Friday, June 25, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Man claiming to be priest faces DUI charge

Arizona driver also accused of resisting arrest, striking police officer

A drunken man being forced to the ground after crashing his car and punching a cop in the head Thursday pleaded for leniency by claiming to be a Catholic priest, authorities said.

Skeptical police officers were shocked when they discovered during the 1 a.m. arrest that Paul Michael Andrade's Arizona driver's license photo shows him wearing a priest's collar.

Andrade, 34, had a blood-alcohol level of 0.34 percent, more than four times the legal limit, according to blood tests performed at University Medical Center.

"We're calling it the case of the holy spirits," one police officer quipped Thursday.

"He was saying, `I'm a Catholic priest! I'm a Catholic priest!' " the officer said.

After UMC doctors stitched a head wound suffered as he was being taken into custody, Andrade was booked into the Clark County Detention Center on charges of drunken driving, resisting arrest and battery of a police officer.

The Review-Journal could not confirm Andrade's claims to the priesthood.

Public records list his hometown as Glendale, Ariz.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Tucson and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix, the only two jurisdictions for Arizona's two bishops, found no record of an Andrade in any parish records.

However, police officers investigating the case discovered photographs of Andrade's ordination posted on the Internet.

Police were called at 1:03 a.m. to Oakey and Las Vegas boulevards on a report of a traffic accident, according to police records.

They found an uncooperative man, later identified as Andrade, at the wheel of a vehicle that had rear-ended another vehicle.

While Andrade was being questioned, a police report states, he struck motorcycle officer Steve Borden when Borden wasn't looking, prompting another officer to force Andrade to the ground.

Andrade struck his head on a sharp part of asphalt during the takedown, the report states.

Responding paramedics restrained Andrade to a gurney because he continued being combative and spitting on police officers and paramedics.