Robert Bliven, a Wisconsin state trooper, was arrested in September after deputies investigated him for drinking on the job. They charged him with operating a firearm while intoxicated.

By Annie Pulley, THE BADGER PROJECT

A state trooper was arrested in September after he was caught drinking alcohol on duty at a truck weighing station in Waushara County. His blood alcohol concentration was 0.247, according to an internal investigation The Badger Project obtained in a records request.

The trooper, Robert Bliven, was charged with operating a firearm while intoxicated in October, a criminal misdemeanor. He was also cited for possessing open intoxicants in a vehicle after deputies found alcohol in his squad car.

The State Patrol requested deputies from the Waushara County Sheriff’s Office come to the weigh station on Interstate 39 in the Town of Hancock. Bliven, in full uniform and having been disarmed, was sitting on the curb in the parking lot when deputies arrived.

Bliven, an inspector for the State Patrol, was “armed with multiple loaded guns while drinking alcohol and having alcohol in his squad,” a Waushara County Sheriff’s deputy wrote in his report, justifying the criminal charge.

The Wisconsin Department of Transportation, the State Patrol’s parent agency, confirmed that Bliven is on leave but refused to comment further.

Bliven did not respond to The Badger Project’s attempts to reach him at his State Patrol email.

He is scheduled to appear in court for both his misdemeanor charge and citation Jan. 29.

Sgt. Luke Turner with the State Patrol confronted Bliven after smelling alcohol and noticing him struggle to type on his computer, according to the sheriff’s office’s investigation. Turner said Bliven “stormed out” of the office, but that Turner took Bliven’s squad keys, his duty belt and handgun, and the container he had been drinking from, which he said tested positive for alcohol. Law enforcement also found a near-empty bottle of vodka and a Mountain Dew bottle that tested positive for alcohol in Bliven’s squad car.

Bliven’s handgun had a full magazine and a bullet in the chamber, the investigation said.

He refused a breathalyzer and a voluntary blood draw, so sheriff’s deputies had to obtain a warrant. The deputies opted not to charge him with an OWI because he was not driving at the time they intercepted him. Security camera footage shows Bliven arriving at the scale a couple hours before the sheriff’s office was asked to assist.

The report describes Bliven as being “upset with himself,” “apologetic” and emotional. He told a sheriff’s deputy that he had been having problems at work and that he had been talking to his wife about getting help.

“He was upset with himself for letting it get to this point,” the deputy wrote in his report.

The Badger Project is an independent, reader-supported news nonprofit in Wisconsin.