Crime & Safety
Lou Diamond Phillips Charged With DWI Near Corpus Christi
The actor, who played Ritchie Valens in the 1987 movie, "La Bamba," faces a DWI charge for allegedly driving intoxicated in Portland.
PORTLAND, TX — Lou Diamond Phillips, the actor who played Ritchie Valens in the 1987 movie, "La Bamba," faces a DWI charge after allegedly driving in Portland, Texas, with a blood alcohol content more than twice the legal limit.
An officer was conducting an unrelated traffic stop when Phillips, 55, pulled up and asked for directions, police Chief Mark Cory said. The officer suspected Phillips had been drinking. Phillips' blood alcohol content was .20 percent, Cory said. Phillips, who listed a California address, was cooperative.
Police arrested Phillips around 1:30 a.m. Friday. He was released after posting $2,500 bail, jail records showed.
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The incident apparently happened just hours before he appeared at a speaking engagement in Corpus Christi.
Jail records listed no attorney for Phillips, a 1980 graduate of Corpus Christi's Flour Bluff High School.
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Photo credit: Portland Police Department via AP