By Nathan Hardin
nhardin@salisburypost.com
ROCKWELL — A Rockwell man was arrested late Saturday night after deputies say he kicked and attempted to headbutt officers after being brought to the hospital for blood alcohol level testing.
According to a Rowan County Sheriff’s Office report, Don Eugune Winecoff was stopped by deputies in his driveway at about 11:45 p.m. after the man appeared to dodge a checkpoint near Lower Stone Church Road and Windswept Way.
The report said Winecoff tried three times to back into his driveway at 2504 Windswept Way, which was straight and had no obstacles on either side, and eventually parked the 2004 silver Nissan Frontier.
Authorities reported the man appeared drunk and blew a .21 blood alcohol level for the officer’s field test.
Upon searching the vehicle, deputies found a cold, unopened beer in the passenger seat. As officers looked for any open cans in the car, they found a prescription pill bottle with two and a half Lortabs, a marijuana pipe, a small straw inside a pill bottle and three grams of marijuana.
Authorities reported they took Winecoff to the Salisbury Police Department, but that the 48-year-old man refused a breath test.
Officers obtained warrants to draw the man’s blood and escorted the man to Rowan Regional Medical Center.
But deputies reported the man became “exceedingly combative,” and jumped out of his chair several times at the hospital and tried to flee.
Winecoff told deputies, according to the report, that he hated needles.
As the two officers began transporting Winecoff in an elevator, the man attempted to head-butt the deputies. The officers forced him to the ground, but the man continued to struggle, causing him to hit the wall with his head.
Additional security officers at the hospital assisted the deputies in controlling the man, along with several nurses, while the man’s blood was tested.
Hospital officials advised the man that his eyebrow needed stitches after head-butting the elevator wall, but he refused treatment.
Winecoff was charged with two counts of resisting, obstructing and delaying public officers, two counts of assault on a government official, one count of misdemeanor possession of Lortabs, misdemeanor simple possession of marijuana, driving while license is revoked, possession of drug paraphernalia and being intoxicated and disruptive. Authorities are waiting for results of Winecoff’s blood test to charge him for driving while impaired.
He was given a $3,000 bond. He was released after posting bond.