The ex-head of the state’s Workplace of Habit Companies and Helps was busted in Queens for drunken driving final week — and allegedly was so plastered that she slammed into parked automobiles and urinated on herself.
Arlene González-Sánchez, 68, had a blood-alcohol content material of .20 — or two and a half instances the authorized restrict of .08 — and at one level she uttered to the cop who pulled her over, “Commissioner,” the Queens District Lawyer’s Workplace mentioned Monday.
The previous commissioner — who left her high job in 2021 after 10 years — was arraigned Saturday for driving drunk or medicine, leaving the scene of an accident and different expenses after her Friday night time arrest, which occurred within the quiet neighborhood of Auburndale, the DA’s workplace mentioned.
Within the legal grievance, NYPD Officer Christopher Machalek wrote that he heard a loud crash close to the intersection of fiftieth Avenue and Weeks Lane about 10:15 p.m. — simply earlier than he observed a number of parked automobiles with badly broken bumpers.
Machalek then noticed González-Sánchez sitting within the driver’s seat of her 2001 Toyota 4Runner, which was additionally broken on each nook panels, the grievance mentioned.
He watched as she tried to drive away however then ran up a curb and landed on the sidewalk as an alternative, the courtroom doc mentioned.
Machalek approached González-Sánchez’s automobile and located her reeking of alcohol, with watery eyes and slurred speech, the grievance mentioned.
He put her automobile in park, pulled the keys out and received her out of the SUV — and that’s when she allegedly urinated on herself.
She additionally mentioned the phrase, “Commissioner” to him, he mentioned, in accordance with the grievance.
Machalek introduced her again to the 112th Precinct, the place she allegedly blew .20 on the BAC take a look at.
González-Sánchez — who didn’t reply to a Publish request for remark Monday — is a licensed social employee who led the state’s Workplace of Habit Companies and Helps for almost a decade.
Appointed Jan. 3, 2011, by then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, she had greater than three a long time’ value of expertise within the behavioral well being providers administration, well being coverage growth and medical analysis fields, in accordance with her on-line bio.
She was dismissed from the spot in September 2021, when Gov. Kathy Hochul launched a purge of her predecessor’s many appointees.
Gonzalez-Sanchez has three levels: A bachelor’s in biology and a grasp’s in cell biology, each from Fordham College, and a grasp’s in administration and group group from the Starvation School Faculty of Social Work.
She additionally served on a number of state and nationwide boards, together with as the primary vice chairman of the Nationwide Affiliation of State Alcohol and Drug Abuse Administrators.
Her arrest was greeted with shock Monday by those that remembered her as a pleasing, well-regarded administrator.
“I’m stunned — she’s girl,” mentioned Rob Kent, who for 9 years served as Gonzalez-Sanchez’s basic counsel within the habit workplace, to The Publish. “She’s an actual stand-up individual. It’s unhappy to listen to this occurred.”
A Cuomo insider added, “It’s slightly little bit of a shock.”
Authorities launched the previous state commissioner after her Saturday courtroom date, the district lawyer mentioned.
She’s going to seem in courtroom once more Aug. 5.
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