Pa. trooper suspended after drunken arrest before Penn State-Oregon game
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- Pennsylvania trooper Nathan R. Messner charged with resisting arrest and drunkenness.
- Officers observed him intoxicated, stumbling, striking a tree, and lying near stadium.
- Messner resisted custody, was sedated at hospital, faces misdemeanors and hearing.
A Pennsylvania state trooper was charged Tuesday with resisting arrest and public drunkenness after police said they witnessed him repeatedly stumble ahead of Penn State football’s White Out clash with Oregon.
Nathan R. Messner, 39, of Lycoming County, is suspended without pay, a Pennsylvania State Police spokesperson told the Centre Daily Times. He enlisted in November 2014 and is assigned to the Montoursville barracks.
Wearing a white Penn State hoodie, Messner was found by another state trooper to be highly intoxicated and lying on the sidewalk across from Beaver Stadium. He attempted to get up multiple times, but kept falling, university police wrote in an affidavit of probable cause.
Troopers called emergency medical services after he stumbled into a tree, police wrote. Officers reported his speech was slurred, that he ignored their commands to sit down and smelled of alcohol.
As he was taken into custody, officers said he tensed and pulled his arms away before he was taken to the ground, handcuffed and transported by ambulance to Mount Nittany Medical Center. While at the hospital, university police said Messner continued to resist officers until he was sedated.
He was charged with the two misdemeanors by summons. No defense lawyer was listed. His preliminary hearing is scheduled for Nov. 5.