An off-duty Orange County sheriff’s deputy was allegedly drunk when he crashed into a planter in the frontyard of a county supervisor’s home and will be charged with driving under the influence and possession of a controlled substance without a prescription, prosecutors said Tuesday.
Mark Wayne Hewlett, 30, of Orange had left a friend’s house after a night of drinking on Dec. 13 when he lost control of his vehicle, drove across a front lawn and crashed into a planter in the frontyard Orange County Supervisor Bill Campbell’s Villa Park home, prosecutors said.
Hewlett was on his way home at the time of the incident and happened to drive through the neighborhood where the supervisor lives, said Orange County Deputy Dist. Atty. Brock Zimmon.
A passing driver told authorities he saw the crash and alerted his father, who called 911.
About one hour and 45 minutes after the crash, Hewlett had a blood alcohol of level of .13% – above the legal limit of .08%, prosecutors said. The deputy, they added, was also in possession of the drug Xanax without a prescription.
Hewlett has returned to full-duty status. A personnel investigation is pending, said sheriff’s spokesman John McDonald.
— Paloma Esquivel