The California Highway Patrol issued a press release this morning providing some details of Saturday's arrest of Humboldt County Planning Commissioner Noah Levy. See the full release following the original post below.


Original Post:
Humboldt County Planning Commissioner Noah Levy was arrested early Saturday morning on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol in Southern Humboldt.

Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office Lt. Steve Knight confirmed Levy was arrested by officers from the California Highway Patrol’s Garberville station and booked into the jail at about 2:35 a.m. on suspicion of driving with a blood-alcohol level above the legal limit of .08. It's a misdemeanor offense, and Knight said Levy was released on his own recognizance shortly before 7 a.m.

Neither a spokesman nor a supervisor was available at the Garberville CHP office to field questions from the Journal this morning, and a receptionist said no one would be available to provide details of the arrest until tomorrow.

The Humboldt County District Attorney's Office has yet to make a charging decision in the case.

Appointed to the planning commission in January by Third District Supervisor Mark Lovelace, Levy also serves on the board of the nonprofit Environmental Protection Information Center and is the acting lands program director for SoHum’s Sanctuary Forest. Calls placed to Levy and Lovelace were not immediately returned, but the Journal will update this post as more information becomes available.

The following is a press release from the CHP:

On 7/12/2014 at approximately 0215 hours, Garberville CHP Officers were on patrol on Briceland Road, just west of Redway, CA. The officers attention was drawn to a silver Honda Fit traveling westbound on Briceland Road, ahead of their patrol vehicle. The officers observed the Honda exceeding the posted speed limit and failing to stop a stop sign. An enforcement stop was conducted on the vehicle near the area of Ruby Valley. They contacted the driver of the Honda and he was identified as Noah Levy, of Arcata, CA. While at the vehicle the officers smelled a strong odor of an alcoholic beverage emitting from within the vehicle. Levy was asked to exit his vehicle and subsequently was asked to perform a series of Field Sobriety Tests. Based upon his performance and observations made by the officers, Levy was placed under arrest for suspicion of Driving Under the Influence of Alchol (DUI). He was taken and booked into the Humboldt County Jail at approximately 0535 hours.