NYPD Officer Busted Driving on Wrong Side of Highway

Candice Smith, 32, a three-year veteran of the New York Police Department, spent Saturday night boozing before getting busted driving for eight miles down the wrong side of Sagtikos Parkway in Long Island. A witness of the event, Eric Minkoff, watched Smith barreling east on the west-bound lane at high speed when he decided to intervene. “There was a handful of cars driving by her, avoiding her, flashing their lights,” said Minkoff. He drove alongside Smith from the other side of the partitioned highway, and signaled desperately. She ignored him until Minkoff maneuvered his car in front of her. This is the second case of a public officer wrong-side drunk-driving this week: Former FAA Chief J. Randolf Babbitt was busted in Virginia for the same thing, and resigned from his office the following morning. Officer Smith blew a point 0.17 on a Breathalyzer and was charged with drunken driving and suspended from duty for 30 days without pay.