The New York Police Department has launched a probe into why internal affairs investigators were initially kept in the dark about an off-duty police officer who was suspected of drunken driving in a car crash that seriously injured a passenger, a spokesman said Sunday.
More than eight hours passed before Officer Rafael Casiano was given a blood-alcohol test. Court records show that by then, he only had trace amounts of alcohol in his system.
The NYPD’s Internal Affairs Bureau “is investigating why there was an inordinate delay in it being notified after an off-duty member of the service was involved in a one-car accident,” spokesman Paul Browne said.
Casiano, 44, was driving on a Bronx expressway at about 4:30 a.m. Friday when his car smashed into a center divider. The passenger was another off-duty officer, Keith Paul, who suffered a head wound and had to be hospitalized.
Police who responded to the scene smelled alcohol on Casiano and said he admitted he had been drinking, according to the court documents cited by the Daily News.
But the officer wasn’t given a breath test until 1 p.m., the documents say.
Casiano was arraigned Friday night on charges of DWI and vehicular assault and freed on $5,000 bail.
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