WARWICK –– A veteran federal prosecutor was charged early Thanksgiving morning with refusing to take a chemical breath test after two drivers told the police a man at the wheel of a small BMW appeared “out of it,” was “driving all over the road” and had hit curbs on Airport Road.

After he was pulled over shortly after 1:15 a.m., Gerard B. Sullivan, 50, of Lincoln, an assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Rhode Island, told the arresting officers more than once that he was a prosecutor, according to the police chief. Sullivan said he knew the police chief, according to the police report, and asked the arresting officer if there was “anything he could do.”

Sullivan is one of five people that Warwick officers charged with refusing to submit to a chemical breath test — a motor vehicle violation — through the Thanksgiving weekend, according to the police log. He was the only one not also charged with driving under the influence, which is a criminal charge.

Warwick Police Chief Stephen M. McCartney said Tuesday that he knows Sullivan only professionally, from McCartney’s years working in the Providence Police Department, and that he knew nothing of Thursday’s arrest until The Journal called. He said that the determination of what charges to bring was made by the officer in charge at the station Thursday morning, Lt. Jeffrey Enos, as is customary. McCartney said it was the opinion both of Enos and the arresting officer, Russell Brown, that Brown did not have enough evidence to bring a charge of driving under the influence.

Enos said Tuesday he did not know at the time that Sullivan was a prosecutor.

Sullivan is scheduled to appear before the Rhode Island Traffic Tribunal on Dec. 18 to face the chemical-test charge, according to the police. He did not return a message left Tuesday on his work voice-mail, nor a call his wife took at their home. Thomas Connell, spokesman for U.S. Attorney Peter F. Neronha, said Sullivan was on “travel status” Tuesday and away from the office.

Connell said Neronha was aware of the charge against Sullivan. “Warwick police are handling that,” he said, “and this office, in consultation with the Department of Justice, will address any administrative consequences that may result.”Sullivan was chief of the department’s criminal division until a few years ago, Connell said. Among the cases he has tried were those against Kenneth D. Day for the June 2000 carjacking and murder of two college students taken from downtown Providence, and those stemming from the Operation Checkmate investigation a decade ago, which led to the conviction of six members of the Almighty Latin King Nation on charges of racketeering, witness intimidation and two murders.

OFFICERS PURSUED Sullivan’s car because of tips from two drivers, according to the police report.

Brown located the BMW in the vicinity of 1565 Post Rd. and saw it move from the far right lane into the left lane, across the double yellow line and back. Then, Brown wrote in his report, the car came to an abrupt stop and turned right, as if turning down a street. But there was no street there. The car came to a stop perpendicular to oncoming traffic, with its front end facing the curb.

Brown approached the driver, who said he was “coming from the tavern,” and the officer detected “a strong odor of an alcoholic beverage,” the report says. Brown asked Sullivan if he had had anything to drink, and he said yes, the report says; when asked how much, he replied, “too much.”

Brown asked him to submit to a series of standardized field sobriety tests. Sullivan had “extreme difficulty keeping his head straight and following the stimulus with only his eyes without moving his head as instructed,” was “unable to stand in the heel-to-toe stance,” “repeatedly missed heel-to-toe contact,” continually raised his arms more than 6 inches from his side for balance, and “placed his foot down continuously” when asked to stand on one leg, according to Brown’s report.

The police impounded the 2006 silver BMW Sullivan was driving after determining he was “unfit to operate a motor vehicle due to the intoxicating effects of liquor and/or drugs,” Brown wrote.

AT THE STATION, Sullivan refused to take the chemical breath test.

He asked if there was any way he could stay at police headquarters “until he sobered up,” according to the report. Sullivan did not want to call his wife, Suzanne. But after Brown told him he would be taken to Kent Hospital for “detox,” Sullivan called her.

Before leaving the station with her, the report says, Sullivan “again asked Off. Brown if there was anything he could do and that his job was in jeopardy.”On Tuesday, McCartney initially said he would need to conduct an internal investigation to determine why Sullivan was not charged with both refusing to take a chemical test and driving under the influence. Department policy, he said, is to double-charge, although that doesn’t always happen.

After speaking with Brown, another responding officer, and their supervisors from that overnight shift, McCartney said the officers did not believe they had a strong enough case to charge Sullivan with driving under the influence.

Partly, he said, Brown did not see what the drivers who gave the initial tips saw –– and those drivers did not give statements.

“But I don’t think the fact he was a public official had any bearing on the arrest the officers made,” McCartney said. “He was treated like anybody else, and had all the circumstances been there, I think they would have double-charged.”

kbramson@projo.com