LOWELL — A well-known police officer was placed on paid administrative leave late last week after he was arrested and charged with driving under the influence of alcohol in the Back Central neighborhood.
Eric Wayne, 39, a Lowell resident, was arrested by Lowell police on July 4 near the intersection of Lawrence and Rogers streets.
The details of his arrest are unclear, but this much is known: There was no accident or personal injury. Wayne was alone in the vehicle.
Wayne was arraigned Friday morning in Lowell District Court and released on his own recognizance by Judge Thomas Brennan. He was ordered back to court Aug. 27 for a pretrial conference. Wayne pleaded not guilty.
Wayne, a health-food devotee, was featured in The Sun last September in a story about a local film documentary focusing on regular 9-to-5 guys finding ways to eat healthy. The documentary was filmed at Life Alive Urban Oasis & Organic Cafe in downtown Lowell, one of Wayne’s favorite restaurants.
While having lunch at Life Alive a couple years ago, Wayne parked his cruiser in front of a fire hydrant on Middle Street, for which he received a reprimand.
Wayne also had a cameo role in the movie, The Fighter, the story of Lowell boxer Micky Ward.
According to court documents, police Lt. Daniel Larocque, the shift supervisor that day, said that around noon on July 4, he became involved in an “administrative matter” concerning Wayne. Larocque wrote that after speaking to another officer about the situation, he parked his cruiser at the end of Hanks Street by Rogers Street, waiting for Wayne’s white 2013 Land Rover to pass by.
While parked there, Larocque spotted Wayne’s vehicle turn right on Rogers Street from the other side of Hanks Street, he wrote in his report
Wayne stopped at a red light, and Larocque pulled up behind him, got out and approached Wayne, telling him to pull into the parking lot of a local liquor store.
Due to the “sensitive nature” of the incident, Larocque asked Wayne to stand near his police cruiser so he could speak to him. During the interaction, Larocque wrote that he could smell alcohol on Wayne’s breath, and noticed his eyes were bloodshot and glassy. Wayne appeared unsteady on his feet, Larocque wrote.
“As I continued to speak with him, his talk became irrational at times,” Larocque wrote.
Wayne would talk about the “administrative matter” he and Larocque were discussing, Larocque wrote, and then Wayne would say he was leaving the department and he was tired of the department watching him.
Larocque had requested that a department Employee Assistance Program officer respond to the scene to speak to Wayne, according to court documents.
Larocque asked Wayne to perform a field-sobriety test. Initially, Wayne refused, then he agreed. He failed the tests, Larocque wrote.
Larocque arrested him.
Back at the station, Wayne refused a Breathalyzer test. Under state law, refusing the Breathalyzer test requires an automatic 180-day loss of license.
During a search of Wayne’s vehicle, police found some money, which was returned to him, some partially eaten food and an open bottle of beer.
Wayne is the son of the late Lowell police Detective Gerald A. Wayne, who died April 8, 2009, after a battle with cancer. The elder Wayne posthumously received a department citation in 2011 for investigating the cold-case murder of 15-year-old John Joseph McCabe of Dracut, whose body was found in September 1969 in a vacant field off Maple Street in Lowell.
Follow Lisa Redmond on Twitter @lredmond13_lisa. Follow Christopher Scott on Twitter @cscottlowellsun.
