DUI Driver Nearly Collides With Sonora CHP Patrol On HWY 108
Sonora, CA – Sonora Unit CHP officers got a shock while patrolling on Highway 108 in Sonora this weekend.
CHP officers had pulled over onto the shoulder of the highway near the Mono Way exit on Sunday night watching for any traffic violations. Then suddenly just before 11 p.m., a vehicle’s headlights zeroed in on them. CHP spokesperson officer Steve Machado details, “We typically try to pull off as far on the shoulder as possible. As this car came by them it nearly sideswiped them. That’s what was alarming to them and then they initiated an enforcement stop on it.”
The 2005 BMW sedan continued along the highway until it blew through a red light to make a right turn onto Hess Avenue and then pulled over. Behind the wheel was 30-year-old Osbaldo Casillas of Sonora, who showed noticeable signs of impairment. Machado recounted that he was swaying in the driver’s seat and fighting to stop from nodding off.
Concealed in the trunk of the sedan officers uncovered what looked like heroin and other drug paraphernalia. Casillas was arrested for driving while under the influence of a drug. While being booked into the Tuolumne County Jail, Machado relays that inside a hidden zipper pocket in his leather belt was more suspected heroin. In total it was less than a gram, but due to Casillas bringing it into the jail he was slapped with a felony charge. His bail was set at $35,000.
