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Shortly before 10 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 29, police were dispatched to the Stop & Shop location on White Plains Road in Tarrytown, after a caller reported that he was being following by a driver who subsequently struck him when he attempted to park at the grocery store.
According to a police report, upon arrival, officers were directed to a black Jeep Liberty, where they found Jose Yupangui sitting in the driver’s seat with the keys in the ignition and the car still running. Upon arrival, “Yupangui slurred his speech as he answered simple questions.” Officers added that his “English was poor, so (they) spoke to him in Spanish, his native language.
The second driver, who reported Yupangui to police, stated that while he was at the light at Hackley School, the Jeep, with only the yellow parking lights on, began to follow him. The driver proceeded to pull into the Stop & Shop parking lot, while Yupangui continued to follow “closely.”
When the driver pulled into a space, the Jeep struck his vehicle at a low speed. Yupangui reportedly proceeded to jump out of his vehicle, approached him and “said something he could not understand.” According to the report, a second witness corroborated that account of events.
During the following investigation, Yupangui admitted to taking three shots at his home in Rockland County. During standardized field sobriety tests, Yupangui stepped off the line nine times while using his arm for balance, and he “became irate” as officers explained the “one-leg stand” test, “yelling that he wanted to be arrested because he was drunk.”
Due to his "combative behavior" and refusal to continue sobriety tests, Yupangui was placed under arrest. While in custody, he began banging his head against the glass of the patrol car and cursing. At Greenburgh Police Headquarters, it was determined that Yupangui’s blood alcohol content was .21 percent.
Yupangui was charged with driving while intoxicated and released on $500 cash bail and is due back in Greenburgh Court later this month.
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