On Thursday, May 22, 2014, at approximately 4:40 P.M., a California Highway Patrol (CHP) Bridgeport Area officer received a radio call from the CHP’s Bishop Communications Center, advising a Mono County Sheriff’s Deputy was following a possible DUI driver. The deputy was transporting a prisoner at the time, and wished to avoid placing his prisoner at risk by making an enforcement stop.
The CHP officer located the vehicle, a white Toyota 4 Runner, and conducted a traffic stop. The officer contacted the driver and immediately recognized the odor of an alcoholic beverage emanating from within the vehicle. The officer requested the driver, Mr. William Moffet, age 63, of Woodland Hills, California, perform field sobriety tests. The preliminary alcohol screening device revealed a preliminary blood alcohol content of approximately .15%, slightly less than twice the maximum legal limit.
The officer placed Mr. Moffet under arrest for driving under the influence of alcohol. Mr. Moffet was transported to the CHP’s Bridgeport Area office where he completed a chemical test. During a vehicle inventory related to storing the vehicle and its contents for safe keeping, a loaded firearm was located directly behind his driver seat.
Additionally, multiple controlled substances were located within the vehicle. Mr. Moffet was transported and booked into the Mono County Sheriff’s Department Jail in Bridgeport, California, for driving under the influence, weapons and controlled substance violations. Mr. Moffet was served with a Department of Motor Vehicles administrative driving privilege suspension. CHP officers were assisted at the scene by a Mono County Sheriff’s Deputy.
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Trouble…I’m sure if you can find a site that doesn’t promote marijuana use and legalization those “statistics” you mention might be a little off…as well as all of us knowing how many other factors are involved and how inaccurate these crime rate statistics are….Again,I have to go back to when I lived in Salem,Oregon back in the 90’s,and can remember talking with friends and Law Enforcement officers I happened to know back then when the local newspaper was reporting how crime in that area kept “going down” year to year…and how it was being rated one of the “safest places” to live and retire to…when all of us knew better,and were witnessing a whole lot of different experiences going on around us…Maybe I’m missing something here,but just hard to be seeing how smoking pot on a regular basis,especially when it’s young impressionable people doing it,how it makes their lives happier and better in the long run..and a direction that will make for a brighter future….
There certainly many good arguments against using drugs. I think keeping your brain in a fully functioning state is the best one – particularly true for the young whose brains are still developing. But that is an argument to be won by persuasion, not by seizing power and throwing people in jail that don’t agree with you. The idea that a group of people can get 51% of the vote and then impose their values on everyone else is corrosive to freedom. And we see far too much of it in the U.S. – from religion to drugs to environmentalism, etc. etc. etc.
in the late sixties and early seventies the police could of charged half the people coming threw here with the same charges. the names have changed and the hair has gotten shorter, but the song remains the same.
Murder, theft and kidnapping are as old as mankind too. Should we give people a pass on these because that song, too, hasn’t changed? Do you ever have a cogent argument to offer?
Well… Murder, theft and kidnapping involve the imposition of a violent individual’s will on the innocent and involve actual victims. To allow the strongest to impose their will on their fellow citizens is a clear recipe for the breakdown and failure of society. 95% of us can recognize that these actions are criminal and should be stopped and punished.
Drug laws outlaw individual lifestyle choices on some type of theory that we all are under an obligation to conform our lives to a small majority’s will, because they find that lifestyle somehow personally offensive. When a small majority impose their lifestyle choices on the remainder of us, it is bound to reduce respect for the law and is unjust. There is no obligation to obey laws that criminalize behavior that a near majority of the people don’t find criminal at all. If you can’t find a true victim, and can’t round up 80 or 90% of the population that finds a behavior to be criminal, you shouldn’t criminalize it. You are simply imposing your prejudices on others who don’t share them.
Is that a more cogent argument?
I think the great majority of people object to individuals driving a motor vehicle while drunk or stoned. Doing so very much endangers innocent people and quite often causes their death. That isn’t a lifestyle choice, it is a crime and richly deserves to be punished.
