A Fresno police sergeant is accused of stealing meth from a suspect, using it, and then driving his patrol car while impaired, according to KFSN.
Donnie Dinnell, a 19-year veteran of the Fresno Police Department, has been charged with robbery, illegal possession of meth, and driving under the influence.
Dinnell has not returned to work since the investigation began with a single-car crash in a parking lot.
Sgt. Dinnell’s final day on duty with the Fresno Police Department stopped with a crazy ride in northwest Fresno near Herndon Ave. and Highway 99.
“A 911 came into our dispatch center and said that a police car was driving erratically in the parking lot,” said Fresno Police Chief Paco Balderrama. “The police car was described as running over curbs and striking a tree, disabling the police car.”
Officers initially believed he was having a heart attack, but then discovered his most recent call involved drugs.
They suspected he had been exposed to fentanyl and administered Narcan, an opioid overdose rescue medication.
Chief Paco Balderrama says officers began investigating once they determined Dinnell would survive.
Dinnell had dismissed the previous call as “unfounded,” but his patrol car contained a bindle of illicit substances. The bindle tested positive for methamphetamine and fentanyl.
Dinnell admitted to stealing them from a female victim.
She told investigators he made her an offer: Give him the drugs and he’d let it go.
Dinnell collected the narcotics.
He informed investigators that he intended to dispose of them following his use of a portapotty on a newly constructed bridge at Riverside and Veterans Boulevard.
However, he lost consciousness. And then there was the crash.
At the hospital, blood tests revealed that he had meth and fentanyl in his system.
Dinnell ingested far too much fentanyl for it to be accidental, a toxicologist told investigators.
On Wednesday, the district attorney’s office filed three charges against Dinnell.
Dinnell turned himself in with the assistance of his attorney and the courts.
His attorney could not tell us whether they had a strategy in place yet.
He remains on administrative leave with the police department, but Chief Balderrama has indicated that he is in the process of terminating Dinnell.
Dinnell is due in court on May 5.
