When a city politician’s headlights flashed in his face coming the wrong way up Elm Street, Alex Marathas motioned for the driver to turn. The chase was on.
Marathas (pictured) didn’t know he was chasing a politician. He did know the driver posed a public danger.
It wasn’t Marathas’s first chase. Don’t count on it being his last.
After 15 minutes of pursuit, and a few daring moves in his 1996 Ford Explorer, Marathas pulled over the drunken driver and turned him over to the cops.
The driver was Joey Rodriguez, the 22-year-old alderman in Fair Haven’s Ward 15. Rodriguez issued a public apology for the incident Tuesday—click here to read about it.
Reached Wednesday, Rodriguez said he’s thankful for the citizen watchdog’s effort.
“I am grateful that no one was hurt and that the police and Mr. Marathas stopped me,” he said. He declined to comment further, except to say “It was a foolish and irresponsible judgment on my part.”
Police spokesman Officer Joe Avery applauded Marathas’ work.
“The guy definitely did a great thing,” Avery said. However, he cautioned others against putting themselves at risk, especially with a guy who wasn’t as nice as Rodriguez.
A Mission
Marathas, a 45-year-old real estate developer, is a one-time candidate for alderman himself: He ran in 2001 for alderman as a Democrat in East Rock’s Ward 9, losing to Green John Halle. He unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination again in 2006.
He has had more success as a citizen watchdog for the police — a watchdog who sometimes takes matters into his own hands before they arrive.
Marathas often calls the cops about hazards in the road. He said he’s called police 30 to 40 times. He has reported dangers ranging from trash in the highway to a guy who was tailgating him, pushing his speed up to 95 miles per hour on Interstate 91.
“I’m pretty good with 911,” said Marathas.
Sunday was the second time he helped stop a drunk driver before anyone got hurt. Here’s what happened, according to Marathas:
Marathas was going home from his buddy Pete’s house at 11:30 p.m. As he headed down Elm Street at the intersection with Temple, he found headlights shining in his face. The driver of a small silver car was approaching him, going the wrong way up Elm Street.
Marathas’s first thought: The driver must be from out of town, unfamiliar with downtown streets.
Marathas put his turn signal on to direct the driver onto Temple Street. When the car “swerved” onto Temple, Marathas grew concerned. The driver appeared to be drunk.
Marathas got on his tail. He wasn’t going to let this guy go.
“When I was 19, I almost got killed by a drunk driver,” Marathas explained, recounting the story Wednesday morning. “It just bothers me.”
He followed the car onto Chapel, College, then up Prospect Street. The drunk driver came across an obstacle: the bridge is out at Trumbull Street, blocking through traffic.
“He looked bewildered because it’s a dead end,” said Marathas. Marathas made that conclusion based on the movement of the car; he couldn’t see who was driving until the driver turned into a Yale parking lot. Marathas followed him in there. The driver tried to maneuver out of the lot.
“He was all whacked,” said Marathas. The driver smashed into a Dumpster, crushing part of his car.
Marathas said he wasn’t afraid to be shut in with a parking lot with the man he’d been pursuing.
“I have an Explorer,” Marathas explained. “It’s pretty big, and I’m pretty big, so I didn’t worry about it.”
Flashback
Following a dangerous driver is somewhat of an instinct for him.
That instinct first showed itself 26 years ago, in Wisconsin. Marathas was 19. He was driving home from a July 4th party near DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana, around 11 p.m. He and three buddies were driving on Route 47 when an oncoming car swerved into his lane, nearly killing them.
“We chased him,” Marathas said. His buddies yelled remarks out the window like “Pull over, we’ll give you a ride!” The driver careened down a residential street, cutting across someone’s lawn and knocking down a mailbox before coming to a rest.
Cops found that Midwestern driver to be in a big mess. “The guy was so whacked he couldn’t even say his name,” Marathas recalled.
Back in the Yale parking lot Sunday night, Marathas caught a glimpse of the driver in his latest pursuit. He didn’t recognize the driver, but he got a good enough look to see that he appeared to be small.
“I could see he wasn’t too intimidating,” Marathas said.
Marathas cut in front of him. The driver followed him on Prospect to Grove Street. Marathas took a right-hand turn towards the Yale gym.
“When he gunned it to pass me on Grove, I knew he was messed up,” Marathas said. The driver nearly sideswiped a car. His hubcap scraped a curb.
The whole time, Marathas was on the phone with the cops. The cops were having trouble determining his location. Marathas followed the driver onto Ashmun Street, until the street’s end.
“That’s when I gunned my vehicle,” he said. He cut off the driver with his SUV, then got out and approached the car, which had stopped.
Marathas said he opened the door to the car.
“Turn the car off and get out of the car,” he ordered the driver.
He didn’t know the driver is an alderman. Rodriguez didn’t say so, either. He just sat there and waited for the cops to show up, Marathas said. He looked disheveled and had blood on his face.
“You didn’t hit him, did you?” the cops asked Marathas when they showed up, according to Marathas.
When cops asked Rodriguez for his driver’s license, he gave them a music CD, Marathas said. Rodriguez was charged with driving without a license and driving under the influence, according to police. The alderman does not have a driver’s license, police said.
“I felt bad for the guy,” said Marathas. “He was pretty humble.”
Marathas was relieved to bring the driver safely to a stop.
“The bottom line is you don’t want to have someone you know, you care for or don’t care for getting killed by a DWI,” Marathas said. He said the driver was lucky he didn’t go onto a busier street such as Whalley Avenue, where he might have done some damage.
Advice For Others
The police aren’t calling for citizens to follow Marathas’s example completely.
What should people do if they see a drunk driver?
First, call the cops, said Officer Avery. Then, “if you can follow them, follow them at a safe distance. But be safe. Don’t get reckless about it.”
“Following the guy is one thing, but putting the car in front of him to stop him is another,” Avery said. “I don’t think I would recommend it to people.”
Click on the play arrow to watch Alderman Rodriguez read his apology at a press conference Monday night and promise to influence young people not to drive drunk.
Marathas...good job..glad no one was hurt....you could have been hurt you didn't know if this guy had a gun or not.....thankful he was mild manner alderman joe from fair haven...god be with you ..