SPARTA TOWNSHIP, NJ (Sussex County) – A suspected drunken driver punched a police officer and had to be pepper sprayed earlier this month in Sparta Township, according to police.
On Nov. 4, at around 3:21 p.m., an officer responded to the Sparta Shell Station, located at 211 Woodport Road, for the report of a suspicious vehicle parked in the lot and occupied by an unknown person, police said.
Upon arrival, the officer located the above vehicle parked on the side of the building, backed up to the tree line. The officer approached the vehicle and observed a man with red hair in the driver seat sleeping, police said.
The officer then tapped on the driver’s side window to wake up the driver and ensure his safety. After a few seconds of continuous tapping, the driver awoke. The driver, later identified as Jason Chapman, 53, of Lake Hopatcong, took a few seconds to gather himself, then opened the door slightly so the officer could speak with him, police said.
The officer in his report that Chapman was showing signs that he was under the influence of an intoxicating liquor or drug, police said.
the officer then returned to his patrol vehicle and requested a backup officer to assist him as he planned on having Chapman conduct a series of standardized field sobriety tests, police said.
Officers then to the business owner, who informed the officers that Chapman had driven onto his property, then proceeded to move the vehicle around the parking lot three times prior to the patrol’s arrival. The owner of the business informed officers that something did not seem right with him , as he was not a customer of the business, police said.
Officers then approached Chapman’s vehicle to speak with him. While speaking with Chapman, an officer formulated the opinion that he appeared to be under the influence of an intoxicating liquor or drug and asked him to remove the vehicle keys from the ignition, police said.
Chapman refused to remove the keys from the ignition and refused to hand the keys to the officer. It was determined at this time that his New Jersey driving privileges were currently suspended, police said.
Chapman was seated in the driver’s seat of his vehicle at this time, refusing to remove the keys from the vehicle ignition, and fastened his seat belt. An officer increased the frequency of his verbal commands to remove the keys from the ignition while speaking with him. He was uncooperative and antagonistic, he informed the officer that he did nothing wrong and did not have to listen to their commands, police said.
The officer informed Chapman that he was conducting a DWI investigation and instructed him to exit his vehicle so he could conduct a series of standardized field sobriety tests to determine whether he had operated his vehicle while under the influence of an intoxicating liquor or drug, police said.
While the officer continued to speak with Chapman, a police supervisor was requested to respond to the scene. The officers informed the supervisor that they believed Chapman was under the influence. they further advised that Chapman was being uncooperative and refusing to get out of the vehicle for field sobriety tests, police said.
Chapman refused all orders to exit his vehicle, He was informed several times that if he did not cooperate, he would be arrested. He then removed the keys from the ignition but would not turn them over to the officer, police said.
The officer made several attempts to de-escalate the situation using verbal de-escalation techniques with negative results. Chapman attempted to quickly close his driver’s side door in a possible attempt to flee the area, striking the officer with the door of his vehicle, police said.
An officer informed Chapman that he was under arrest and the officer grabbed Chapman’s wrist and attempted to place him in a compliance hold, police siad.
The supervisor’s report noted that the officer opened the car door and attempted to pull Chapman from the vehicle. As the officer did this, Chapman punched the officer in the face, causing swelling and a cut on his upper lip, police siad.
An officer then reached into the vehicle’s driver compartment to unlatch the seatbelt. After about 30 seconds of struggle, the officer was able to unlatch the seat belt. At this point, Chapman had wedged himself in the driver’s compartment of the vehicle, fully tensing his muscles, making it impossible to pull him out, police said.
Two officers continued to advise Chapman to stop resisting while he continued to actively resist their attempts to remove him from the vehicle. The officers positioned themselves at the passenger side front door and utilized a glass break tool and broke the passenger window to gain access to the locked vehicle, police said.
After breaking the window, an officers reached into the passenger side door and entered the passenger side compartment of the vehicle. At this point, the officer deployed his OC spray, striking Chapman in the face, police said.
The officers were ultimately successful in getting Chapman out of the vehicle and onto the ground. As soon as he was placed in handcuffs, an officer immediately decontaminated him with water while he continued to act belligerent and continued swearing at the officers, police said.
Chapman was searched for contraband and located in his front right pocket was a small green Ziploc baggie commonly used to transport narcotics with residue inside and an aluminum foil-fashioned smoking pipe used to inhale narcotics which contained an unknown residue, police said.
Chapman was charged with aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer, resisting arrest, possession of drug paraphernalia, DWI, driving while license suspended), possession of CDS in a motor vehicle), and careless driving.
He was then lodged in the Morris County Jail pending a court appearance.
