Cop Has Problem

A decorated NYPD officer, who beat up a woman in 2014 while “sleepwalking” in his underwear, was charged with a DWI after the vehicle he was driving crashed into three parked cars and rolled over early Sunday morning. The officer suffered minor injuries and was arraigned last night and released on his own recognizance.

Eugene Donnelly, 29, has been on modified duty since the June 2014 attack when he allegedly broke into a stranger’s home and punched her in the face repeatedly. Gothamist:

Donnelly had apparently been staying at a friend’s apartment, but couldn’t find his way back and instead broke down the door to the victim’s apartment and hit her over 20 times before drinking her milk.

While prosecutors have accused Donnelly of having an “alcoholic blackout,” Donnelly’s defense has been that he has PTSD and was sleepwalking (video shows him running around the apartment complex in his underwear, buzzing on the door to get back in) at the time.

Earlier that day, Donnelly was reportedly celebrating. He was just awarded the Combat Cross by Mayor de Blasio for his arrest of an armed nineteen-year-old in the Bronx, while off-duty in 2012. (The teenager fired a shot at the officer’s car and Donnelly returned fire, hitting the suspect four times, then arresting him.)

For his 2014 attack, Donnelly was charged with misdemeanor assault and burglary. His attorney said the officer suffered from PTSD and sleeping disorders since the 2012 shooting. Though Donnelly told the prosecutors about his history of alcoholism, and an alleged relapse after the shooting, his attorney insisted he wasn’t blacked-out drunk but sleepwalking.

His victim said that the nearly-naked intruder jumped on her in bed, beat her and stopped by the fridge to guzzle down some milk before leaving. “Shhh, it’s OK. Just put a shirt on,” he told her. “Sometimes I’m a good guy, but sometimes I’m a bad guy.”