Renfro met DUI criteria

Procedures reviewed with officer

By Don Jacobs, News-Sentinel staff writer

A Knoxville police officer should have charged actor Brad Renfro with drunken driving rather than public intoxication when he was stopped this week while driving a pickup truck, police said.

"He met the criteria for a DUI charge," Knoxville Police Department Capt. Nate Allen said Wednesday. "The officer could have charged him with DUI."

Instead, Officer Scott Solomon arrested the 19-year-old actor on charges of driving without a license and public intoxication. A drunken driving conviction results in a minimum 48 hours in jail while a public intoxication offense usually results in a $50 fine.

Renfro was re-leased from jail Tuesday after posting a $1,000 bond on the charges. He is scheduled for arraignment in Knox County General Sessions Court on Jan. 23.

Allen said he reviewed Renfro's 9:15 p.m. Monday arrest after media inquiries about why the actor wasn't charged with drunken driving.

Solomon stopped the 1985 Ford Ranger truck Renfro was driving because the pickup resembled the description of a vehicle in a hit-and-run accident, Allen said. The officer stopped Renfro on Chicamauga Avenue, about a block from the actor's house.

No charges arose from the hit-and-run investigation, which Allen described as minor.

But when Renfro alighted from the truck, Solomon noted the actor was staggering, Allen said.

Solomon's public intoxication report stated Renfro was so intoxicated he "posed a danger to himself and others." The report also said the actor "had slurred speech, unsteady balance and had a strong odor of an alcoholic beverage about his person."

Allen said Renfro was very cooperative with Solomon during the investigation.

Allen said he wasn't sure if Solomon recognized the disheveled Renfro as a Hollywood star during the traffic stop.

"I don't know if he knew then, but he knows now," Allen said after meeting with Solomon, a 15-year veteran of the department.

"I have reviewed the laws and procedures on DUI with the officer," Allen said. "I especially explained the heightened public awareness on DUI and the enhanced enforcement efforts by the Knoxville Police Department."

Because Solomon did not perform field sobriety tests on Renfro, Allen said he would not recommend taking the case to a Knox County grand jury for a possible drunken driving charge.

Renfro is on probation out of a Broward County, Fla., court after a conviction of trying to steal a 45-foot yacht in August 2000. He was in Fort Lauderdale at the time filming the movie "Bully." He was ordered to pay $4,000 for damages to the $175,000 yacht caused when he and a companion forgot to untie the dock line before motoring away.

The actor was arrested last May in Knox County on a charge of underage consumption. The charge was dismissed in December after he paid court costs of $132 and stayed out of trouble for 90 days.

Taken from KNOXNEWS.COM