DUI Police Officer Shows up Drunk at MADD luncheon last year. After being singled out for stopping drinking and driving on roads in his jurisdiction, a police officer showed up intoxicated to a MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) awards luncheon held in his honor.
DUI Officer Michael Szeliga of the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Department was at an all expense paid two-day DUI law enforcement training, followed by a luncheon to honor him making 100 DUI arrests in the county.
MADD is extremely actively involved in Orange County, California DUIs, and the Orange County Chapter of MADD has a very active chapter here. MADD began in California, and the Orange County Superior Court requires people convicted of a DUI in Orange County to attend a MADD presentation as part of their sentence in most cases, and make a donation, or contribution, to MADD, in DUI conviction cases.
The MADD Victim Impact Program (VIP) in Orange County is given twice a month, in locations that have been changing as of late, but as of this writing (2017) are in the City of Orange, California.
DUI Police Officer Shows Up Drunk at Madd Luncheon and was Reprimanded
According to an internal affairs investigation, the officer was found wandering in a hotel hallway stripped to his underwear. He also was described as “staggeringly drunk” by a witness at the Friday night banquet where he was set to receive the MADD accolade, and another witness said that the officer was too drunk to walk.
Two Tampa television stations showed that the deputy packed a bottle of Jameson whiskey in his patrol car before driving across the state to the Hyatt Regency Pier 66 Hotel in Fort Lauderdale with two other deputies.
DUI Police Officer Shows Up Drunk at Madd Luncheon – Szeliga signed in and attended a morning session of the DUI training but left following the first break to drink whiskey and cokes, having decided it was no longer “relevant” to him since he was transferring to the child-protection unit. However, MADD required attendance at all training in exchange for picking up expenses.
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