Jill Disis

jill.disis@indystar.com

An Indianapolis Metropolitan Police officer arrested on drunken driving charges early Monday first went to a White Castle drive-thru while intoxicated and turned on his emergency lights "just to play around," according to newly filed court documents.

Kevin Edward Brown, a 16-year veteran of IMPD, is charged with two counts of drunken driving, including one count of operating a vehicle while intoxicated endangering a person. IMPD officials said he was off-duty at the time of his arrest.

Last August, Brown, 42, was arrested in Morgan County on a drunken driving charge. On May 14, he pled guilty to one count of operating while intoxicated and received nine months of probation. IMPD officials said Brown returned to the police force after fulfilling terms of a suspension.

A probable cause affidavit released Tuesday says Brown started drinking after he finished working the Brickyard 400 race Sunday. That night, he drank six beers, documents say, including four 20-ounce glasses of Blue Moon at a Buffalo Wild Wings in Plainfield before a friend dropped Brown and his girlfriend off at Brown's Camby home.

At about 1 a.m. or 2 a.m. Monday, court documents say, Brown left his house because he was hungry and drove his marked police vehicle to a White Castle on Ind. 67 about a mile away from his house. Brown's house and the White Castle are both near the borders of Marion, Hendricks and Morgan counties.

"While at White Castle, he saw some friends in the vehicle in front of him so he got on his public address system and said something to them," the probable cause affidavit says. "Kevin Brown then turned on his emergency lights, just to play around."

Court documents say someone called 911 at about 4 a.m. to report that a plain-clothes officer in an IMPD car appeared to be intoxicated and was using his loud speaker and overhead lights, though that caller lost sight of Brown's car after he left the drive-thru.

Before he left White Castle, Brown picked up a passenger from the vehicle in front of him and drove that passenger home to Mooresville, according to court documents.

An IMPD officer responding to the White Castle 911 call was told that Brown was the officer involved. That officer called Brown on his personal cellphone number and told him to pull over, the affidavit says.

Brown told the investigating officer that he was in the 9000 block of Ind. 39 in Morgan County. He was arrested about 5 a.m.

According to the probable cause affidavit, Brown was taken to the IMPD Southeast Roll Call site at 1150 South Shelby St. in Indianapolis for his field sobriety tests and to take a certified blood-alcohol concentration test. That BAC test was taken at 6:41 a.m., almost two hours after Brown was arrested. He registered a BAC of 0.09 percent, which is above the legal limit to drive.

IMPD spokesman Sgt. Kendale Adams said it is standard practice to take someone suspected of drunken driving to a place that has instruments for recording results taken from certified chemical tests. Those tests, which give investigators evidence that can be submitted in court, are only available in certain locations, Adams said.

Morgan County Prosecutor Steve Sonnega said that portable breathalyzer tests, commonly administered after a person suspected of drunken driving is pulled over, are not legal requirements and are not admissible in court.

The probable cause affidavit in Brown's case does not say such a test was administered.

Brown was later taken to the Morgan County Jail. Sonnega said Tuesday afternoon that Brown is expected to appear in Morgan County Superior Court 3 at 3:30 p.m. for an initial hearing.

Because court documents said his recorded blood-alcohol concentration was more than 0.02 percent at the time of his arrest, he could face firing from the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department. Department policy suggests dismissal if an officer is found operating a city-owned vehicle with a blood-alcohol concentration greater than that amount.

Brown is the fourth IMPD officer since May to face drunken driving charges.

On May 18, officer Edward Zehner was pulled over in New Palestine after one of the town's officers saw him driving erratically. Zehner registered a blood-alcohol concentration of 0.16 percent. Adams said Zehner served a 30-day suspension and is back on duty.

IMPD officer Bryan Neal, a patrolman on the late shift, was arrested June 6 after police said he was visibly drunk and had a blood-alcohol level nearly three times the legal limit when he arrived at work. Neal is still suspended without pay, Adams said, pending a recommendation from IMPD Chief Rick Hite.

On June 22, IMPD Capt. Mark Rice was arrested by Indianapolis International Airport Police after an officer saw him driving onto the median of an I-465 exit ramp, according to a probable cause affidavit. Court documents said Rice registered a blood-alcohol concentration of about 0.09. Adams said Monday he did not have an updated status on the internal investigation concerning Rice.

Call Star reporter Jill Disis at (317) 444-6137. Follow her on Twitter: @jdisis.