Stumbo’s DUI Arrest in Floyd County
Greg Stumbo was arrested for DUI in Floyd County, where his political machine controls the local government. This incident is a good illustration of how much control and influence Stumbo’s political machine has in Floyd County.
The police found Stumbo stumbling around his wrecked vehicle. He made no mention of anyone else being with him at that time.
The next day, a Floyd County employee named Mike Jarrell came forward to claim that he had been Stumbo’s designated driver and that he had wrecked the vehicle, but he had left to get help and had left Stumbo in the vehicle. Stumbo said he didn’t mention it to police on the night of his arrest because he was too drunk to remember it. The prosecutor, Jim Hammond, didn’t even talk to the newly discovered driver before amending Stumbo’s charges down to public intoxication:
[County Attorney Jim] Hammond said neither he nor the police had interviewed Jarrell, saying he thought Jarrell would give the same account Stumbo had.
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Stumbo said he was on his way back from a party at the Landmark Inn in Pikeville and apparently was too intoxicated at the time to tell state police troopers that he wasn’t driving.
(“Rep. Stumbo Admits Alcohol Charge,” The Kentucky Post-December 10, 1991.)
Stumbo’s father and Stumbo controlled Floyd County with their political machine. Stumbo’s father was serving as district judge at the time and had to recuse himself from his son’s case:
Stumbo’s father, District Judge Harold Stumbo, withdrew from the case yesterday before the legislator pleaded not guilty to the drunken-driving charge during arraignment before Trial Commissioner Jack Hyden.
(Lee Mueller, “Drunken-Driving Charge against Stumbo Reduced,” Lexington Herald-Leader, December 10, 1991.)
But his father’s recusal did not have much effect since the county attorney was an elected official indebted to the Stumbo political machine:
Stumbo’s blood-alcohol level was 0.235 percent, which is more than twice the level at which Kentucky drivers are legally drunk. Most people simply refer to that condition as blitzed.
But Stumbo is an important name in Floyd County, and it seems that name spared the majority leader from the fate reserved for most people charged with DUI. He pleaded guilty to a public intoxication charge, and will get off with a slap on the wrist.
(“Unseemly Actions,” Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer (KY), December 12, 1991.)
After the rushed plea deal from a friendly prosecutor was entered, new information about Stumbo’s special treatment came out:
The case was officially closed last week when Stumbo pleaded guilty to a reduced alcohol intoxication charge and was fined $100 plus $47.50 in court costs.
But controversy has continued to surround the case because of several other unusual aspects. For instance, Stumbo was not jailed for four hours as the law required and his name was whited out of the Floyd County Jail log.
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At the Floyd County Jail, Stumbo registered a .235 blood-alcohol level. In Kentucky, a level of .10 is considered legally drunk.
Stumbo, a 40-year-old lawyer in the state House since 1980, said he was too drunk to tell police about his designated driver. It was not until the next day that he told officials about Jarrell.
(Lee Mueller, “Questions, Controversy Continue in Stumbo Case,” Lexington Herald-Leader, December 20, 1991.)
The person who called the police that night had been playing a game of “cat-and-mouse” with the driver of Stumbo’s vehicle—something Stumbo’s supposed designated driver never mentioned:
Was House Majority Leader Greg Stumbo’s pickup involved in a “cat-and-mouse game” with another vehicle on U.S. 23 just before he was arrested for drunken driving as a new witness claims?
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New information continued to surface this week, raising questions about the incident involving one of the state’s most powerful legislators who has been touted as a possible gubernatorial candidate.
Floyd County Attorney Jim Hammond has confirmed that a motorist told him that someone in Stumbo’s new white Ford engaged him in a game of “cat and mouse” on the highway between Pikeville and Prestonsburg.
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[Hammond] said the motorist decided to call a halt to the game when he saw the General Assembly license tag on Stumbo’s truck. About the same time, the pickup pulled across the median and its interior light came on, he said.
A police log said troopers were told when they were dispatched to the scene of the wreck that “subject was supposed to have a weapon.”
Hammond said the motorist did not actually see a weapon, but “had the perception or awareness that there was a gun because the dome light was on.”
Police removed a gun from the truck’s console after the accident, but Mike Jarrell, who Stumbo said was his designated driver, said he never saw the gun.
Police arrived on the scene eight minutes after the motorist reported the incident using a mobile phone. However, they found the truck wrecked against a cliff a mile further north than where the motorist said he had last seen it stalled in the road.
State police later charged Stumbo with drunken driving after they found him walking unsteadily outside his wrecked vehicle on U.S. 23, about one-half mile south of Allen.
(Lee Mueller, “Questions, Controversy Continue in Stumbo Case,” Lexington Herald-Leader, December 20, 1991.)
This is just one incident that shows that Stumbo’s tainted influence in Floyd County.
(“Legislator’s Arrest Tainted,” Kentucky New Era, January 6, 1992.)
