Cops: Driver was high on pet meds | DesMoinesRegister.com | The Des Moines Register
Clarence Fenton of Des Moines was one of many people charged last year in Polk County with driving while intoxicated.
But he might have been the one who was allegedly under the influence of something intended for a Jack Russell terrier.
Fenton claimed Thursday that he still hasn’t figured out what happened. Authorities, meanwhile, say the phenobarbital that was in his bloodstream when Fenton’s car struck a utility pole on Nov. 9 had been prescribed by a veterinarian.
“Yeah, it was in my system. They know that,” Fenton, 47, said.
Tammy Noble of the Iowa Statewide Poison Control Center in Sioux City, said the story is more common that many might believe. She said the center has taken three similar calls this year.
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“People take their dog’s medication by mistake,” Noble said. “People have taken their dog’s heartworm medication by mistake.”
Fenton said he took what he thought was a doctor-perscribed antidepressant on Nov. 9 when police reports show his sport-utility vehicle went out of control on Southwest Ninth Street and crashed into the pole.
“It was the first time I’d taken it,” he said. “I woke up in the psych unit at Mercy Hospital. That’s the next thing I remember.”
Police had to wait months for the results of bloods tests that showed phenobarbital, a barbiturate often used to control seizures in humans and pets.
Officer Julianne Dowie said that when she arrived at the crash scene about 10 a.m., Fenton was out of his vehicle and claimed to be all right, but he was slow to react to questions. An ambulance was called.
A witness told officers that Fenton tossed a bottle under a tree after the crash. Officers said it was a bottle of medication prescribed for “Saturn.”
“All of a sudden it wasn’t so much an accident investigation as an attempt to save a man’s life,” officer Brent Hommer recalled. “Fenton did tell me that he had taken ‘a bunch of pills’ and that Saturn was his dog.”
A court hearing is set for July 3.