Screen shot from body cam footage capturing former Dallas Cowboys quarterback and CBS analyst Tony Romo’s arrest in Wisconsin.
Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office
Police officers in Milwaukee found an open bottle of alcohol in Tony Romo’s SUV after the former Cowboys quarterback was arrested on suspicion of operating a vehicle while intoxicated last week.
Romo, who was in Wisconsin for an amateur golf tournament, is facing four citations after he was arrested last Thursday. Unlike in Texas, the Wisconsin violations carry civil penalties without any jail time.
Julius Kim, an attorney listed as representing Romo in Court filings, did not immediately respond to a phone call requesting comment on his client’s citations.
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According to body camera footage of Romo’s arrest, an officer found multiple alcoholic shooters in his backpack after he was pulled over for unsafe passing on the right.
“When my partner brought the backpack that you wanted, we basically do — not an inventory, but I make sure that there are no guns in there,” the officer told Romo, before walking him through field sobriety tests. “And there were a few shooters in there that I observed.”
“I don’t think any of them were drank, right?” Romo said in the recording. The officer did not confirm or deny Romo’s question in the recording.
Watch: Key moments from Tony Romo’s Wisconsin arrest video
A citation filed after Romo’s arrest notes that a second officer found an “open bottle of an alcoholic beverage” in the passenger side of Romo’s vehicle while conducting an inventory — enhancing the possible punishments that the CBS Sports NFL analyst could face.
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Driving while under the influence — the Texas equivalent of Wisconsin’s OWI charge — is a Class B misdemeanor under Texas state law, according to Dallas criminal defense attorney Justin Wilson. A first-time conviction comes with up to $2000 in fines, as well as up to 180 days in jail and a potential year-long license suspension.
If a Texas driver is found with an open bottle of alcohol in the car, this enhances the sentence — upping the mandatory jail time from three to six days. But Wilson said that this enhancement doesn’t have many practical implications on a first offense.
“In Texas, the vast majority of first-time DWIs are going to be resolved with probation, anyways,” he said. “So, that open container enhancement has no impact on somebody’s probation.”
But Romo won’t face any jail or probation time in Wisconsin, according to Taylor Hart, a Wisconsin criminal defense attorney not connected to the case.
“It’s just all civil driving-related penalties— it’s not a criminal offense,” he said. “You would never be forced to do a probation or a jail or anything like that.”
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The second citation for the open bottle of alcohol in his vehicle increases the fines he will face in court, although jail time is still off the table.
Hart said Romo is likely waiting for the results of a blood sample test to determine his blood alcohol level. Romo refused to take tests both before and after he was arrested, and an officer told Romo they plan on applying for a search warrant to obtain a blood test after he was arrested.
While it’s unclear if the warrant has been served, Hart said it could take up to a month for the sample results to come back once Romo is tested. The sample will show Romo’s blood alcohol content and will determine what the next steps look like for the Dallas resident.
“That will kind of affect how the DA prosecutes it, what potential penalties can be, stuff like that,” he said. “A lot is based off of how high the [blood alcohol content] is — if at all.”