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The DNAinfo archives brought to you by WNYC.
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Officer Charged With Beating Woman Arrested Again for Drunk Crash: Police

MANHATTAN — An off-duty NYPD officer who once broke into a woman's apartment and beat her while telling her "sometimes I'm a bad guy" was arrested again Sunday after he drunkenly crashed into three parked cars in Hamilton Heights, police said.

Eugene Donnelly, 29, crashed and flipped his Audi A4 outside 583 Riverside Drive, near West 136th Street, minutes after midnight, prosecutors said.

Rescuers pulled him from the wreck and noticed he had watery bloodshot eyes, smelled like alcohol, had a flushed face and was slurring his speech, prosecutors said. He was arrested about 1:50 a.m. Sunday, an NYPD spokeswoman said.

He faces charges of driving while intoxicated and driving while his ability was impaired by alcohol, but hadn't been arraigned as of Monday morning, according to police and court records.

Donnelly has a mixed record as an officer. He was awarded the Police Combat Cross after he arrested a gunman who opened fire on him in The Bronx in 2012.

Then, in June 2014, he broke the front-door lock of an apartment near East 234th Street and Webster Avenue about 5:30 a.m. and walked in on a woman inside, prosecutors said. Donnelly was only wearing a pair of black underwear, according to the Daily News.

"Shh. It's OK, just put a shirt on," Donnelly told the victim.

He then grabbed her, hit her face and said, "I'm a good guy, but sometimes I'm a bad guy," according to prosecutors.

He dragged her by the armpits into a bedroom where he continued to hit her face, leaving her bloodied, swollen and with a headache, prosecutors said.

Officials argued that he had been drunk at the time, but Donnelly argued that he was actually sleepwalking, according to the Daily News.

He was charged in that case with assault, criminal mischief and criminal trespassing, records show. After he was charged in 2014, the NYPD placed Donnelly on modified duty while his case is pending, but after the crash Sunday the department suspended the officer.

He was released and is due back in court June 21 on the 2014 charges, court records show.