An Alabama man was arrested last week after he punched a restaurant employee in the eye causing serious injuries after the victim tried to stop him from getting behind the wheel while intoxicated.
Kendall Wayne Smitherman, 35, of Semmes, Alabama, was arrested about 2 a.m. on March 6 after Ruston Police were dispatched to a Park Avenue restaurant regarding a fight in progress.
Officers were told one of the involved parties was nearby in a white pickup truck. Smitherman was found at a white Dodge Ram pickup behind the restaurant. He said he was leaving the restaurant with a beer in his hand when he was attacked without provocation in the middle of Park Avenue.
Smitherman said after the fight he got into a friend’s truck who drove him around to the rear of a restaurant where officers found his parked vehicle. However, he could not identify the friend. He said he entered his vehicle from the passenger side and started it up and rolled down the window.
Officers observed Smitherman exhibited obvious signs of intoxication. He used a patrol vehicle to support himself so that he could stand. He refused to submit to field sobriety tests.
Witnesses said restaurant employees were attempting to stop Smitherman from leaving with the beer and prevent him from driving while intoxicated.
Apparently one person grabbed Smitherman’s shirt and attempted to stop him and Smitherman struck the individual with a closed fist, causing multiple fractures around the victim’s eye. This victim was transported to the North Louisiana Medical Center emergency room where he was treated for the injuries.
Other witnesses who saw the incident said Smitherman entered the driver’s seat of his own truck and drove around to where officers found him behind the restaurant, contradicting his account that he had not been driving.
Smitherman was arrested and taken to the Lincoln Parish Detention Center where a breath test administered, but Smitherman refused to provide a breath sample. He was booked for first offense DWI and second degree battery.
This information has been provided by a law enforcement agency as public information. Persons named or shown in photographs or video as suspects in a criminal investigation, or arrested and charged with a crime, have not been convicted of any criminal offense and are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
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