State Rep. Mary Cavanagh blew twice the legal limit for alcohol after driving with two flat tires

State Rep. Mary Cavanagh, D-Redford Township, was driving while two times over the legal BAC limit with two flat tires before she was pulled over and arrested for allegedly drunken driving, according to a police report.

Cavanagh is facing her second drunken driving charge after being arrested on Feb. 25 earlier this year after a traffic stop which ended in her arrest, 16th District Court records show.

The 30-year-old lawmaker was unable to complete a “walk and turn” test where her eyes appeared “bloodshot and glossy,” an officer wrote in a police report obtained through a public records request with the Livonia Police Department.

Related: Detroit-area lawmaker faces drunken driving charge following February arrest

A Livonia police officer observed both driver side tires to be flat as he followed the vehicle as it went eastbound on Schoolcraft Road to enter eastbound I-96. The vehicle began swerving between the right and center lane once entering the interstate. The vehicle began to take the exit ramp for Middlebelt where it drove over the solid white line and crossed the gore at the top of the ramp before activating its hazards lights.

“In addition, the front driver side tire disconnected from the rim,” the officer on scene said in the report.

Upon making contact with Cavanagh, she told the officer “I feel like I had some type of tire or something.” The Redford Township state representative began going through miscellaneous paperwork that did not contain her license, police said.

Cavanagh was driving a black 2019 Ford Escape that told police she had recently purchased when asked whether she realized she was driving with both driver-side tires flat.

The Redford Township Democrat told officers she was returning from Lansing and had stopped at the Livonia Democratic Party before returning home. Body cam footage captures the lawmaker telling officers she had two glasses of wine about an hour before she got behind the wheel.

“I saw you driving on Merriman (Road) just off of Schoolcraft (Road) and I heard the fluttering of both tires flat,” said the officer on scene, as captured in body camera footage obtained by MLive through the Freedom of Information Act. “You got onto Schoolcraft, then you got onto (I-)96, and then this tire absolutely got shredded.”

Cavanagh failed to follow instruction while the test was being demonstrated, and when she began the test, she counted out loud to 3, stopped counting and had to be reminded to count out loud at step 6, an officer wrote in the report.

Body cam footage shows officers explaining to Cavanagh Michigan’s legal BAC threshold before conducting a breathalyzer test. The lawmaker blew a 0.17.

Under Michigan’s OWI Law, the “super drunk” designation imposes penalties on individuals convicted of drunken driving with a blood-alcohol content of 0.17 or greater — two times the legal limit of 0.08. The public act creating the “super drunk” law for stiffer penalties for people with blood-alcohol content of 0.17 was passed by the state Legislature in 2008 and took effect in 2010.

A criminal background check indicates this is Cavanagh’s second arrest for allegedly driving under the influence of alcohol. She pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor operating while intoxicated charge following an arrest on May 23, 2015. The charge resulted in Cavanagh being sentenced to a year of probation.

Republican leadership in the Michigan House of Representatives said they learned of the incident on Wednesday.

“Until today, nobody ever admitted to what happened, hoping it would go away unnoticed. And unfortunately, that means everyone is still trying to figure it out,” said House Speaker Jason Wentworth, R-Farwell, who thanked the Livonia Police in a statement Wednesday.

“I just hope Leader Lasinski and the Democratic caucus didn’t know and tried to keep it under wraps. Even if we have to step in as the legal process plays out, we will make sure the people of Michigan get the accountability they deserve.”

House Minority Leader Donna Lasinski has not returned MLive’s request for comment by phone or email.

Cavanagh is the third Michigan lawmaker to be arrested for alleged drunken driving in recent months.

State Rep. Bryan Posthumus, R-Cannon Township, was sentenced to 15 days in jail and two years of probation for a crash in which he rolled his Jeep earlier this year. He pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of operating while intoxicated, first offense.
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