Last night news broke that Dallas Cowboys nose tackle Jay Ratliff was arrested early Tuesday on a charge of driving while intoxicated. Today, Grapevine police have released documents and recordings of 911 calls that provide more details concerning the accident on State Highway 114 — and what happened after, when the arresting officer checked to see whether the football player was in fact inebriated.
According to Grapevine Police Officer Eric Barch’s search warrant affidavit, at 12:36 a.m. Tuesday he was dispatched to the 2800 block of E. State Highway 114, where it had been reported that a pick-up truck and 18-wheeler had collided. When he arrived, Barch writes, he found a black Ford F-150 with “major damage to the driver side of the vehicle.” The 31-year-old Ratliff identified himself as the driver of the pick-up.
Another officer showed up to speak to the driver of the 18-wheeler, J.R. Wilson, which left Barch free to talk to Ratliff. And, he writes, at first it didn’t appear the Cowboy was drunk — but that may have been “because I was upwind from him,” says the officer. And, he writes, “Ratliff was not slurring his words and seemed to be moving around quite well given the wreck.” Still, the officer notes, “nighttime wrecks often involve intoxicated motorists.”
He goes on: “Ratliff appeared to be in excellent physical condition. In my experience people who are in good physical condition can mask intoxication very well with regard to speech and balance.” Given all that, the officer “felt I would be remiss in not investigating the possibility of DWI further in Ratliff.”
So they kept talking, and Barch writes that “in speaking with Ratliff a second time I could smell the moderate odor of an alcoholic beverage emanating from his breath.” The officer gave Ratliff the once-over and noted that his eyes were indeed “bloodshot and watered.” He asked Ratliff where he’d been. The Cowboy answered: in Arlington, “chillin’ with a homegirl.” He was heading to his Southlake home, he said. Barch was confused: “I did not understand how Ratliff ended up on the Irving/Grapevine border.” Ratliff told him he was just doing what his GPS told him.
At which point Barch decided to give him the three-part Standardized Field Sobriety Test. And he failed all three parts, which is when Barch arrested Ratliff for DWI and took him to the Grapevine jail. Ratliff disputed the findings of the test.
“After arrest Ratliff began complaining of prior injuries that could have affected his ability to perform the Walk and Turn and One Leg Stand portions” of the test, Barch writes. “I neglected to ask Ratliff prior to the test about any pre-existing conditions, but he also neglected to inform me of such.” Besides, says Barch, Ratliff seemed to be moving around just fine at the crash scene.
“At the jail Ratliff’s demeanor changed considerably,” Barch says. “While on scene Ratliff was cooperative and courteous, but upon arrival to the jail Ratliff’s mood shifted from cooperative to verbally abusive several times.”
Barch took Ratliff to the Intoxilyzer Room to test his breath; Ratliff, he says, refused. And he stopped answering the officer’s questions. At that point, Barch went and got search warrant that allowed a blood draw, the results of which won’t be available for a little more than a week.
Ratliff was released from the Grapevine jail after posting $500 bond Tuesday mornin