People driving with active drugs in their bloodstream concerns me. Driving with drugs in the car does not.
Anything good the law does they need to highlight it, excuse me, but I just assumed looking out for the public and taking proactive measures to keep us all safe was part of the job..
Why is it because of the honor that is within the job, we as citizens are wrong for calling them out when they’re the ones who might be on the wrong side? unfortunately the war on drugs has been a utter failure, and a lot of people continue to support the status quo of policy’s and implementation practices that excessively violate a individuals human and constitutional right, while leaving the problem very much intact, but one’s fear has definitely become a bigger player in today’s world then one’s liberty…
All of you fear monger’s on marijuana make me sick, how come we aren’t having a conversation about all the tax dollars spent to combat marijuana but the law can’t even keep it out of the consumer’s grasp right here in every small town in the Owens Valley? If people want to use, they can find it, and those who are willing to risk going to jail, because they choose to sell whatever “illegal” substance, they don’t really care whether they’re selling it to a adult or minor, THAT is a problem!
The fact we have two states that have legalized the recreation use of marijuana, but at the same time continue to see other states law enforcement waste resources on a loosing battle combating it, a battle that use’s tax payer money only to give the general public counter productive deliverable’s.
This justice system wastes so many lives and resources in a effort to justify it’s existence in our daily lives..
Major Tom….If you were a victim of having a family member killed by a drunk driver,or a drug impaired driver, you might feel differently….someone driving a 2,500 pound battering ram on the highway with twice the legal limit of alcohol and/or drugs in their system….and doesn’t it seem these type of arrests also involves a loaded pistol found in the vehicle too ?….In a town I used to live in Oregon,they had a MAJOR drug problem there….meth,pot and heroin…and I,among MANY others were “victims” of those that chose to use these drugs and the lifestyle that went along with them…theft,burglary,going out to work in the morning and finding your truck stolen….ID theft…fellow employees that were using drugs,and when confronted about it blaming me or someone else with it…just because someone doesn’t end up with a bullet in them or ends up somewhere along the side of the road bound and gagged after being kidnapped doesn’t mean they weren’t a crime victim.
Thats a Beauty of a “cogent argument”…. Well played MajorTom, well played…
This individual chose to get in his car and drive when his blood alcohol was WELL beyond the legal limit. At that point he chose to be a threat to innocent people around him.
Absolutely. There is no excuse for driving while impaired. While using drugs should be an individual choice, using drugs and then making yourself a threat to others is criminal behavior. If a person chooses to use alcohol or pot, they darn well better not get behind the wheel of a car. That’s criminal behavior that represents a threat to others, not lifestyle choices.
Sure D.T., so far the murder, theft and sexual crime rate in Colorado has dropped over 30% since people stop calling a herb a narcotic there. I’m sure the politians can find plenty to send on with their new found revinue . I don’t know of any stats on the pot smoking kidnappers yet. I’ll have to put a call into the just say no folks.
I’m really not sure why this is worthy of news…seems like same old stuff anywhere else. Maybe a slow news day. These cops are sure enjoying tooting their own horn lately.
These kinds of arrests on our highways are good for citizens to be aware of. Benett Kessler
@Joey,
Maybe it’s news here because Inyo and Mono are two of the least populated counties in the state. I’m glad there’s nothing more news worthy to report here. And I agree with BK, the citizens should have the opportunity to be aware of what’s happening where they live. If you feel that stories like this aren’t news worthy then don’t bother reading it.
Thank You Joey. My great grand kids may be reading the same old story in 2105. They act the they just save the world when all they really are doing is repeating the same old story. And they wonder why I joke about it.
Funny, you sure spend a lot of time reading and commenting on stories that you consider jokes.
