ALBUQUERQUE, NM (KRQE) – An APD officer who crashed a patrol car reported the incident to his supervisor, but police lapel video and a police report show that call was made after he made several attempts to get himself out of the jam.
Joshua Malecki, 28, was placed in handcuffs on August 10, accused of crashing his patrol car after drinking while off-duty. His BAC was above .08.
He told police he and his wife had an argument and she left with her children. That’s when Malecki reportedly got into his patrol car to look for his wife in the Northeast Heights, about 10 miles away from his home.
“I drove around the block for about 10 minutes kind of in circles and tried to get ahold of her,” he told police. “I needed to figure out where she was going.”
He said he was distracted by several incoming phone calls.
“Basically, [near] Wyoming and Constitution, I was getting a lot of phone calls from my friend… I tried to unplug [the phone]… hit the curb. My two driver’s side tires went flat because they hit the curb.”
After hitting the median, he pulled onto a residential street near Constitution.
“Basically, I looked at the tires… I called my buddy and I was like, ‘Hey do you have an extra tire?’ And, he said they were on a call. I was like, ‘That’s fine,’ so I called my friend Nick and he gave me a ride home,” Malecki told police.
Before resorting to calling his friend for help, the police report states Malecki tried to fix his car first.
Police found the black and white cruiser with serious damage to the driver’s side tires and rims with the jack wedged between the rear door and rear tire, damaging the fuel tank.
The doors were also left unlocked with his computer and video camera left inside, according to the report.
When Malecki got home, he called a supervisor about the crash.
Officers showed up around 11 p.m. and immediately suspected he was drunk, according to the report. The officer said he could “smell an odor of alcohol emitting from his facial area and noted that his eyes were bloodshot and red.”
Malecki told police he had one drink — a Seagrams 7 and 7-Up when he got home from work around 6:30 p.m., before leaving in his patrol car around 9:30 or 10 p.m.
His wife, who later went to the home with police to grab Malecki’s badge and other gear, said she saw him drinking before she left around 8:30 or 9 p.m. Malecki told police he had given his gun to his friend who gave him a ride home.
