BOSTON (WHDH) - A Boston police officer who was allegedly drunk behind the wheel on New Year’s Day was driving 65 mph in a 25 mph zone before he crashed his pickup truck in Dorchester, leaving one person with life-threatening injuries, a prosecutor said Friday.
Domenic Columbo, 39, was arraigned in Suffolk Superior Court on indictments charging him with operating under the influence causing serious injury, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and negligent operation of a motor vehicle.
Columbo was off duty, drunk and speeding in his personal truck when he blew through a yellow traffic signal and slammed into another car around 3:30 a.m. on Columbia Road, according to Assistant District Attorney Greer Spatz.
A passenger in the car Columbo struck suffered a life-threatening brain injury, kidney and spleen injuries, as well as pelvis, leg and rib fractures, court documents indicated.
Columbo was driving home from his shift at the Youth Violence Strike Force base, Spatz said. Based on blood tests, prosecutors said Columbo’s blood-alcohol level was .11 or more.
The six-year veteran has since been suspended by the department.
Columbo is due back in court on July 25.
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