Gulfport police officer back on duty after DUI conviction. He was driving the wrong way.
Gulfport police officer Manuel Santos is back on the job after pleading no contest to a misdemeanor charge of DUI following a crash in his city-issued patrol car.
In exchange for his plea, Harrison County prosecuting attorney Herman Cox recommended dismissing a second misdemeanor charge of driving the wrong way.
Santos entered the no-contest plea on Oct. 27 in Harrison County Justice Court.
When someone pleads no contest, they are not admitting guilt but agree there is enough evidence to convict them.
Judge Brandon Ladner sentenced Santos, ordering Santos to pay court costs and fining him $250 in addition to placing him on probation pending the completion of his sentence, which includes orders for the police officer to attend an alcohol safety program and victim impact, class.
The judge also ordered Santos to install an interlock device in all vehicles he drives for 120 days. The interlock device is a breathalyzer attached to a car, preventing it from starting if the driver has had any alcohol.
The judge gave Santos a non-adjudicated sentence, meaning the officer will not have any criminal record once he completes the terms of his sentence.
Santos, a then detective, was not on duty at the time of the crash. After his arrest, Gulfport police said in a release that Santos was on personal leave pending the results of an internal investigation.
Santos has since returned to work.
Gulfport police told the Sun Herald that Santos is now assigned to work as a crime analyst and is not involved in enforcement duties.
A call about a wreck
Mississippi Highway Patrol Trooper Timothy Gipson arrested Santos after responding to a report of a crash on Highway 67 near the Highway 605 intersection at 3:51 a.m. on July 7.
The Sun Herald filed a records request to obtain any camera footage and detailed reports on the incident from the Mississippi Department of Public Safety, but only received a redacted copy of the two citations and no video.
The Sun Herald later obtained the details about the crash and the following arrest information, minus any police camera footage, in another public records request.
Gulfport police issued a press release about the police officer being charged with DUI following a wreck in his patrol car. However, there was no mention of the additional charge against Santos for driving the wrong way before crashing his 2022 Dodge Charger patrol car.
In the report about the stop, Gipson said he was dispatched to the scene in rural Harrison County and asked Santos for his driver’s license and insurance.
The trooper “smelled the odor of an intoxicating beverage coming from the driver (Santos) as I approached him,” the report says.
Gipson administered two portable breath tests on Santos at the scene, noting in the reports that Santos registered 0.14% and 0.13%, respectively, before he was tested a third time one hour and 10 minutes after the stop, registering .10 percent on the breathalyzer machine at the jail.
In Mississippi, anyone who registers .08% or above is legally drunk.
Questions about his story
At the scene, the files say, Santos told the officer he had just left his girlfriend’s home and was heading northbound on Highway 67 when he struck a deer.
The trooper looked at the “major” damages on the outside and inside of the patrol car and wrote that he “’‘did not see evidence of a deer being struck by the vehicle.’”
The trooper then spoke to two other drivers who witnessed the accident.
Both drivers dismissed the story about the officer’s vehicle hitting a deer.
Instead, the drivers told the state trooper they were headed south in the southbound lanes of Highway 67 when they saw the patrol car headed the wrong way in the southbound lanes.
The first witness said he was in the right lane of Highway 67 south when the patrol car passed him in the other lane going the wrong way.
The second driver said she was behind the first driver’s car when Santos’ patrol car almost hit her head-on.
The witnesses reported seeing the patrol car go off the highway and hit the median before coming to rest back up on the highway.
The trooper described the damage to the patrol car as “’’ major,” writing that the airbags deployed and there was significant front and rear-end damage to the Dodge Charger along with a cracked windshield.
Santos told the arresting officer he had one glass of Crown Royal and Coke before the crash.
The trooper arrested Santos at the scene.
At his plea hearing, the judge did not order Santos to pay for damages to the patrol car.
Appeal for camera footage, other material
The Sun Herald reached out to MDPS after receiving only the citations in the case to appeal for additional information.
In its initial response, MDPS said the case was “an open criminal matter,” and therefore, any information other than the redacted citations was exempt from public record.
Jordan McMichael, general counsel for MDPS, cited an exemption under the Mississippi Public Records Act that excludes investigative reports to deny access to any other information.
“We have produced what constitutes as an ‘incident report’ for matters handled by MHP,” McMichael said. “Once this matter is closed, DPS will be able to provide more records/information for this particular request.”
The Sun Herald filed an appeal with McMichael for the additional information, pointing out that the case is pending final non-adjudication that will result in no criminal record of the offense once Santos completes the terms of his sentence.
In response, MDPS did not provide any other additional information, again noting the case is still considered an open criminal matter.
A military veteran and celebrated police officer
At the time of his arrest, Santos had been a police officer in Gulfport for just over 7seven years.
Santos has received accolades for his service at the Police Department and as a member of the military.
In February 2017, Santos and another officer received top recognition as the officers of the month.
Santos and another officer were recognized for going above and beyond the call of duty to prevent a man from jumping off the top of the Hancock Bank building in downtown Gulfport.
In addition, the city in the past years awarded Santos a police cross in recognition of his service when he risked his own life to pull three children out of a burning car.
Santos also received support from Gulfport city leaders and other South Mississippi residents after he suffered severe injuries while on duty overseas for the Air National Guard in August 2018.
Santos has served in various capacities at the Gulfport Police Department, from patrol officer to a member of the police swat team to a detective.
This story was originally published March 15, 2023 at 8:47 AM.
