LITTLE ROCK — An Arkansas state trooper reinstated earlier this year after being fired for his involvement in a fatal accident resigned Monday, a day after his arrest in Missouri on a drunken-driving charge.
Andrew Rhew, 31, of Manila was cited at 12:23 a.m. Sunday on a misdemeanor charge of driving while intoxicated in Dunklin County, Mo., a county that borders northeast Arkansas in the Missouri boot heel, according to an online summary of a Missouri State Highway Patrol report.
The online report also lists a charge of failure to drive on the right half of the roadway, “resulting in an accident.”
Arkansas State Police spokesman Bill Sadler said Rhew didn’t tell supervisors of the arrest when he resigned early Monday. But Missouri officials confirmed that Rhew’s personal information matched that listed on the citation summarized in the online report, the spokesman said.
“We compared our personnel information we have on him, and we’re treating it as one and the same person,” Sadler said. Rhew’s birth date, Social Security number and address matched, he said.
Missouri officials also confirmed that Rhew wasn’t driving his police vehicle at the time of the arrest.
Sadler said his agency was still looking into the matter Monday evening and hadn’t received the full accident report.
Attempts by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette to obtain a copy of the report from Missouri’s highway patrol were unsuccessful. Dunklin County Prosecuting Attorney Steve Sokoloff said his office hadn’t received any documentation concerning the arrest.
Rhew called his supervisor, Sgt. John Carter, earlier in the day to inform him of his resignation, Sadler said.
Carter went to Rhew’s home where Rhew turned over his state-issued firearms, police credentials, patrol car and “other state property,” Sadler said.
He also turned in the resignation letter that doesn’t mention the arrest. In the letter, Rhew wrote that his decision to resign came “after months of sleepless nights, and weighs heavy on my heart.”
He also wrote he was giving up his job because of concerns for his family resulting from the death of Vickie Freemyer, 52, of Blytheville, in a traffic accident on Nov. 3, 2009.
“Throughout my years with the Arkansas State Police I have had some of the best times of my life, but unfortunately due to the events on November 3, 2009, it has placed an undue stress on my family,” he wrote.
That day, Rhew was in Manila heading to a police call in Osceola when he struck a Toyota Camry driven by Freemyer.
Rhew’s emergency lights and sirens weren’t on at the time of the crash, and a recording device inside his state police Dodge Charger indicated he was traveling 103 mph at some point before he came upon Freemyer.
Rhew was traveling 87 mph, the device showed, when he hit Freemyer’s car, which had pulled onto Arkansas 77 from Fleeman Street.
Last December, then-state police Director Winford Phillips fired Rhew for not following state police policy and state law with regard to “operating his patrol car” in the matter, Sadler said at the time.
In March, Phillips reversed the termination, citing a wish to withhold his decision until Rhew’s criminal case was resolved.
In May, Rhew pleaded no contest to a negotiated misdemeanor charge of negligent homicide in the crash.
Later that month, current state police Director J.R. Howard again fired Rhew, but in July, the seven-member State Police Commission voted unanimously to reinstate him.
During the commission’s meeting, members were told Rhew had been dispatched to the Osceola driver’s license center six minutes before the crash because two people there had outstanding arrest warrants.
Earlier in the week of the crash, troopers had received a memorandum telling them to respond promptly to the licensing center because of previous disturbances there, commission members were told.
Also during the meeting, a traffic accident reconstructionist testified that Rhew was likely traveling between 68 and 72 mph at the time of the crash, much lower than recorded by the device in his car.
After his reinstatement, Rhew, who had been a trooper assigned to Troop C at the time of the accident, was assigned to the Criminal Investigation Division, Company F, in Jonesboro where he worked until his resignation, Sadler said.
Sadler said state police hadn’t questioned Rhew concerning his arrest as of Monday evening. Troopers can be fired for being arrested on drunken driving charges, he said.
Arkansas, Pages 7 on 09/27/2011