Puerto Rican singer Manny Manuel arrested

Puerto Rican merengue singer Manny Manuel was arrested after crashing his Jeep into a police vehicle in a state of drunkenness.

Authorities said in a statement that Cruz Manuel Hernandez Santiago was driving a black 2011 Jeep Cherokee down De Diego Street in the direction from San Juan to Carolina when he rear-ended the cops’ 2015 Ford Taurus.

One of the two officers in the police car suffered slight injuries in Saturday’s accident.

The Puerto Rican artist, 42, took a breathalyzer test that showed an alcohol level of 0.25 percent, three times the 0.08 percent legally permitted on the island.

Manny Manuel was summoned to appear on September 23 at the police station in Santurce district of San Juan in order to determine the possible settlement of the DUI charges.

This was not the Puerto Rican artist’s first run-in with the authorities.

In late 2011, police found him bloody and in critical condition on a roadside in Condado, the tourist area of the Puerto Rican capital, with injuries to the right hip, ribs and face, and again under the influence of alcohol, in an accident never fully explained.

Manny Manuel launched his career with the Tempo Merenguero, Mayra and Celines, and Los Sabrosos del Merengue, before kicking off his act as a soloist in 1994.

(IANS/EFE)