INDIANAPOLIS — A judge sentenced a central Indiana police officer to probation after he pleaded guilty to operating a vehicle while endangering a person in a November 2022 incident.
Stinesville officer Douglas Rutoskey was arrested Nov. 20, 2022 after being accused of crashing his police car into another vehicle and leaving the scene while he was drunk.
In exchange for his plea, two other OWI charges, along with a charge for leaving the scene of an accident, were dismissed.
In addition to his probation, Rutoskey's license will be suspended for 90 days.
Court documents say they saw a marked police car with its light bar on on West Southport Road near South Belmont Avenue. The police car had heavy front-end damage and the airbag was deployed. It had crashed into a concrete barrier wall. Another vehicle, a Dodge Ram pickup truck, had heavy rear-end damage.
While at the scene, police say two men came up and told them the police car was the same one that rear-ended their truck at a stop light earlier that night and left the scene without providing information.
The driver of the pickup truck said he was waiting at a red light at the intersection of U.S. 37 and Southport Road when the police car rear-ended them. According to the men, when that happened, the driver jumped out of the police car and told them, "I didn't do nothing," before taking off on Southport Road.
Those same two men then told investigators that just a few minutes later, they saw the same police car again. This time, it had crashed into a concrete barrier with the driver nowhere to be found.
When police ran the car's license plate, they found out it was registered to the Stinesville Police Department. Witnesses at the scene told investigators they saw the driver crash and get out and run from the scene.
Court documents said security had to remove Rutoskey from a pub on the south side of Indianapolis prior to the incident. The pub's manager told police Rutoskey had been harassing women inside.
When officers questioned Rutoskey, he admitted to drinking at the bar. A blood alcohol test revealed he had a BAC of .164. Security cameras caught him stumbling through a parking lot, getting in his car and driving away without headlights on.