We told you in March about Orange County Sheriff's Deputy Allan James Waters, who was off-duty and allegedly drugged-up when he crashed his Mercedes
into a Toyota in Laguna Niguel, injuring a 78-year-old woman–just a half hour after Waters plowed into a Lexus outside Dana Point City Hall.
In announcing the arrest and charges against Waters this week, the Orange County District Attorney's Office revealed an odd twist–even odder than responding deputies who knew who Waters was letting him drive on after the first crash.
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An internal probe by the sheriff's department revealed 36-year-old Waters of Laguna Niguel had allegedly dealt phony cocaine to help pay for his prescription drug addiction.
Jeez, they're really lowering the bar over at the academy, no?
He is accused
of failing to stop and crashing into the back of a vehicle that had
stopped at a red light in front of him on Golden Lantern Street in Dana Point around 4:45 p.m. on March 1.
Deputies, who “were aware that Waters
was an OCSD employee,” according to the Orange County
District Attorney's Office, let their fellow deputy and the Lexus driver go about a half an hour later, after taking a report.
About seven minutes after leaving the scene of the
first crash, Waters is accused of driving erratically on Golden Lantern by failing to
accelerate at a green light, stopping partially in an intersection on a
red light, and almost crashing into a passing motorist.
“Multiple drivers
called 911 to report his driving,” reports the OCDA.
He allegedly went on to swerve, hit a curb, over-correct, swerve to his left, cross over
the middle lane and crash into the Toyota in the far left
lane, forcing the sedan with an elderly couple inside over a planter onto the wrong side
of the road, where it came to a stop facing northbound in the
southbound lanes.
At the behest of responding OCSD deputies, California Highway Patrol officers arrived to investigate–and discovered that Waters displayed “objective
signs of drug intoxication including slurred speech, a lack of balance,
and trouble following directions.”
It was later determined, prosecutors claim, that Waters was under the influence of prescription drugs Zolpidem and
Hydrocodone at the time of the crash.
The Toyota driver sustained minor injuries, but the 78-year-old woman passenger was hospitalized for injuries to her back that later required surgery.
As the CHP conducted its DUI investigation, OCSD detectives looked into the drug allegations.
“On April 15, 2010,
and April 30, 2010, Waters is accused of meeting a friend after
arranging to receive Opanas and Oxycontin, prescription drugs, in
exchange for money and cocaine,” states the OCDA. “He is accused of providing the friend
with a fake white powdery substance under the false pretense that it was
cocaine.”
Waters, who was arrested and released by the CHP after the crash, was popped for the drug deal Wednesday afternoon and held in lieu of $100,000 bail.
He now faces with one felony
count of driving under the influence causing bodily injury and two
felony counts of selling a substance in lieu of cocaine with a
sentencing enhancement for causing great bodily injury.
If convicted, Waters could get up to seven years and four months in state
prison.
He was scheduled to be arraigned today.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.