Thursday afternoon Montgomery Montgomery County District Attorney Bret Ligon and his Vehicle Crimes Chief Brittany Hansford hosted the Montgomery County Vehicular Crimes Award Ceremony for 2022. In 2022 there were over 2300 DWI arrests in Montgomery County. The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office came in with the most DWI arrests at 439. Of the 439 Deputy Joseph O’Neil made 88 of those arrests which equate to 20% of Sheriff’s Office arrests. His agency the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office was awarded Agency of the Year and he was given an honorable mention. In 2022, the Sheriff’s Office received grant funding they applied for to enhance their impaired driving enforcement, they sent 60 people through crash training. Of those 15 are now certified in crash reconstruction, and 5 of them are certified in CDR download and analysis. Prior to this DPS was almost the sole responsibility for working crashes in Montgomery County. However, with so many Troopers being sent to the border, it has put a burden on the available Troopers, many of who have to be called in from home if a fatal crash takes place.
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Another honorable mention was Montgomery Officer Michael Voytko. Voytkoo has been over eight years and has been with Montgomery since 2020. He made 22 DWI arrests in 2022. Montgomery County Precinct 3 Deputy Constable Zane Hoffmeyer. Hoffmeyer was responsible for 19 DWI arrests in 2022.
The Officer of the year was Montgomery County Precinct 4 Deputy Constable Nolan Lewis. Lewis, who has been with Precinct 4 for two of his five years made up 25% of the 403 DWI arrests for Precinct 4.
Texas Department of Public Safety Troopers was also recognized. Trooper Mackenzie Brown who prior to joining DPS 8 years ago was in the Army had the most DWI arrests for his agency in Montgomery County with 59 of the close to 250 DWI arrests made by Troopers. As mentioned earlier Troopers being on the border also prevented Brown from receiving his award today. Another East Montgomery County Trooper Ben Polansky who was just promoted to Sargeant Polansky has been with DPS for over seven of his twelve years. He assists in crash reconstruction for any agency that requests his assistance. Under the direction of DPS Sargenat Dean Barnhill, he has been extremely instrumental in assisting the District Attorney’s Office in being able to secure convictions in not just DWI cases but in vehicle crashes involving serious injury or death where the at-fault driver was impaired. Since making Sergeant Montgomery County has lost Sergeant Polansky to the Larado DPS Office. Polansky has also been assigned by DPS to the DPS State Crash Team who is responsible for the investigation of DPS-involved crashes.
Also receiving an honorable mention was Montgomery County Precinct 5 Constables Office under the direction of Constable Chris Jones. Prior to Constable Jones taking over Constable David Hill, a long-time DPS Trooper who retired and was elected Precinct 5 Constable put effort into civil papers. During his last year of 2017, there were seven DWI arrests. He then retired and his Chief Deputy Chris Jones took over. This was also the year the building boom started and the influx of residents began in Montgomery County. Jones shifted his efforts to keep the citizens of the Magnolia area safe. He added deputies and started looking for impaired drivers. With grants from the Texas Department of Transportation in high-priority high fatality areas he made a major difference. In 2022, Precinct 5 made over 170 arrests DWI arrests. The Magnolia Police Department which is also in Precinct 5 was responsible for an additional 95 DWI arrests. Another Trooper honored as Investigator of the year was Trooper Brit Lopez, a Trooper of over 5 years with DPS who was instrumental in bringing a truck driver who was involved in a hit-and-run fatal crash to justice. On November 5, 2021, Matthew Brian Davis was driving his 1999 Volvo 18-wheeler pulling a heavy equipment trailer, when he was involved in a crash on Highway 105. As Davis turned left across Highway 105 to travel west towards Grimes County, he pulled out in front of a pickup truck that struck the side of his trailer. Mr. Gary Lee Frank, a 67-year-old resident of Montgomery County, was ejected from the pickup. Davis immediately fled and did not attempt to stop, render aid to Mr. Frank, or call 911 as required by law. A passerby called 911 and tried to help Mr. Frank, but Mr. Frank died at the scene. At the time of the crash, the driver of the 18-wheeler was unidentified, and there was no suspect. Trooper Brit Lopez of the Texas Department of Public Safety responded to the scene and investigated the crash. Troopers canvassed the area and located several gas station surveillance videos which captured the crash and the fleeing 18-wheeler. After law enforcement did a media release to the public asking for assistance, several tips identified Matthew Brian Davis of Grimes County as a person of interest.
Trooper Lopez went to Davis’ home, located the truck and trailer, and interviewed Davis. Despite obvious damage to the trailer, which Davis had attempted to spray paint over and hide behind a wooden board, Davis repeatedly denied involvement in the crash. Trooper Lopez also found Davis had removed lights and decals from the truck, which were visible in the surveillance videos in an attempt to avoid being identified. n Thursday, December 8, 2022, a Montgomery County jury sentenced Matthew Brian Davis to 13 years in prison for the offense of Accident Involving Personal Injury or Death after a fatal hit-and-run crash. The Honorable Judge Patty Maginnis of the 435th District Court presided over the three-day trial.
Conroe Police have also been very effective in DWI arrests with close to 350 DWI arrests in 2022.
Besides Law Enforcement Weisner Buick/GMC was honored. Any time there is a question on a vehicle their services specialists with their expertise are there to help. Whether it be a broken piece of a vehicle from a crash scene in which they can tell investigators what type of vehicle it belonged on to doing mechanical inspections such as the recent fatal crash which killed a 14-year-old in New Caney after the driver had inoperative brakes.
