A decorated NYPD officer, who is on trial for allegedly beating a Bronx woman two years ago, was charged early Sunday morning with driving while intoxicated in Harlem, officials said.
Eugene Donnelly, 29, was charged with DWI after his Audi crashed into three parked vehicles and rolled onto its side at about 12:30 a.m. on Riverside Drive, near 135th Street, police said. He was off-duty at the time.
An FDNY crew extracted Donnelly from his car as a crowd gathered around the smashed car.
The arresting officer said that Donnelly had bloodshot eyes and slurred speech, according to court documents.
The owner of a vehicle that was hit by the Audi was surprised to find out that the man behind the wheel of the crashed car was a police officer.
“I ran downstairs and I saw a car in the middle of the street upside down. My car was destroyed," the owner said. "Then I found out it was a cop.”
Donnelly was awarded the Police Combat Cross in 2014 for taking down a gunman who fired at him while he was off duty in 2012.
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He is currently being prosecuted on misdemeanor assault and burglary charges accusing him of breaking into a woman's apartment and punching her numerous times, according to the Daily News. The alleged incident occurred just hours after he was awarded the department's second-highest honor by Mayor Bill de Blasio.
Donnelly's attorneys are arguing that he was sleepwalking at the time and was suffering from a post-traumatic stress disorder related to the 2012 shooting for which he was honored.
Donnelly was arraigned on the DWI charge Sunday and released on his own recognizance, a spokesperson for the district attorney said.
