MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — A criminal complaint filed by a Monongalia County sheriff’s deputy says Kanawha County delegate Doug Skaff refused three times to take a breath test during his arrest last Friday on a DUI charge.
The complaint, filed in Monongalia County Magistrate Court, said Skaff, D-Kanawha, was pulled over by a deputy for driving in the wrong lane on University Ave. just outside of Morgantown. The deputy said Del. Skaff told him he had drunk two glasses of wine.
The deputy wrote in the complaint Skaff had bloodshot and glassy eyes and slightly slurred speech. He failed three field sobriety tests but refused to take a breath test. He was arrested and twice more refused a breath test. Skaff requested and received a blood test sometime later at Ruby Memorial Hospital.
Skaff is charged with first offense DUI, a misdemeanor. He is free on $3,000 bond.
Del. Skaff said in a statement released Saturday afternoon that he made a mistake and should have had a designated driver “regardless of the outcome of the blood test.” The statement also said: “I am solely responsible for my actions, and will need to rebuild the trust that people have had in me. I apologize to my family, friends and those in the community as a whole who have put their faith in me.”
Skaff is a three-term delegate. He is running for state Senate in the Nov. 4 General Election.