(S.C.) Car crash led to Surfside Beach Town Council member's DUI charge, police records show
Police records reveal new details about the incident leading to a DUI charge for a Surfside Beach Town Council member. Bruce Dietrich was booked into jail March 7 and charged with driving under the influence. Dietrich’s term as a council member started in May 2018 and goes until December 2021, according to the Surfside Beach Town Council website. Surfside Beach Town Clerk Sheri Medina confirmed that Dietrich was still a member of the town council as of Tuesday.
Surfside Beach police were called to the scene of a car wreck on March 7 about 8:30 p.m. A Surfside Beach police officer arrived to find a car that had driven off the road and landed in a ditch off of Highway 17 Business, according to the incident report. The police officer wrote that the driver, Dietrich, “seemed to be in a daze” and slurred his speech when speaking to the officer. The officer noted a “strong odor of alcohol” emanating from Dietrich, according to the police report.
Dietrich agreed to participate in a field sobriety test and got out of his car, the incident report states. When he got out of the car, he “had difficulty maintaining his balance and would fall into his vehicle door,” according to the police report. “I was holding (Dietrich) up by his pullover to prevent him from falling,” the police officer wrote in the narrative portion of the incident report.
The officer wrote that when he let go of Dietrich to begin the field sobriety test, he began to lose his balance and “had to be grabbed before falling to the ground.” The officer wrote that he deemed it unsafe to continue with the test and arrested Dietrich for DUI, according to the police report. He was taken to the Surfside Beach Police Department.
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According to Surfside Beach police records officers responded in reference to a white male wearing only shorts and a t shirt laying by the stairs underneath a carport. Surfside Beach Corporal Blair noticed the person had blood on his face, as well as, a swollen black left eye. Male did not know what day of the week it was.
What happened to Councilman Bruce Dietrich? A fall? A beating? Dietrich suffered six broken ribs, a left side shattered collar bone, left eye shut closed, nose moved, and internal bleeding in the brain. Bruce Dietrich would later die twice in surgery. Officer Blair told the family that Dietrich was found with his cell phone, keys and wallet. Office Blair reports cash found in the wallet. Blair said the councilman was found with his pants off and his shoes placed together on the side of the carport. The family asked if the officer found it strange that Dietrich’s pants were off. Blair told them that is was strange.
“I did not fall,” Councilman Dietrich told us. “It was an ass whipping.” Dietrich told us his next vivid memory was waking up standing in a doorway at Waccamaw Hospital asking a nurse, “Who are you? Where am I?” Charlotte based neurosurgeon Stacia L. Cheadle performed the life saving surgery at which time Dietrich died twice during the process. Dietrich says Cheadle told him there is no way these type of injuries were consistent with a fall.
Councilman Dietrich and his wife, Tina, are currently separated and seeking a divorce. Surfside Beach resident Steve Shore says “If anyone had a motive she [Tina] did,” said Shore. Dietrich asked his wife for a divorce just days before the incident. Shore believes Tina wanted him killed. Bruce Dietrich spent 26 years on the police force and collects full pension. “In the event something happened to him [Dietrich], she collected it the rest of her life,” said Shore.
https://myrtlebeachsc.com/what-happened-to-councilman-bruce-dietrich-a-fall-a-beating/
