Another Case of Shooting Heroin While Driving?

Days before the Milwaukee County Sheriff Department said an East Troy man pulled over on the interstate near 84th Street to shoot heroin, the Greenfield Police Department believes it dealt with a nearly identical situation on 76th Street.

Ryan Povlick, a 26-year-old Greendale man, is accused of possessing heroin and shooting it into his arm while driving or shortly before driving from downtown Milwaukee to Greenfield on Saturday.

According to the police report, Greenfield police received a call from a woman who said she was parked behind a car that remained stopped at the intersection of 76th Street and Layton Avenue through two traffic light signals. The driver appeared to pass out or fall asleep.

The witness told police prior to that she followed the driver, later identified as Povlick, from downtown Milwaukee and told police he was serving all over the freeway. At one point he cut across five lanes of traffic to enter an interchange ramp, she told police.

Police found Povlick asleep behind the wheel with the car running. When the officer woke Povlick up, he had slow, thick speech and glassy eyes, according to the report.

The officer observed an uncapped hypodermic needle containing clear fluid in the door handle next to the driver, and an additional needle between Povlick’s legs on the drivers seat, also containing a clear fluid. The officer also noticed track marks on both of Povlick’s arms and wrote in his report that fresh blood at the bend of his left arm indicated Povlick had just injected some type of drug or unknown substance.

Povlick told police he was simply tired and was not under the influence of any drugs, but he failed field sobriety tests and was arrested.

Inside his vehicle, police found four small blue zip-lock bags of heroin, totaling more than .4 grams, and a number of drug-related items.

Povlick was charged in Milwaukee County Circuit Court on Tuesday with one count of felony drug possession. Charges for operating while intoxicated are pending drug results; if convicted, it would be his third OWI offense.