Lawyer: Cook intends to plead not guilty to DWI

The attorney for former City Councilor Michael Cook, who resigned this week after a DWI arrest, says his client made the right call in stepping down just hours after news of the arrest broke.

But that doesn’t mean Cook should “put his head on the chopping block” and plead guilty, attorney David Serna said, especially since the attorney claims Albuquerque police could have violated Cook’s Constitutional rights when an officer pulled him over Wednesday night on Candelaria NE.

Serna declined to delve into specific alleged rights violations Friday evening, but he said Cook will enter a not guilty plea at his upcoming arraignment. Serna also disputed several claims, made in police documents, that have been reported in the media, including that Cook drove his car into a gutter and that Cook’s license plate was obscured at the time of the arrest.

However, Serna said Cook made the right decision in resigning, because he “put himself in a position where he could be accused of this.”

An APD spokesman declined to comment late Friday.

APD lapel camera video released Friday shows an officer saying that he pulled Cook over because he swerved off the road toward a gutter and because the officer was unable to read his license plate.

Cook told police he had one beer an hour before being stopped, according to the video, but he did appear to fail a field sobriety test. Police said Cook’s blood-alcohol content was above 0.08, the state’s presumed level of intoxication.