Central Texas deputy who was drunk on duty with bottle of vodka in cruiser resigns

Fred Ensinger, via his county commissioner campaign Facebook page. Fred Ensinger, via his county commissioner campaign Facebook page. Image 1 of / 24 Caption Close Central Texas deputy who was drunk on duty with bottle of vodka in cruiser resigns 1 / 24 Back to Gallery

A Bastrop County Sheriff's Deputy who was running for county office has resigned from his law enforcement job after he was found drunk on duty with an open bottle of vodka in his cruiser earlier this year.

"Chief, due to medical issues, I am no longer able to serve in the capacity of patrol deputy at this time,” Fred Ensinger, 43, said in his March 29 resignation letter, according to the Austin American-Statesman.

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Ensinger, who still has a DWI charge pending from the Jan. 29 incident, was found in his patrol car around 9 a.m. by a fellow deputy after he "was heard transmitting over his police radio with slurred speech and not making any sense," according to an affidavit obtained by the Statesman.

A search of Ensinger's patrol vehicle, which was parked near a mobile home park, turned up an open, quart-sized bottle of vodka that was about a third full and was inside an open backpack in the passenger seat, the newspaper reported. The responding deputy also discovered an empty bottle of prescription medicine.

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“Deputy Ensinger was sitting in the driver seat of his patrol unit parked on the street with the engine running and headlights on,” the responding deputy said in the affidavit, according to the Statesman. “I then smelled the odor of alcoholic beverage emitting from his breath as I spoke to him.”

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Ensinger, who was running for county commissioner as a Republican at the time of his arrest, failed to advance to a runoff in the March 1 primaries.