Cass Politics

Allen Edmonds

A veteran Raymore police officer in his 15th year on the force resigned last week after being cited March 13 for driving while intoxicated after being stopped by a Missouri State Highway Patrol trooper on Kentucky Road just north of M-58 Highway.

Sgt. Scott Lininger, 32, who was off-duty and driving a private vehicle at the time, was stopped by Cpl. C.F. Scott at 11:28 p.m. March 13 after Scott observed him turning north from M-58 onto Kentucky Road, according to court documents.

“During the course of the turn, the vehicle failed to drive on the right half of the road and drove up over the curb and into the grass,” Scott wrote in a probable cause statement.

According to the police report, Lininger told the trooper he believed he was turning onto Foxridge.

Upon further investigation, Scott said he noticed that Lininger’s eyes were watery, bloodshot and glassy; his speech was slurred and he mumbled and was incoherent at times.

Due to Lininger’s performance on a series of field sobriety tests and his “inability to drive in a single lane,” he was arrested on the DWI charge and transported to the Cass County Jail in Harrisonville, according to the statement.

At the jail, Lininger voluntarily provided a breath sample just more than an hour following the traffic stop. That sample registered a blood alcohol content of .186 percent, according to the statement. The Missouri limit for blood alcohol content while driving is .08 percent.

Lininger was also cited for failure to drive on the right side of the roadway, according to court documents. He will be arraigned May 5 in Cass County Circuit Court on the charges before Judge Williams Collins.

Lininger joined the Raymore Police Department in August 1994, according to city human resources director Lisa York. He resigned March 30.

Interim Police Chief Roger Mayberry said Monday he had been directed not to comment on the case, due to personnel requirements.