DUI arrest hits Lakers owner Buss
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Los Angeles Lakers owner Jerry Buss was arrested early Tuesday for investigation of driving under the influence of alcohol. Buss, 74, was taken into custody shortly before 1 a.m. after he drove his gold Mercedes-Benz station wagon the wrong way on a street that has double yellow lines in an unincorporated section of Carlsbad, California Highway Patrol Officer Tom Kerns said. “Although I was driving only a short distance, it was a bad decision, and I was wrong to do it,” Buss said in a statement issued by the Lakers. “It was a mistake I will not make again.” A 23-year-old woman in the vehicle with Buss wasn’t arrested, Kerns said. He said Buss was “relatively cooperative” when placed under arrest and was booked into the Vista jail for investigation of drunken driving and driving with a blood-alcohol content of 0.08 or above. Buss was released around 10:30 a.m., according to the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department website. Kerns said the final results of Buss’ blood alcohol test won’t be available for about three weeks. Highway Patrol officers Sal Gutierrez and Julie Cahill administered field sobriety tests using an alcohol-screening device, Kerns said. The Lakers have been in the news lately because of reports that Kobe Bryant was hoping to see Jerry West, the Lakers’ general manager and executive vice president from 1982 to 2000, return. Bryant denied, however, that he would ask for a trade if West wasn’t brought back. |