Man With Pit Bull, Baton Arrested for OWI in Waukesha

A 32-year-old Waukesha man is facing his third operating while intoxicated charge after he was caught driving on Pebble Valley Road Sunday morning with no headlights on and a pit bull in the rear seat.

According to the criminal complaint, at 2:29 a.m. Sunday, a and Waukesha police officer spotted Matthew J. Gentile driving southbound on Pebble Valley with no lights on, then stop in front of a parked squad car. The officer walked over to the car to see if he needed assistance, but Gentile tried to do a Y-turn and was unsuccessful.

Gentile, who had a pit bull in the rear seat of his car, then told the officer he was trying to go home and that he lived on “Third Street or Third Avenue” and he stopped his car when he saw the squad because he thought there was a roadblock, the complaint states.

When asked how much he had to drink, Gentile responded he was OK to drive, but smelled heavily of intoxicants, according to the document.

Gentile then failed several field sobriety tests, telling the officer “he needed to look at his feet” in order to pass the test. The officer told him he wouldn’t look at his own feet for safety reasons. He then told the officer he had passed all of the tests and therefore didn’t need a blood alcohol level test, the complaint states

After searching his car, the officer found a collapsible 17-inch-long baton in Gentile’s drivers side door pocket, which Gentile told him he purchased at Seven Mile Fair in order to protect himself, the document states.

Gentile was previously convicted of drunken driving twice in 2004. He’s currently charged with third offense OWI and one count of carrying a concealed weapon and could face up to one year and nine months in prison.