First-year Western Kentucky baseball coach John Pawlowski’s recent charge of driving under the influence was dismissed outright Wednesday morning in Warren District Court.

Pawlowski’s attorney, Brian Lowder, told the Daily News on Wednesday that he and his client are “happy to have the matter resolved.”

“We are appreciative that the county attorney allowed us to move the case up and resolve it expeditiously with an unequivocal dismissal of the charge,” Lowder said. “Mr. Pawlowski is relieved to have the unfortunate distraction behind him.”

Pawlowski, 52, was booked at 11:38 p.m. Jan. 29 in Warren County Regional Jail on the DUI charge and released at 5:55 a.m. Jan. 30.

Lowder quickly refuted the charge in a statement Feb. 1, noting that Pawlowski yielded a .021 blood-alcohol content level during a breathalyzer test at Warren County Regional Jail less than an hour after his arrest.

“The law actually creates a presumption that a person with a BAC of .05 or less is not under the influence of alcohol,” Lowder said in a statement Monday. “Here, Mr. Pawlowski’s .02 BAC was 21/2 times less than the .05. There was absolutely no suspicion of drug or prescription medication use. Had there’ve been, the trooper would have conducted different field tests and would have requested a blood test.”

Lowder declined to comment Wednesday on whether or not Pawlowski will seek legal action against Kentucky State Police and the arresting officer, KSP Trooper Ben Whitlock.

“I don’t think it would probably be appropriate to say one way or another,” Lowder said. “But we’re in the process of gathering the actual facts. We want to know what happened to put coach Pawlowski in this situation. I think there was a gross error in judgment, and we intend to gather all the facts. We’re happy to have step one, of dismissing the criminal charges, handled promptly.”

Trooper B.J. Eaton, spokesman for Kentucky State Police Post 3, declined to comment to the Daily News on Wednesday.

Lowder requested to elaborate on a couple of “misconceptions” in regard to the citation from Pawlowski’s arrest, stating he views it as “documentation to substantiate.”

“It looks like the citation is written to try to document the reasons why and substantiate his probable cause, when in the reality, it just wasn’t the true facts,” Lowder said. “That’s what’s most disturbing about this case.”

Lowder said he believes the citation implies that Pawlowski was stopped by KSP, when in fact Pawlowski turned around to return to the vehicle driven by his daughter, who had been stopped behind him.

Pawlowski’s vehicle was approached by Whitlock on Nashville Road at 9:19 p.m. Jan. 29, according to the citation.

”Two vehicles driving slowly on Nashville Rd.,” the citation reported. “Both vehicles swerved slightly. It became apparent that the second vehicle was following the first.”

KSP initiated a stop of the second vehicle, and the first vehicle, driven by Pawlowski, stopped as well, according to the citation.

”The driver of the second vehicle was clearly sober and not under the influence of alcohol or drugs,” the citation reported. “The operator of the first vehicle, John Pawlowski, stated that he had been drinking (within) the hour.”

The officer reported that Pawlowski’s eyes “were red and glassy, smell of alcohol, fumbled for proof of insurance.”

The citation also reported that Pawlowski failed multiple field sobriety tests.

Pawlowski was arrested at 9:38 p.m., according to the citation.

“It reads as if coach Pawlowski was stopped for some sort of traffic violation,” Lowder said Wednesday. “He was not, in fact, stopped. The first error in judgment apparently was the stopping of his daughter, who was following him. The officer claims that there was suspicion that she was under the influence, and it quickly proved that she had consumed no alcohol. By that point, coach Pawlowski had turned around just to come and check on his daughter. He voluntarily stopped, returned to the stop of his daughter, and at that point in time, that’s when the officer questioned him. He was honest with him and told him he had two alcoholic beverages with dinner, which is not a crime of any sort in Kentucky. There’s a misconception that driving after drinking is illegal. That’s not the case. It is only illegal to drive impaired. 

“Coach Pawlowski was entirely responsible in his driving. He made no error in judgment, and he committed no crime whatsoever.”

Pawlowski was administered a breathalyzer test at the jail at 10:36 p.m., at which time he registered a .021 blood-alcohol content level, according to a copy of the test result provided to the Daily News by Lowder. The legal limit is .08.

Pawlowski was processed and booked at the jail about an hour after that test, according to the jail’s website.

Lowder said there’s also a misconception that’s led some to question why Pawlowski was booked after registering a .021 level.

”The one problem we’ve got on DUI arrests is if the officer errors in judgment, which he did in this case with respect to probable cause for the arrest, the person is already under arrest before they take the intoxilyzer down at the station,” Lowder said. “The officer cannot un-arrest him. Once he’s arrested, only a judiciary can take action on that.”

Pawlowski was hired as WKU’s new baseball coach June 4. He’s scheduled to begin his first season Feb. 19 in a home series against Youngstown State.

Pawlowski will meet with reporters Monday to preview the Hilltoppers’ season at media day.

“The speculation that’s been cast on him simply for the fact that he was charged has caused him severe harm and probably irreparably damaged his reputation,” Lowder said. “Not everybody reads the article. Even some that do, they speculate that maybe he was on drugs or medication or that he was intoxicated after two drinks. The way the news spread through social media and through publication, once a lot of this gets out, there’s really no way for him to fix it. It’s really unfortunate.”

— Follow Assistant Sports Editor Zach Greenwell on Twitter at twitter.com/zach_greenwell or visit bgdailynews.com.