Police: Off-duty St. Pete officer was drunk during 2 hit-and-runs

One of Anthony Green's jobs as a police officer is to pull over motorists for traffic infractions.
But on Friday night, authorities say, it was Green who broke the law by striking not one, but two cars while driving drunk - and then kept driving.

Green, who was off-duty at the time, was arrested and charged with two counts each of drunken driving and leaving the scene of a crash involving property damage. He is a four-year veteran.

The actions of the 30-year-old St. Petersburg police officer came under scrutiny after police received a report about 10:15 p.m. regarding a hit-and-run crash at 38th Avenue North and Fourth Street. Six teenagers were in the struck car, and one of them got the license plate number of the other car, St. Petersburg police spokesman Bill Proffitt said.

Phillip Meylan, one of the teenagers, said Monday he and the others are seniors at Shorecrest Preparatory School and had just finished eating at a Chili's restaurant.

Meylan said the car he was in was at a red light for about 20 seconds when a Toyota Camry or Corolla rear-ended it with such force it lifted his car's back wheels. The driver put the car in reverse and went into a turn lane, where he ran the red light, he said.

The car turned out to belong to Green. Officers went to his home in Shore Acres in St. Petersburg and found him drunk inside the vehicle, Proffitt said. His blood-alcohol content was 0.179 and 0.173, police said. A driver in Florida is presumed intoxicated if his blood-alcohol is 0.08 or more.

Moments before Green struck the car at 38th Avenue North, he struck another car at 35th Avenue North while driving north on Fourth Street, Proffitt said. Green was driving up on the median when the passenger-side mirror on his Toyota Camry struck the side-view mirror of a Honda, Proffitt said.

The woman driving the Honda was not injured, he said.

Green is on administrative leave pending the outcome of an administrative investigation, Proffitt said.