They declined to clarify the nature of Wann’s exit or whether it was related to his charge.

The now dismissed DUI charge was Wann’s second while working for Salem police. In 2013, he faced the same charge in Washington County Circuit Court. He pleaded guilty but the charge was dropped when he completed requirements for diversion.

RELATED COVERAGE:

Salem police sergeant leaves agency ahead of DUI trial

Salem police sergeant’s DUI trial set for August

Authorities staying silent on Salem police sergeant’s DUI charge

Contact reporter Ardeshir Tabrizian: [email protected] or 503-929-3053.

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