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February 18, 2015
Jessie Joseph III doesn’t hold the record for the most instances of driving while intoxicated in Lafourche Parish. But a claim by the sheriff’s office that the former sailor had six DWIs in California if true puts him near the top of the list.
“I don’t know where they got six from,” said Joseph, referring to his booking for an alleged seventh instance of driving under some form of impairment last week.
Deputy Brennan Matherne, spokesman for Sheriff Craig Webre, said he is not certain why there would be a discrepancy, although it is possible that the record officers received was for arrests and not convictions.
At around 10 p.m. last Monday, a statement from Webre said, deputies responded to a convenience store on La. Highway 1 in Raceland after receiving a report of a man sleeping in a truck parked near a gas pump.
They found the 30-year-old Joseph slumped over the wheel with the engine running.
“Deputies unlocked the vehicle, shut the engine off, and attempted to wake the driver,” the statement reads. “Joseph eventually stepped out of the vehicle, and he was exhibiting signs of possible intoxication. He refused to submit to a field sobriety test or a breathalyzer test. Deputies, therefore, obtained a warrant for a blood test, and his blood sample was sent to the State Police Crime Lab to be tested.”
Deputies, the statement reads, “discovered Joseph to have six prior DWI charges in California. He was arrested and transported to the Detention Center where he was booked with his first DWI offense in Louisiana.”
A week later, Joseph posted a $25,000 bond and was released with the charge pending.
Joseph expressed certainty that he was not drinking on the night of his encounter with the Lafourche deputies.
He states that he had been to Leonard J. Chabert Medical Center earlier in the day for an injury to his hand and arm.
“They gave me medication for the pain,” said Joseph, who has worked drywall construction jobs with his father, Jessie Joseph Jr., since his return a few months ago to Louisiana. Thinking he was fit to drive, Joseph said, he got into his pickup and drove a short distance to the convenience store at the corner of La. 1 and St. Louis Street for “juice and snacks.”
He has no memory of what occurred after that. Joseph said that the painkiller he was prescribed, Percocet, may have had a stronger reaction on him than he realized.
“I know that I got into the truck at the store and felt dizzy,” he said. “Then I stopped by the fuel pumps.”
Joseph said his alleged refusal to submit to a breathalyzer test or a field sobriety test was due to confusion and not a desire to thwart law enforcement.
“I remember getting out of the truck,” he said. “But I don’t remember much else. I know that I am distraught over how this has affected my family.”
California’s strict privacy laws, which do not allow disclosure of old arrests except tp law enforcement agencies, prevented independent verification of Joseph’s claim that he has had only two convictions for driving while intoxicated.
“If I had six DUIs I’d still be in prison,” he said, maintaining that he followed court-ordered instructions for alcohol classes and paid for them, as well as fines.
Joseph, who did a four-year stint in the Navy at a Amphibious Base Coronado near San Diego, said he obtained a commercial driver’s license after his discharge. He lost that, however, due to one of his DUI convictions.
“I hope I can get this all straightened out and show them I didn’t have six priors,” Joseph said. “I want to get my commercial license back.”
Jessie Joseph III, of Raceland, disputes having six DWIs in California prior to last week’s DWI arrest in Lafourche Parish.
