Sam Shepard Arrested For Drunken Driving In Santa Fe

Sam Shepard, arrested for drunken driving in Santa Fe, New Mexico, was released from custody on Tuesday, May 26, according to the Associated Press.

Fox 411 reports the actor and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright was arrested on Monday, May 25 on the suspicion of drunken driving, after La Choza restaurant’s security guards complained about a possibly intoxicated driver. He notified police at approximately 7:45 p.m. after he noticed Shepard attempting to drive away in a pickup truck with the emergency brake still engaged.

Santa Fe police Lt. Andrea Dobyns said, when the officers arrived at the scene, the 71-year-old told them that he had had two tequila drinks, and was planning on driving himself home.

Sam Shepard refused to take a breath test, but agreed to take a field sobriety test, which he failed. He was then arrested and was booked into the Santa Fe County Jail on a charge of aggravated driving while intoxicated, according to NBC News.

“The officers said he was compliant, but had bloodshot watery eyes and the officers were able to smell the alcohol,” Dobyns said.

Court records show that Shepard spent Monday night in jail, and he was scheduled to be arraigned at the Santa Fe Magistrate Court on Tuesday.

This marks at least the second time that Shepard has been arrested for drunken driving. In 2009, he was arrested, and plead guilty, for speeding and drunken driving in Normal, Illinois.

Sam Shepard has had quite a career, both as an actor and as a playwright. He won a Pulitzer Prize for his play The Buried Child in 1979, and he was nominated for an Academy Award for his role as Chuck Yeager in the 1983 film The Right Stuff. His other film credits include: Baby Boom, Steel Magnolias, Thunderheart, Black Hawk Down, The Notebook, and Walker Payne. He is currently starring in the Netflix series Bloodline, according to the Washington Post.

Shepard has previously spoken about his relationship with alcohol, admitting that he has a serious problem. During a 1997 interview with the Paris Review, he explained that he started drinking back in high school, and it escalated from there.

“My history with booze goes back to high school,” he said. “Back then there was a lot of Benzedrine around, and since we lived near the Mexican border I’d just run over, get a bag of bennies and drink ripple wine. Speed and booze together make you quite … omnipotent. You don’t feel any pain. I was actually in several car wrecks that I don’t understand how I survived.”

“For a long time I didn’t think I had a problem,” he continued. “Until I confronted it I wasn’t aware that it was creeping up on me. I finally did AA in the hardcore down on Pico Boulevard [in Los Angeles]. I said, ‘Don’t put me in with Elton John or anything, just throw me to the lions.'”

Sam Shepard, arrested again for drunken driving, has made national news. What do you think his punishment should be? Leave your comments below.

[Photo by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images, Mugshots.com]