No tolerance for drunken drivers
'Could you please step out of the car?' heard on New Year's Eve

While New Mexico State Police officer James Jenkins talks to the other two adults who were riding in a car, a young boy who was riding in the back seat looks back at the patrol car where Alfredo Hammitt sits in custody after being arrested for drunk driving on Sixth Street and Logan Avenue in Gallup. Jenkins' final DWI arrest for 2007 was number 159 for him for the year. [Photo by Jeff Jones/Independent]

By Independent staff

New Mexico State Police officer James Jenkins handcuffs suspected drunk driver Alfredo Hammitt after he refused to comply with field sobriety test instructions Monday night near the intersection of Sixth Street and Logan Avenue in Gallup. After handcuffing Hammitt officer Jenkins discovered a can of beer in his jacket pocket. Hammitt was driving with a revoked license and had two adults and two children in the car when he was arrested on New Year's Eve, and faces several felony charges. [Photo by Jeff Jones/Independent]

GALLUP — The year ended as it had started for New Mexico State Police Officer James Jenkins — arresting drunken drivers.

Jenkins made 159 DWI arrests in 2007. He also made the last DWI arrest of 2006, first of 2007 and last DWI arrest in 2007 for the state police.

New Year’s Eve in Gallup was just another night for Jenkins, but busier. One teenager was driving without headlights but proved to be sober as a judge — albeit not as civil as one to police.

Although the young driver was not intoxicated, she was cited for not having proof of ownership of the vehicle, which was displaying a license plate for a Chevrolet truck.

“She is giving me gangster attitude” Jenkins said of the incident.

Another driver was stopped by police at Sixth and Logan streets in Gallup. The man was accompanied by two other adults and two children. He refused to take breath tests and stopped cooperating with the field sobriety tests halfway through a police screening.

The man, Alfredo Hammitt, had a suspended/revoked license. After handcuffing Hammitt, a can of beer was discovered in Hammitt’s jacket pocket, police said.

Hammitt faces two charges of felony child abuse/endangerment on top of driving with an invalid license, DWI and refusing the sobriety test.