Naples Police officer arrested for DUI, placed on administrative leave

A Naples Police officer has been arrested and put on administrative leave after getting a DUI.

Officer Joseph Craig was arrested on December 18 in Lee County. Craig had an “unlawful blood-alcohol level.” This happened near the intersection of Corkscrew Road and Burgundy Farms Road.

Lee County Sheriff’s deputies say they encountered Craig around 3:30 am on Saturday in Estero. Deputies say they found Craig passed out in the driver’s seat of his truck.

This isn’t the kind of behavior Naples citizens want to see from those sworn to serve and protect them. Naples resident Gary Keister said, “That’s a lot of drinking, a lot.”

“You try to hold them to a higher regard, but you know they are human beings, and they do have faults like any of us,” said Keister.

The arrest report says that the last thing Craig remembers is playing golf before getting into his truck. When asked why he was in Estero and where he was going, Craig told deputies he had ‘no clue’ where he was.

However, Keister says, he has seen too many people make mistakes like this. He deals with it at work almost every day. “Being in the collision business, I see a lot of the other end of it to where people can get seriously hurt, and you don’t realize how serious it is until you’re in a very serious accident,” he said.

Deputies say Craig was visibly intoxicated, and they could smell alcohol on his breath. LCSO deputies described his eyes as bloodshot, watery and glassy.

Craig, luckily, is still alive. “Hopefully, he didn’t put anybody else in danger. It sounds like he probably did,” said Kevin Doly, another Naples resident.

Deputies searched Craig’s truck and found a can of Budlight in a cupholder in the center console that was still cold. Deputies did not say if the can was open.

When asked to get out of the vehicle, Officer Craig could not stand up without swaying.

“You would like to think that he is held responsible like any other citizen would be in Naples and that he is prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law right,” said Doyle.

Craig was released from the Lee County Jail on a $1,000 bond. Now, that officer is being placed on administrative leave from the Naples Police Department.

Craig will appear in court on January 3, 2022.

No mugshot is available for Joseph Craig at this time.