Former state Sen. Gilbert Baker: 'No excuses' for behavior after arrest on DWI charge

Gilbert Baker of Conway
Gilbert Baker of Conway

Conway police officers described former state Sen. Gilbert Baker as “verbally belligerent and emotional” when he was taken to the department’s booking area after his arrest on suspicion of driving while intoxicated Friday, according to the department’s report.

In a phone interview Tuesday, Baker said the report was correct and that he had been acting in that manner. Thinking he had passed the field sobriety test, he was frustrated, he added, but he has “no excuses” for his behavior.

“I was wrong to make [the officers’] job difficult,” Baker said.

In the report, officer Heath Edens said Baker was talking loudly and saying he needed water every 35 minutes because of a doctor’s order. Edens said Baker’s “behavior was confrontational and he had a poor attitude.”

Edens said Baker calmed down and apologized later in the evening after he returned from retrieving a search warrant for a test of Baker’s blood, noting that his “attitude was completely different.”

Baker said he “apologized profusely” and Tuesday commended police for their efforts, saying he respects them for the job they do in protecting the community.

“They were doing their job very well,” he said. “I sure know I was wrong.”

A lab assistant drew three tubes of blood from Baker at Conway Regional Medical Center. The state Crime Lab will test the blood to determine Baker’s blood-alcohol content.

According to the report, Baker told the officers before his field sobriety test that had hadn’t been drinking. After the test, the report said he told officer Andrew Foreman, one of the officers who stopped him, that he had one unspecified drink. He said Tuesday he had one or two margaritas at a Little Rock restaurant that night.

Baker added that he was uncertain of how his case would proceed legally. His court date is set for Oct. 3.

The Conway Republican served in the state Senate from 2001-2013. He ran an unsuccessful campaign for the U.S. Senate in 2010, losing in the primary election to now-Sen. John Boozman. He is currently a music professor at the University of Central Arkansas.

The report also detailed the events leading up to Baker being pulled over.

Officer Tim Woods, who was off duty and driving in his personal vehicle, saw a dark colored car “driving erratically in the inside lane,” the report said. Woods wrote that the car crossed over the lane and the rumble strip with inconsistent speed.

Woods drove behind the car as it exited onto Dave Ward Drive. He noted in the report that Baker's vehicle almost hit a concrete barrier. A marked patrol unit pulled Baker over near Salem Road a little after 8:15 p.m.

Foreman wrote in the report that Baker’s gray 2016 Toyota Corolla swerved several times and straddled the lane line on Dave Ward Drive for at least 150 feet.

Foreman conducted a variety of sobriety tests before arresting Baker on suspicion of driving while intoxicated, the report said. Baker said police stopped him about a mile from his house.

Baker was also charged with refusing a breathalyzer test and driving left of center. He was booked into the Faulkner County jail at 4:25 a.m. Saturday and released at 11:45 a.m. on $1,395 bond.

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