Police: Driver bit officer, tried to flee

A man who was found slumped over the wheel of a car stopped at a red light bit an officer and attempted to flee after he failed a sobriety test, Nassau County police said Friday.

Police said officers first spotted Craig R. Wallace, 46, of Valley Stream, slumped behind the wheel Thursday at Jericho Turnpike and Commonwealth Boulevard in Bellerose Village.

After the failed field-sobriety test, police said Wallace wrestled with an officer and bit him on the hand, breaking the skin.

Wallace and his passenger, Tania J. Figueroa, 35, both of 168 Hendrickson Ave., were arrested at 6:08 p.m., police said.

Wallace was charged with second-degree assault, third-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, two counts of seventh-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, resisting arrest and driving while ability impaired.

Figueroa, who police said dropped a glassine envelope on the ground exiting the car and attempted to crush it with her foot, was charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance and tampering with physical evidence.

Police said 119 glassine envelopes were recovered from the vehicle, as were drug paraphernalia. Police said test results are pending on the substance found in those envelopes.

Wallace and Figueroa are both scheduled for arraignment Friday in First District Court in Hempstead.