Chad Miller
A Flat Rock-Hawcreek school board member has been accused of driving while intoxicated after a traffic stop in Jackson County.
Chad Miller, 41, of County Road 950N, Hope, was driving with his wife and 9-year-old son in the vehicle when he was arrested at 7:13 p.m. on Sunday, April 23 in Brownstown, police said.
According to booking reports, the arrest charge was operating while intoxicated, operating while intoxicated with a controlled substance or metabolite, according to the police report.
When a probable cause affidavit was filed in court two days later, the formal charge was listed as operating a vehicle while intoxicated as a first offense and no endangerment, online records state.
The charge is a Class C misdemeanor punishable by up to 60 days in jail and a potential fine of up to $500. Aside from infractions and ordinance violations, a Class C misdemeanor is considered the least serious charge that that can be filed in Indiana.
An initial hearing for Miller is scheduled at 8:30 a.m. on May 18 before Jackson Superior Court 2 Judge Bruce A. MacTavish.
When contacted Wednesday, Miller said he does not believe his arrest constitutes a reason for him to step down from the school board.
“Everybody makes mistakes,” Miller said. “I feel like my ability to serve has not been impacted.”
On the evening of the arrest, Brownstown police officer Jeremy Huff was dispatched to be on the lookout for a possible intoxicated driver in a silver Ford F250 pickup truck heading east on U.S. 50, Brownstown Deputy Police Chief Joe Kelly said.
Dispatchers told Huff the vehicle had just left the baseball fields in Brownstown, and that a license plate check showed the truck’s owner was Miller, a police incident report states. The Ford F250 was spotted on U.S. 50 and pulled over by Huff in the vicinity of Jackson County Road 180E, Kelly said.
When Huff made initial contact with Miller, he could see the driver had “bloodshot, glassy and watery eyes” and smell the odor of alcohol coming from inside the truck, the deputy chief said while quoting from the report.
After Miller explained that he and his family were returning home after a baseball tournament, Huff inquired whether the driver had been drinking alcoholic beverages, the report states. Miller replied that he had two drinks at the ball game, which prompted Huff to ask Miller to perform three standardized field sobriety tests, according to the report. Huff wrote that Miller did not pass two of the three tests.
Miller was then given a portable breath test that measured his blood alcohol contest at .173, which is more than twice the legal limit for driving in Indiana, Kelly said.
Once Huff placed Miller under arrest, he found an empty 50 millimeter bottle of Fireball, a 66-proof Canadian whiskey with sweeteners and cinnamon flavor. The bottle was discovered in the right pocket of Miller’s sweatshirt, the report states.
After police allowed his wife to drive the truck back home with her son, Brownstown officers took Miller to the police station and tried unsuccessfully multiple times to get an adequate blood draw, the report states.
Miller was then taken to Schneck Medical Center in Browntown, where medical staff obtained a sufficient draw, the report states. He was then taken to the Jackson County Jail and booked in at 9:33 p.m., Kelly said.
When the charge was reduced on April 25, bail was lowered from $750 to $700. Online records show the cash bond was paid April 27.
The owner of his own construction company, Miller has served on the Flat Rock-Hawcreek School board of trustees since 2019, representing the Flat Rock district. Last November, he won a second term on the board by garnering 73% of the vote during a challenge from David O’Neil.
A graduate of Franklin College with a degree in elementary education, Miller has also served as president of the Hope Heritage Days festival.
