Crime & Safety

Sobriety Checkpoint Catches Valley Park Man Driving Drunk, Police Say

Police said Benjamin Smallen pleaded guilty to injuring another person in a previous DWI accident and was driving with a revoked license.

A Valley Park man faces a felony charge after he was stopped at a sobriety checkpoint at Dougherty Ferry and Barrett Station roads early Friday.

Benjamin Charles Smallen, 32, of the 100 block of Forest Parkway in Valley Park, was charged Friday with driving while intoxicated as an aggravated offender, a class C felony. He has two previous impaired driving convictions, including one felony conviction.

St. Louis County Police said officers at the sobriety checkpoint discovered Smallen was driving with a revoked license at about 1:36 a.m. Friday. Smallen pleaded guilty in 2011 to a second-degree assault in a drunk driving accident in St. Louis County.

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Police said officers smelled a strong odor of alcohol on Smallen, and said he had slurred speech and glassy, watery eyes. Smallen admitted drinking two beers while working as a bartender in Kirkwood, according to a court document.

Smallen pleaded guilty to DWI in 2007 after being pulled over in Sunset Hills. He also faces another charge of DWI as an aggravated offender stemming from an incident in Kirkwood in 2011.

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Police said Smallen refused to give a breath or blood sample.

Bond was set at $10,000 for Smallen.

 


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