A Washington State Patrol trooper pulled a swerving Jeep Grand Cherokee off Interstate 5 near mile marker 78 Saturday night and found a 37-year-old Portland man behind the wheel with two children, ages 12 and 14, in the vehicle. Joey C. William provided a preliminary breath sample of .234 — nearly three times Washington's legal limit of .08 — and now faces eight criminal charges, including two felonies, after what prosecutors describe as a chaotic arrest that included threats against the trooper and an alleged headbutt to a hospital security guard.
The trooper located William's Jeep at about 8:53 p.m. on October 17, after observing it swerving onto the shoulder and nearly drifting into the left lane, according to the probable-cause affidavit cited by The Daily Chronicle. William was identified using his Oregon commercial driver's license, and the trooper reportedly noted bloodshot and watery eyes, slurred speech, and poor finger dexterity, along with a case of IPAs sitting on the front passenger floorboard. William denied drinking alcohol and performed poorly on standard field sobriety tests, according to the newspaper's account.
William refused to participate in DUI screening at the Lewis County jail, prompting the trooper to obtain a search warrant for a blood draw at Providence Centralia Hospital, where William's blood was drawn at 10:23 p.m. The 128-bed facility serves Lewis County, according to LewisTalk. During the encounter, William allegedly threatened physical violence against the trooper and used racial slurs, per the affidavit, and later allegedly resisted being handcuffed to a bench at the jail, requiring the trooper to perform a takedown with jail deputies' assistance.
Felony Charges Stack Up Alongside DUI Count
William is charged with intimidating a public servant, a class B felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $20,000 fine, after he allegedly threatened to stab the trooper. He also faces felony harassment, a class C felony carrying up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. The case also includes an allegation that he headbutted a hospital security guard. Rounding out the charges are six misdemeanors: DUI, two counts of reckless endangerment involving domestic violence, fourth-degree assault, interference with a health care facility, and obstructing a law enforcement officer, the paper's report shows.
Washington's DUI statute imposes a steeper mandatory penalty tier for drivers who test at .15 or higher, raising the mandatory minimum jail sentence from 24 to 48 consecutive hours and increasing fines, according to Washington state law. Separate provisions in state law also require an additional 18-month ignition interlock requirement for each child passenger when BAC levels reach .15 or above, and require officers to notify Child Protective Services when a child is present and the operator is the child's parent, guardian, or custodian, per RCW 46.61.507.
Bail Set at $100,000 Amid Employment Concerns
Lewis County Superior Court Judge Joely Yeager set William's bail at $100,000, matching the amount requested by Lewis County Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer. Meyer also asked that William be barred from driving without an interlock device installed and that William's employer be notified of the allegations, the Chronicle reported. Yeager said impaired drivers pose a major community safety risk, especially when young children are involved, but ruled that William may still drive for his employer if released on bail, provided an interlock device or comparable blood-alcohol monitoring device is installed.
William works as a truck driver holding a commercial driver's license and travels for work between Washington and Oregon. Under federal regulations, a CDL holder convicted of DUI or chemical test refusal faces an automatic minimum one-year disqualification nationwide, even when the violation occurs off-duty in a personal vehicle, according to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration's rules. That exposure places William's trucking career squarely in the balance alongside the criminal case.
Rachael Tiller, William's defense attorney for the initial appearance, told the court that the arrest and allegations were completely outside William's character, the Chronicle reported. Don Blair has since been assigned as William's defense attorney going forward. The Lewis County Prosecutor's Office filed the probable-cause affidavit, and William is scheduled to appear for an arraignment and trial-setting hearing Thursday.
Part of a Broader Pattern on Lewis County Roads
The arrest adds to a string of impaired-driving incidents on Interstate 5 this year, including an I-5 DUI crash involving a Chehalis man that hospitalized a Renton woman near 56th Street in Tacoma in August. Impaired driving remained a factor in 45 percent of Washington's fatal crashes even as statewide traffic deaths dropped 10.5 percent in 2025 to 659, down from a 33-year peak of 809 in 2023, according to preliminary data from the Washington Traffic Safety Commission reported by the Renton Reporter. A study found Washington's alcohol-impaired road death rate climbed 46.28 percent between 2015 and 2024, ranking fourth highest among U.S. states for that decade-long increase, per Seattle Red.
Nationally, 11,904 people died in alcohol-impaired driving crashes in 2024, roughly 30 percent of all U.S. traffic deaths, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Interstate 5 through Chehalis and Centralia remains the main high-speed corridor linking Western Washington and Oregon, where traffic incidents frequently cause widespread regional backups, as Hoodline has previously reported.
