Drunk driver repeatedly backed into cop car, police say

A 49-year-old man who didn’t have a driver’s license repeatedly backed into a police car when Shandaken police tried to stop him from driving drunk in Phoenicia on Monday, March 2, police say.

Kenneth A. Jackson was attempting to drive in an “intoxicated condition” on Route 214 in Phoenicia when police were called to the scene, according to a press release from the town of Shandaken police department.

When a marked Shandaken police car blocked Jackson in, Jackson reportedly drove into it, “causing damage while police were trying to remove him from the vehicle.”

Jackson was arrested on Wednesday, March 4 and charged with misdemeanor second degree reckless endangerment, driving while intoxicated, criminal mischief, endangering the welfare of a child and aggravated unlicensed operation of a vehicle. He was also charged with unsafe backing and unlicensed operator violations.

Jackson was arraigned in Shandaken Town Court and is being held in the Ulster County Jail on $5,000 cash bail.