Hampden County Sheriff Nick Cocchi was arrested for driving while intoxicated on Saturday in Springfield, Massachusetts, at the MGM casino.
Cocchi was charged with one count of operating a vehicle under the influence and was released on his own recognizance.
The sheriff appeared at Springfield District Court on Monday morning for a brief arraignment. He pleaded not guilty. His next court date is Oct. 29.
Outside the courthouse after his appearance, Cocchi spoke briefly to reporters.
"I take full responsibility for what happened this past Saturday," he said. "I look forward to moving forward with the sheriff's office and continuing to do the great work that my men and women do each and every day for our community."
Cocchi did not take any questions before departing.
"I hate to give a comment and run," he said, "but unfortunately, I have got to get back to work."
State Attorney General Andrea Campbell's office is prosecuting the case, the office said, because it has jurisdiction for incidents on casino property.
NEPM requested a police report from the Springfield Police and the Massachusetts State Police, but did not immediately hear back. Court documents outlining the charge against Cocchi were not immediately available as of Monday morning.
The Hampden County sheriff runs the Hampden County Correctional Center and the Western Massachusetts Regional Women's Correctional Center, among other law enforcement facilities and services. Cocchi has worked for the sheriff's office since 1993, and became sheriff in 2017.
During his 2016 campaign, Cocchi provided his personnel file to The Republican newspaper. It contained two alcohol-related incidents described in the paper's reporting. In the first, Cocchi was suspended for three days in 1996 for drinking a beer in the parking lot of the jail.
Less than a year later, the newspaper reported, Cocchi and other jail employees attending a training at Westover Air Reserve Base left the base at the end of the day in a sheriff's department van and drove to a strip club. Cocchi acknowledged drinking two beers at the strip club and another at an unnamed location.
"I am mostly sorry for embarrassing myself, the fine instructors we had at Westover and my department," Cocchi wrote in the file.
Cocchi was not suspended for the strip club excursion, The Republican reported, and his file contained no discipline in the years that followed.
