A Cody man who crashed into a downtown light pole late Thursday night said he swerved to miss a deer; Powell police, however, say he was drunk.

The crash occurred shortly before midnight on South Bent Street, near its intersection with Park Street and Coulter Avenue.

When Powell Police Officer Braden Hancock arrived on scene, driver Thomas M. Thompson, explained that he’d been shaken up, but was OK. According to the officer, the 36-year-old was also slurring his speech, stumbling and smelled like alcohol.

“... I asked Thompson how he ended up hitting the pole [and] he stated there was a deer and he swerved to avoid hitting it,” Hancock recounted in a court filing. However, “it did not appear that Thompson had attempted to brake or had swerved,” the officer wrote, noting that Thompson’s truck had “struck a fire hydrant, breaking it [off] its base, run over a sign and hit the light pole with enough force to knock the traffic signal off.”

Thompson reportedly told an EMT that he’d been driving south at about 37 miles an hour before he crashed — above the 25 mph speed limit.

Meanwhile, Powell Police Sgt. Paul Sapp searched for signs of a deer in the downtown area, but found nothing.

Official results from a blood test are pending, but a preliminary portable breath test put Thompson’s blood alcohol content at 0.167 percent — more than twice the legal limit for driving, Hancock’s affidavit says. Thompson also reportedly failed sobriety tests.

He was arrested at the scene and charged with misdemeanor counts of driving while under the influence of alcohol and careless driving.

Thompson pleaded not guilty to the allegations at a Friday morning appearance in Park County Circuit Court and was released from jail after posting $2,500.

A trial is tentatively set for Sept. 5.