Anthony Ellison, 29, of Ceres was arrested for drunken driving and hit-and-run on Wednesday evening, Feb. 12 after he drifted off the road and hit a sign and a pole at 2129 Mitchell Road.
The hit-and-run crash was reported at 8:20 p.m.
Officer Jeremy Caron located the red Hyundai Accent with front-end damage in the Richland Shopping Center and Ellison walking away from it.
Officer Kevin Sakasegawa detained Ellison who had the strong smell of alcohol on his breath. Ellison admitted drinking at a Riverbank gas station and said on the way home to Ceres he was texting while driving and drifted off the road and hit a street sign and pole. He kept going and parked his car in the Richland Shopping Center.
Ellison was driving on a suspended driver’s license for a prior DUI.
After given a field sobriety test and a breathalyzer test revealing a blood alcohol content of 0.11 percent (over the legal limit), Ellison was cited and released to the care of a friend on the scene.