WESTFIELD – A city man is facing both firearms and motor vehicle charges after the apparently highly intoxicated man was found in his pickup truck stopped on the ramp leading to the State Police barracks on the Mass Pike in Westfield.
State Trooper Ryan Stanley, in a court document, details how the man, Brian S. Peloquin, 33, of 69 Court St., Apt. D4, came to the attention of State Police.
Stanley reports that an east bound motorist on the turnpike called the Westfield State Police barracks at 2:38 a.m. on July 6 to report that a Chevrolet Silverado which had been stopped in the breakdown lane “suddenly sped up swerving hard into the right travel lane and almost struck the guardrail several times” causing the motorist to be so concerned that “he stopped his vehicle to gain distance between himself and the blue Chevrolet Silverado.”
The vehicle next came to official attention at 2:38 a.m. when the operator of a Massachusetts DOT work truck saw it parked in the westbound breakdown lane at mile marker 45.8 with its headlights out and blinkers on, Stanley reports. However, when the DOT worker approached to assist what appeared to be the operator of a disabled vehicle, the pickup truck started to drive in the travel lane with the headlights still turned off.
The DOT driver reported to troopers that the vehicle’s lights eventually were illuminated but it “began to swerve in and out of the right travel and the left passing lane … and almost struck the guardrail in the center median several times” before it “came to a complete stop and turned off its headlights in the left travel lane at approximately mile marker 41.2 West bound.”
The vehicle only stayed in the left travel lane for a few seconds, the worker reports, before the operator drove it onto the grass at the center median and then “pulled into the the Mass State Police Westfield barracks driveway.”
It was there that Stanley approached the pickup truck and reports he detected “a strong odor of an alcoholic beverage” coming from the truck. He reports that Peloquin had difficulty producing his operator’s license (which the trooper could clearly see in his wallet) and handed him first a credit card and then his License to Carry Firearms before he produced the license.
In response to a question, Peloquin told Ryan he was coming from “The Bar.” When he was asked how much he had to drink there he replied “not too much” but, after he exited the vehicle and was seen to be unsteady on his feet, he was asked again and then “Peloquin replied ‘too much’ and chuckled to himself.”
Once out of the pickup, Peloquin was standing with his hands in his pockets. He was asked to remove them whereupon Stanley “grabbed his pockets finding a fully loaded Smith and Wesson M&P 308 pistol with a round in the chamber” in a pocket of his sweat shorts.
Peoloquin told Stanley that he knew he was not supposed to carry a loaded firearm while under the influence of liquor and apologized before saying there were no more weapons on his person or in his pickup.
A supervisory trooper assisting Stanley made an inventory of the vehicle’s contents and found “two loaded pistols in a non-secured case, a black Smith and Wesson M&P handgun 45 Cal Ser#HXK7063 and a black Smith and Wesson M&P handgun 9mm Ser#HNH9778” as well as cartridges and magazines for the pistols.
Peloquin later told troopers that he had the guns in his vehicle “because he had been planning on going to the Westfield shooting range, but it was closed.”
The guns were seized along with Peloquin’s License to Carry firearms and his driver’s license.
Peloquin agreed to perform a series of standardized field sobriety tests but was unable to successfully complete any of the three tests administered.
Stanley reports Peloquin also agreed to a breath test which recorded a 0.22 per cent blood alcohol content.
Massachusetts law presumes a 0.08 blood alcohol content to be prima facie evidence of intoxication.
Peloquin was arrested and appeared in Westfield District Court on July 8 before Judge William O’Grady charged with leaving a firearm in a vehicle, improper storage of a firearm, carrying a firearm while licensed but intoxicated, negligent operation of a motor vehicle, operating a motor vehicle under the influence of liquor and a marked lanes violation.
He was released on his personal recognizance pending an Aug. 16 pre-trial hearing.
