Psychiatrist Matthew Hopkins, Prison Time for DUI Crash

On March 14, 2017 Psychiatrist Matthew Hopkins, high on inhalants, crashed head-on into an oncoming vehicle. After a Monday-Tuesday trial, a Park County jury convicted Hopkins of a felony count of aggravated assault and battery and misdemeanor counts of driving while under the influence of a substance and unlawful use of a toxic substance.

 

On Wednesday morning, a District Judge ordered Hopkins to serve 18 to 36 months in prison for the offenses.

 

Though it went to trial, there was little dispute about what Hopkins did. After inhaling substances from a can of Dust-Off, Hopkins tried driving to his office, but passed out and drifted over a street centerline into the wrong lane. His car crashed into a truck driven by Jamie Bunker, knocking Bunker’s vehicle back about 15 feet.

 

At trial, Hopkins did not contest his guilt to the DUI and unlawful use of a substance charges. The only real issue for the jury to determine was whether Hopkins had committed aggravated assault by “knowingly caus[ing] bodily injury to Jamie Bunker with a deadly weapon,” with the weapon being his car.

 

The Deputy Park County Attorney argued that Hopkins, who she described as a “super smart doctor,” made a knowing choice to drive impaired. “He knows the risk of huffing, but he still chose to voluntarily drive,” the Deputy Park County Attorney said.

 

His medical license in New Hampshire was suspended in 2003 for writing himself prescriptions and the Wyoming Board of Medicine suspended his license from November 2011 to April 2012 for noncompliance with a monitoring program. All license restrictions were removed in mid-2015, but a series of public relapses started in late 2016. Shortly after the March crash, Hopkins voluntarily suspended his medical license and he completed a drug treatment program.

 

He was re-arrested in late June 2017 after he fell on his bicycle; responding police officers found his blood alcohol content at more than two-and-a-half times the point at which a person is considered too intoxicated to drive.

 

He relinquished his Wyoming license in December and had recently been working to install sprinkler systems.

 

CJ Baker,"Cody psychiatrist convicted, sent to prison for DUI crash," Powell Tribune, 21 June 2018, http://www.powelltribune.com/stories/cody-psychiatrist-convicted-sent-to-prison-for-dui-crash,14507