COEUR D'ALENE, Idaho — Body camera footage from police officers shows the night that Gonzaga head basketball coach Mark Few was arrested for driving under the influence in Coeur d'Alene.
Few was cited for a misdemeanor DUI and will serve a three-game suspension.
KREM asked for this footage through a public records request because he is a public figure and to learn more about what happened in the moments before Few was arrested.
The nearly three hours of footage shows the entire incident from when police pulled Few over to when he was released from custody.
Few was pulled over after a Kootenai County Fire and Rescue engine trailed him and reported that he was driving erratically. During the stop, Coeur d'Alene police officers asked Few if he had been drinking. He originally told the officers he hadn't and claims he might have been swerving due to his two dogs that were in the vehicle with him, as shown in the body camera footage.
Few refused to step out of the car at first, and once he got out of the SUV, he refused a field sobriety test. He told officers in body camera footage that he was refusing because he thinks the tests are subjective, and he has sustained multiple injuries to both ankles and knees.
He was later given two breathalyzer tests, which came back as .119 and .120. Few was then arrested and requested a blood test.
At Kootenai Health in Coeur d'Alene, police decided to give him a citation instead of putting him in jail and the body camera footage includes a clip where a Coeur d'Alene Police Sergeant explained why this was the case.
"The officer that you were dealing with didn't know your name to the extent of who you are. I'm not here about your case or what occurred. What I stopped by for essentially was, 'Hey, I'm like, he's a great guy. He's in Spokane. There's really no reason we need to book him probably to jail, so let's just give him a citation," the sergeant said.
In addition to his three-game suspension, Few also was fined $1,000 as part of his guilty plea. He also has to complete 24 hours of community service by February 2022, along with a year of unsupervised probation.
Other penalties include an ignition interlock system on his vehicle, and his license was suspended for 90 days starting Oct. 6, 2021.