Tim Evans

USA TODAY Sports

Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay had trouble standing, his speech was slurred and he admitted taking several medications but refused to voluntarily submit to a blood test after he was stopped by a Carmel police officer on March 16.

Those and many other new details about Irsay's arrest are contained in police reports obtained Wednesday by The Indianapolis Star through a public records request.

Police also found $29,029 in cash — most of it in a briefcase and laundry bag where police also found numerous bottles containing prescription drugs — in the silver Toyota Highlander that the billionaire was driving.

Irsay agreed at the scene to take a portable breath test, though the result of that test was redacted in the records obtained by The Star. Irsay denied having consumed any alcohol, according to the arresting officer, who told a supervisor called to the scene that he "believed Irsay to be intoxicated on a substance other than alcohol."

Irsay, 54, has not been formally charged in the case. He was handcuffed at the scene and booked into the Hamilton County Jail, where he was held for several hours on a preliminary misdemeanor charge of driving while intoxicated and four preliminary counts of possession of a controlled substance.

The popular NFL team owner, who has been credited with playing a major role in bringing the 2012 Super Bowl to Indianapolis, is now undergoing unspecified treatment at an out-of-state medical inpatient facility, according to a statement issued by the Colts. In 2002 he admitted undergoing treatment for prescription drug abuse.

Irsay's oldest daughter, Carlie Irsay-Gordon, and other members of his leadership team are now temporarily overseeing the Colts. She represented the team earlier this week at a meeting of NFL owners in Florida.

Irsay was pulled over at about 11:40 p.m., near the intersection of Horseferry Road and Main Street, after a Carmel officer on routine patrol observed him driving erratically.

"I observed a vehicle traveling east bound that appeared to be traveling at approximately 10 mph in a 35 mph zone," the officer wrote in his report.

"As I passed the vehicle I continued to observe it in my side view mirror. I observed the vehicle come to a complete stop on W. Main Street for no apparent reason. I turned my squad car around and began to drive to the vehicle's location. As I was approaching the vehicle it began to slowly move east bound and came to another complete stop in the lane of travel for no apparent reason."

After Irsay's vehicle began moving again, the officer noted that he observed Irsay make a right hand turn onto Horseferry Road without using a turn signal. That is when the officer initiated a traffic stop.

The officer's first contact with Irsay came when he walked to the driver's side window of the SUV.

"I asked him if he knew why I pulled him over," the officer wrote in his report. "Irsay advised that he was trying to find his house and gets confused with what road it is located on."

It is unclear where Irsay had been earlier that evening. The police records list his address in the 1700 block of W. 116th St., which is about 3.5 miles from the scene. However, Hamilton County property records show that in late February Irsay bought another home, valued at nearly $1.4 million, in the Village of West Clay. That home is less than a half-mile from where he was stopped.

When the officer asked to see Irsay's driver's license, the Colts owner opened a metal briefcase that was sitting on the passenger's seat.

"As Irsay searched through the brief case for his driver's license," the officer reported, "I observed prescription bottles in the brief case next to his wallet."

The officer noted that Irsay's speech "was very slow and slurred and Irsay appeared to be disoriented," the report said. "I also observed that his eyes were red and watery. He also displayed poor manual dexterity."

At that time, the officer called for another patrol officer and a sergeant to come to the scene to assist with the investigation.

Before asking Irsay to get out of his vehicle, the officer initiated several "pre-exit" field sobriety tests. First he asked Irsay to recite a portion of the alphabet, starting at "C" and ending at "N." Irsay completed that test successfully but then started again — this time continuing through the entire alphabet.

"After reciting the letter Z," the officer reported, "Irsay recited the lettering I, N and G."

A few minutes later, Irsay was asked to get out of his vehicle. The report said Irsay was unsteady and had trouble standing, prompting officers to cut short some dexterity testing. Irsay was unable to stand heel to toe and two officers "continuously had to support Irsay in order to prevent him from falling over," the report said.

At one point, the officers had Irsay sit on the hood of a squad car because they were concerned he might fall.

"Mr. Irsay about fell to the ground as he was stood up from the the police vehicle hood," the sergeant wrote in a supplemental report.

Irsay agreed to a field breath test and the sergeant at the scene also called in a "certified drug recognition expert." He was then handcuffed and transported to the Hamilton County Jail.

The investigation continued at the jail, where Irsay was taken into a private interview room and the drug evaluation was conducted.

"Irsay was offered a blood draw to which he refused," the report said.

Under Indiana law, refusing to submit to such a test leads to a mandatory one-year driver's license suspension.

An on-call prosecutor was then contacted and he obtained a warrant ordering Irsay to submit to the blood draw. A nurse at the jail took two vials of blood from Irsay at 2:40 a.m.

Following state law, the officers then took Irsay's driver's license for refusing to submit to the chemical test.

At the jail, Irsay declined to answer questions without his attorney present, reports said, so he was not interrogated.

While Irsay was at the jail, other Carmel officers took an inventory of his vehicle before it was towed to a storage facility. The report said those officers "recovered numerous prescription medication bottles containing pills." During the inventory, officers also reported finding $29,029 in cash.

The inventory turned up $14,516 in the briefcase, $2,513 in Irsay's wallet and $12,000 in one of two "laundry" bags on the passenger's side floorboard, according to police records. In addition to the pills found in Irsay's briefcase, reports said they found more pills in bottles located in the two bags.

Records list 11 pieces of evidence under the notation of "drugs/prescription," but it is not clear if that means 11 pills or 11 different types of pills.

The four preliminary drug charges are felonies, each carrying a potential sentence of from six months to three years in prison. The charges are related to the pills found in Irsay's vehicle for which he could not immediately provide proof of a prescription. The police reports obtained by The Star do not identify the drugs.

But a news release after his arrest said they were Schedule IV prescription drugs.

Those types of drugs include Xanax, Darvocet, Valium, Ativan and Ambien.

In a statement Tuesday, the Hamilton County prosecutor said no formal charges have yet been filed against Irsay and that an initial court hearing set for Wednesday had been postponed indefinitely. The statement said the hearing was canceled at the request of Irsay's attorneys, and the prosecutor did not object. Irsay's attorneys cited the team owner's admission to the out-of-state medical facility as the reason for their request.

During an initial hearing, a judge typically reads the formal charges to a defendant and determines if the person understands the charges and whether the person needs a public defender. Unless a defendant pleads guilty, the judge typically enters a preliminary plea of not guilty and sets future hearing dates.

The statement said the prosecutor would have no further comment "unless or until charges are filed."

Prosecutors do not have to follow the preliminary charges used in an arrest and sometimes file different charges after reviewing police reports and evidence. Because it can takes weeks or months to get blood test results, it could be some time before Irsay is formally charged if the prosecutor decides to move ahead with a criminal case.

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Evans writes for The Indianapolis Star