Ex-official jailed pending alcohol test

11/30/2000

MONROE - A former Monroe city councilman was arrested early Tuesday on suspicion of driving under the influence and received a cut on his nose during a struggle with corrections officers in the Monroe County jail.

Gerald Hesson, 41, of Monroe, who works as AFL-CIO community services liaison for the United Way of Monroe County, was pulled over by city police about 2:35 a.m. along West Sixth Street. Mr. Hesson failed three field sobriety tests but refused to submit to a breath test before being placed in custody, police said.

Mr. Hesson was taken to the nearby county jail while police tried to obtain a warrant for a blood sample. While Mr. Hesson was in the jail about 3:20 a.m., corrections officers said he began yelling at them and “took a fighting stance” while he was being moved to one of the jail's intake rooms.

He was taken to the ground by three corrections officers and handcuffed, during which time he suffered a cut across the bridge of his nose, police said.

Mr. Hesson served on council from 1984 to '87. He has not been formally charged with operating under the influence of liquor pending the return of toxicology results from the Michigan State Police laboratory, which could take up to two weeks, police said.