Cops: Fed corrections officer charged in drunken wrong-way crash

An off-duty federal corrections officer is facing drunken driving and weapons possession charges after driving the wrong way into a head-on collision Monday morning on the Wantagh Parkway, State Police said.

Troopers said Philip Tolliver, 28, of 16 Venedia Dr. in Wheatley Heights, drove a 2003 Lexus southbound on the parkway in the north lanes. They responded to a head-on collision at about 4:05 a.m.

Neither Tolliver, an off-duty corrections officer assigned to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, nor the other driver was seriously injured, police said.

The other driver, Jiovanny Guzman, 26, of Bayside, was taken by ambulance to Nassau University Medical Center, treated for minor injuries and released.

Tolliver recorded .14 percent on a breath-analyzer test, police said, and was arrested. He is charged with possession of a weapon, driving while intoxicated, reckless endangerment, reckless driving and assault, police said.

Tolliver had a loaded .357 Glock pistol, police said, and claimed the weapon was purchased legally in California. However, police said his employer "had no record of Tolliver having this weapon."

James Davis, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Detention Center, would only confirm the facility employs a Philip Tolliver as a corrections officer but would not provide any other information. "It is an incident that happened off-duty," Davis said. .

Commander Maj. Walter Heesch of Troop L in Farmingdale said in a release that "according to New York State Law, there is no exemption that permits a federal corrections officer to carry a weapon based on his employment." Heesch said the incident is another example of how a driver impaired by alcohol could have caused a "disastrous" accident.

Tolliver is scheduled for arraignment Monday at First District Court in Hempstead.