The track and cross-country coach at Bremerton High School was arrested Sept. 30 under suspicion of DUI after being pulled over on State Route 3.
Edward Eugene Ransom III, of the 3100 block of Aegean Boulevard in Bremerton, has since been charged in Kitsap County District Court with possession of a controlled substance (cocaine).
Bremerton School District Spokeswoman Patty Glaser said that Ransom is administrative leave pending an investigation.
According to a Washington State Patrol report, Ransom was pulled over on State Route 3 near the eastbound exit to State Route 304 shortly after 11 p.m. A former California police officer reported an erratically driven Buick Regal traveling westbound on State Route 16 near milepost 26. A trooper spotted the reported vehicle about five miles later and initiated a stop after the Regal swerved several times.
The trooper’s report states that the Regal partially blocked the exit after it stopped before its reverse lights were activated.
“The driver of the Regal began to back towards the front of my patrol car, and would have crashed into the front of it, had I not hit my right hand on the rear quarter panel on the Regal, while yelling, ‘Hey stop, stop, put the car in park sir!'” the trooper wrote.
The trooper said he detected a strong odor of intoxicants when he first made contact with Ransom. He wrote that Ransom had watery bloodshot eyes and had a hard time standing up. The trooper says Ransom originally agreed to sobriety field tests, but he broke down.
“Ransom quickly became uncooperative and did not want to perform the voluntary tests,” the trooper wrote. “Ransom stated, ‘Don’t worry about it man, I already failed it…’ when I asked him to perform a voluntary preliminary breath test (PBT).”
Ransom was subsequently arrested and transported to the Kitsap County Jail for DUI where he provided two breath samples that were accepted by the Blood Alcohol Content Datamaster at .184 and .188.
After the testing was completed, Ransom was taken into the jail for booking. The trooper was approached by jail staff who said a white crystal like substance had been found in Ransom’s left front pocket.
“I immediately identified the white crystal substance to be crack cocaine,” the trooper wrote. “I verified the white crystal like substance via a field NIC kit, which tested positive for cocaine.”
The trooper said the cocaine in its original packaging weighed .55 grams; and, by itself, the cocaine weighed .13 grams. Ransom was charged Oct. 1 with one count of possession of a controlled substance (cocaine).
