Bremerton assistant city attorney accused of kicking state trooper during DUI arrest

Andrew Binion | Kitsap

A Bremerton assistant city attorney is accused of kicking a Washington State Patrol trooper who was trying to restrain her at a hospital for a blood draw after he arrested her for drunken driving.

Casey C. Pence, 58, was charged Tuesday in Kitsap County Superior Court with third-degree assault, a felony, and drunken driving.

She was arrested Monday afternoon after a crash with another car at about 1:30 p.m. at the four-way intersection of Lebo Boulevard and Wheaton Way, inside the city of Bremerton. A city police officer responded first to the wreck but requested a trooper.

When the trooper first approached her in her car, he wrote Pence was “passed out” and that he had to knock on her window a few times before she woke up. A preliminary breath test gave a reading of .224, according to court documents, almost three times the legal limit.

The trooper wrote that Pence told him she had two drinks that day but had also been at the dentist, where she received “oxygen and nitrogen.” She said she also used prescription muscle relaxers and medications for nerve pain. Earlier she had told the Bremerton officer she had four drinks, according to court documents.

As the trooper spoke with the other woman involved in the wreck — who showed no signs of impairment — Pence was “yelling very loudly,” calling the other driver a liar and a profanity.

During his investigation, the trooper wrote that Pence exhibited signs of a “high level of intoxication,” including smelling strongly of alcohol, slurring, stumbling and exhibiting mood swings. The mood swings included anger that she now directed at the trooper, he wrote, calling him profanities.

At Harrison Medical Center, the trooper who arrested her and a second trooper called to assist removed her handcuffs so her blood could be taken, but Pence began struggling, according to documents.

“Pence raised her arms up with her fist balled up as if she wanted to fight,” the trooper wrote. The two troopers pushed her back into her seat, according to documents, at which time she kicked the second trooper in the chest then stood up again in a “fighting stance.”

The trooper then conducted a “controlled take down” of Pence, bringing her to the floor. The handcuffs were placed back on her.

The trooper wrote that she apologized to the second trooper for kicking him and said she was trying to kick the first trooper.

“Pence then looked at me, raised her left foot up multiple times ready to kick me if I got close enough to her,” the trooper wrote.

First licensed to practice law in Oregon in 1997, Pence works as an attorney in the civil division of the city attorney’s office.

Bremerton Mayor Greg Wheeler said Pence has been placed on paid administrative leave.

“We will continue to evaluate the situation as we learn more about the circumstances of the arrest,” Wheeler wrote in an email.

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