QUESTIONS SURFACE IN DEATH OF DEPUTY

Undercover Officer Killed in Crash Had High Blood Alcohol Level, Was Speeding

An on-duty Richland County undercover officer killed in a one-car wreck
last fall had an alcohol level more than twice the state's guideline for
impaired driving and was speeding, a Highway Patrol investigation found.

Donnie R. Washington's blood/alcohol content was .18 percent the morning of
Oct. 16 when he lost control of his sport utility vehicle on Broad River
Road, the patrol said in a Dec. 10 report obtained by The State.

Washington - one of six S.C. police officers honored Wednesday for dying in
the line of duty - was traveling 57 mph when his sport utility vehicle went
airborne in an area where the speed limit is 45, the patrol determined.

Although narcotics officers are allowed to drink some on duty to preserve
their undercover roles, Sheriff Leon Lott said Thursday that Washington
used bad judgment by drinking that much and driving.

Lott is not convinced, however, that drinking caused the wreck.

"It could have been a simple thing," Lott said. "He could have fallen asleep.

"There were no skid marks. There was no swerving," the sheriff said,
referring to the possibility Washington dozed off.

Yet Washington - a 190-pound, muscular power lifter - had not worked long
shifts when the wreck happened.

No witnesses have been found, Lott said, and the investigation remains open.

"We may never know."

Asked if he would accept those conclusions if a speeding motorist whose
blood-alcohol content was twice the state guideline had hit and killed one
of his officers, Lott replied, "That's a hypothetical situation that I
can't give you an answer to."

The patrol estimates Washington's vehicle crossed oncoming lanes and hit a
curb on the 3500 block of the four-lane road and landed on a parked car
farther than a football field away from the curb.

The wreck caused an estimated $14,100 damage to the SUV, two private cars
and the top of a house the SUV hit as it flew 13 feet from the ground after
striking an embankment, the records show.

The Explorer was airborne for 138 feet and traveled 334 feet from the point
where it hit the curb to where it landed on a parked 1987 Ford Crown Victoria.

Washington, whom Lott once called "a role-model narcotics agent," died
within an hour of the 4:40 a.m. wreck, Richland County Coroner Gary Watts said.

Washington was 31 and the father of a 7-month-old son.

Lott said it is unfair to compare Washington's wreck to one involving a
private motorist who chooses to drink and drive, since that person does not
drink as part of his or her job.

"He was not out partying," Lott said of Washington. "We put him in that
situation - the Sheriff's Department and the people of Richland County.

"That's a big distinction."

Washington's aunt, Diane Hood, said her nephew did not smoke or drink.

Hood declined to respond to the patrol's report.

Lott acknowledges that if Washington had survived, he should have been
ticketed for driving under the influence.

State law set a guideline for impaired driving at 0.08 as of Aug. 19 under
a law the Legislature had just approved. But a jury still makes the final
determination of drunken driving.

Washington, a veteran of narcotics investigations, also would have been
disciplined for his poor judgment, Lott said.

But Washington broke no Sheriff's Department policies at the time, Lott said.

The policy, released by the sheriff, states that plain-clothes officers may
"drink limited quantities ... when necessary to accomplish the mission." It
offers no other standards.

Narcotics officers in particular must be able to drink while undercover
because drug buys often start in bars, strip clubs or other places that
sell alcohol, Lott said.

"Our undercover people have to be part of that scene," he said. "They have
to fit in."

Greenville County undercover officers may drink if their assignment
requires it but are not allowed to drive after drinking, Sheriff Steve
Loftis said.

Harry Ward, director of the state chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving,
would not comment on Washington's accident until he could read the patrol's
report.

Lott plans no changes in the on-duty drinking policy.

But Washington's death prompted Lott to restrict undercover narcotics
officers' discretion while working cases.

Washington chose to go alone to a strip club where he had been working a
drug case, Lott said.

The preferred practice is for undercover narcs, as they are called, to be
monitored by a partner or by electronic surveillance when possible, said
Lott, a former head of his agency's narcotics team.

Until Washington's death, they had more freedom to work cases by
themselves, according to a copy of department rules.

It states: "Undercover agents may operate alone in many situations but a
supervisor or case agent must be aware of the agent's activities on a daily
basis."

Washington's partner knew where he was going and whom he was monitoring,
Lott said. Washington called between 2 and 2:30 a.m. before he entered a
strip club as part of an investigation and again between 4 and 4:30 a.m. as
he was leaving, the sheriff said.

Washington didn't leave a message in the last call, Lott said.

Narcs no longer are allowed to make one-on-one contact with targets of an
investigation, he said.

"You have to have someone with you all the time," Lott said.

"I don't condone what he did that night," the sheriff said. "But to a
certain extent I understand it."

Sheriff's spokesman Joseph Pellicci said the patrol report does not taint
honoring Washington with other fallen officers.

The S.C. Law Enforcement Officers' Association held a ceremony Wednesday to
add Washington's name and five other names to the list of police killed in
the line of duty.

Lott's department did not tell the association about the contents of the
patrol's report, Pellicci said.

"It wasn't pertinent," Pellicci said. "The bottom line is he still died in
the line of duty."

Lott said he had the report for quite a while but could not recall when he
received it.

Alisa Mosley, association executive director, confirmed her organization
did not know of Washington's circumstances but added Washington would
probably have been included in the tribute.