WOO-HOOO!!..Sunday afternoon….The tow-yard in town is filling up….This morning, one of them driving without a license,and a huge hassle for the “driver”,needing a licensed drivers to come up from L.A. to get the vehicle before the fee gets too big….with the(alleged) unlicensed driver even trying to pay the owner of the tow company to haul it down to L.A. for him…and a nice car too…a caddy……looks like a couple (alleged) DUI’s…..maybe one(allegedly) driving on a suspended…..one still there from an (alleged) DUI from a couple days ago..I guess some are seeing….and finding out differently….that the Owens Valley is a place you can (allegedly) drive drunk, drive without a license, drive with no insurance, drive on a suspended license…..I can only imagine how the tow-yard in Bridgeport looks today….and tomarrow afternoon….
I wonder why on some arrest for controlled substances we here exactly what was found to be illegal and sometimes not like in this case?
ram, CHP Lt. Ron Cohan provided this answer to your question:
To answer the question posted by “ram,” there are several reasons we sometimes do not identify the specific controlled substance. Sometimes there are multiple substances and the press release just gets too long. Other times we cannot be sure exactly what the substance is. We may have sufficient probable cause to make an arrest, but laboratory confirmation may be needed before moving forward. “Sufficient probable cause” could be an officer’s observations, especially our officer’s that are IACP (International Association of Chiefs of Police) certified Drug Recognition Experts or “DRE’s.” It could be the preliminary testing we often do identifies the general class of a substance, but not the specific compound. It is not as simple as it was 25 or 30 years ago, “Spice, Bath Salts, DMT, Khat, Herbal Ecstasy” are all “designer drugs.” Often those creating illegal drugs try to conceal the controlled substances within them. This makes keeping up with them and immediate identification more challenging for law enforcement. I will tell you as a commander, especially in a small community, I personally approve each press release before it is sent out. Prosecution and punishment of the individual is the responsibility of the District Attorney’s Office and the court, respectively. Press releases are a necessary part of the public education component about what the CHP (California Highway Patrol) does and our hopes regarding motorist behavior. I would never want a departmental press release to be used as a method to further punish an individual. It is a fine line; I work hard to assure press releases are factual. In regards to “ram’s” question, I will not include the name of the controlled substance unless our staff agrees and they are sure, and the list of substances does not ramble on and on in a press release.
Thank you Lt. Ron for the education and informative answer.
Khat is a plant, not a “designer drug”.
Placing khat in the “designer drug” line made me roll my eyes. It has been grown and chewed in the Arabian peninsula and large swaths of Africa for thousands of years. But Mr. Chippie is a drug “expert”. Right?
DMT, found in plants and animals, was first synthesized in the 30s. Designer drug usually means something that was altered just enough to be a legally new substance. Most illegal drugs were developed by Pharmaceutical companies who have moved on to design drugs we will outlaw in the future. One opium war or whiskey rebellion after another.
Job well done MCSD and CHP. Thank you.
truth behold Wayne , this guy is probably already out on bail? Come on vacation leave on probation.
Trouble….question to you….If you were caught driving drunk,with a concealed weapon,AND with drugs (allegedly) in your vehicle,and you had your vehicle impounded….in Bridgeport…number # 1,the tow yard wouldn’t release the car untill after the holliday weekend..#2,sounds like his drivers license was suspended that same day,now if that were to happen to you…..IN BRIDGEPORT…..would you be chancing attempting to enjoy the weekend or attempting to sneak around or be driving again….or ,if released,would you high-tail it out of town ASAP ?
Maybe you should tell me what I would really do Wayne? Did you pick out a dress for the policeman ball yet? If so, what color?
You’re assuming this guy has the dough to bail himself out of jail and his car out of impound. That might not be the case. He might still be a guest of the county. Just saying ……..
Desert Tortoise….Thing is,first to come up with is the bail money….then getting the car out of the tow yard….tow probably about $150.00 plus the 3 day week-end of storage fees at the yard,another $100.00 or so…and…in this case,can’t be released to the driver,since he lost his driving privileges and needing another driver to show up that has a valid license….not to mention losing the (alleged) loaded firearm as well as the (alleged) dope….looks like a costly Memorial Day week-end to me.
Mr.William Moffet…..enjoy your Memorial Day weekend in the beautiful town of Bridgeport,California….too bad going fishing won’t be on your agenda…but,the good thing about it is,those that can will be safer without you on the highway.