BY alex piazza
Traverse City -- Police handle their share of routine drunken-driving stops.
Monday night's version was far from routine.
Traverse City police attempted to pull over a vehicle shortly after 9 p.m. Monday on Rose Street when driver Christopher John Phillips veered into a private drive, jumped from the car and ran off.
An officer chased and tackled Phillips, 29, of Traverse City, on nearby Webster Street. But it didn't end there.
Police handcuffed Phillips but contend he continued to fight, kick and spit at officers. The suspect even bit preliminary breath test documents placed in front of his face and chewed them into pieces, said police Capt. Steve Morgan. He was taken to Munson Medical Center to test his blood-alcohol level, police said.
Authorities have yet to file criminal charges against Phillips, but he's accused of felony drunken driving, assaulting, resisting or obstructing a police officer and driving on a suspended license. The vehicle was not registered in his name.
Phillips has four prior drunken-driving arrests in Grand Traverse and Leelanau counties in the past decade. He spent three years in prison after his third drunken-driving arrest in 2005, Michigan Department of Corrections records show.
His most recent such arrest occurred last year in Traverse City, and he was given an option to enroll in Sobriety Court, a program offered through 86th District Court.
Sobriety Court offenders routinely are screened for drugs and alcohol, attend treatment groups and meet with probation officers. The program uses accountability, personal connections and a rigorous set of recovery tools to help those who struggle with alcohol. Phillips is scheduled to be arraigned early today on a Sobriety Court probation violation.
The Michigan Secretary of State Office revoked his driver's license after the 2009 arrest, and Phillips is not eligible to appeal his revocation until 2014.
"A review doesn't necessarily mean he will get it back," said Secretary of State spokesman Fred Woodhams.
Phillips also was convicted of felonious driving and cited several times for driving on a suspended license, Secretary of State records show.
Phillips remains in the Grand Traverse County Jail. No one answered the door Tuesday when a Record-Eagle reporter went to his Sixth Street residence.
