SUTTONS BAY -- A casino employee cut off alcohol service to a Michigan State Police sergeant shortly before she was arrested for drunken driving on M-22.
Authorities charged Sgt. Monica Ann Bradford, a desk sergeant at the Traverse City post since 2004, with drunken driving.
A Leelanau County sheriff's deputy arrested Bradford, 53, of Traverse City, on March 5 around 1 a.m. on M-22, south of the Leelanau Sands Casino in Peshawbestown.
"I'm extremely humiliated," Bradford said Monday from the Traverse City post, where she's served since 2004. "I'm embarrassed, and I'm sincerely, sincerely sorry. I've let myself down. I've let my department down. I've let my family down."
Bradford sped and weaved in and out of lanes near Elmwood Township, court records show. She failed field sobriety tests, and a preliminary breath test showed Bradford had a blood-alcohol level of 0.16 percent.
Leelanau dispatchers received a complaint that "a middle-age female wearing glasses was denied further alcohol at the casino and just left" in a silver or tan sport utility vehicle, county reports show. A manager at Double Eagle Restaurant inside Leelanau Sands Casino refused to comment on who called in the complaint or whether one of his employees halted alcohol service to Bradford.
Bradford returned to work this week.
Inspector Russell Smith, of the state police 7th District headquarters, said the department will wait for the criminal process to conclude before it begins an internal investigation.
"At the conclusion of the internal investigation, our human resources division will review it and make the final disposition on that," he said.
Smith would not comment on possible disciplinary action against Bradford, who has no other driving violations.
Bradford is scheduled to be arraigned Friday in 86th District Court, said Leelanau County Prosecutor Joseph Hubbell.
She bonded out of the Leelanau County Jail on March 5, where she remained until her blood-alcohol level subsided.
Bradford told deputies at the arrest scene she worked for the state police, but Hubbell said "no special consideration was asked for or granted."
She joined the agency in 1987 and primarily worked in southern Michigan before she took a job at the Traverse City post six years ago.
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