A cop in the tiny village of Walbridge, right outside Toledo, got canned and is now staring down criminal charges after showing up to a call wasted on August 23, 2025. The officer, Michael Ervin, was supposed to check out an open truck door at a house late that night, but he rolled up looking hammered stumbling around, slurring his speech, and just standing in the middle of the street like he didn’t have a care.
The folks who called it in got spooked and dialed dispatch again. When backup cops and medics showed up, they gave him a quick breath test on the spot, and it clocked in at a 0.168% BAC way over Ohio’s 0.08% limit for driving, like more than double.
A few days later, they yanked him off the job and officially fired him on August 25, with it kicking in by September 1. The mayor, Ed Kolanko, made it clear they’ve got no room for that kind of crap in a role where people need to trust you.
A tweet from X.
The couple who owned the truck caught on camera as Mr. Brand and Mrs. Lewis came home, saw the door open, and called the cops. But when Ervin got there, they were like, whoa, this guy’s not right.
“He was staggering and stumbling right up to us,”
They told 13 Action News.
“We had to call dispatch back because we were worried. He just looked straight-up drunk.”
Mrs. Lewis grabbed her phone and filmed him swaying by the cruisers. That breath test nailed the 0.168%. His body cam? Yeah, he forgot to turn it on, so her video’s the main proof they’ve got.
Ervin’s looking at a bunch of charges from that night OVI (that’s Ohio’s DUI), where anything over 0.08% is bad and 0.17% or higher is considered “high BAC.” Plus disorderly conduct, getting in the way of official stuff, and having a gun while buzzed. The Wood County prosecutors are eyeing felonies, so they might drop the misdemeanors for now but keep the door open to refile if they go bigger.
This isn’t his first rodeo with booze. Records show he quit the Toledo PD back in 2022 while they were digging into three alcohol messes. The big one was in 2021 he smashed his truck into a train, and hospital tests showed his BAC at around 0.32%, four times the limit.
Mayor Kolanko owned up that their background check missed all that, and now they’re rethinking how they hire and vet people.
It really makes you wonder if these small-town departments are doing enough to screen out cops with baggage. When guys like this bounce around without anyone catching on, it puts everyone at risk and erodes trust.
Locals and officials are pushing for more openness and accountability. And yeah, those portable breath tests? They’re good for probable cause but might not hold up solo in court legal stuff gets tricky.
As this plays out, it’s a solid reminder transparency, solid checks, and folks staying alert are key to keeping police departments on point and reliable.
