Matt Amorello was so drunk that he passed out on the floor of the police station before having his mug shot taken, which could only be done with police holding his head up. Earlier, they needed pepper spray to get him to let go of his steering wheel so he could be arrested.

“I don’t know what happened. Probably politics at its highest,” Amorello’s heartbroken brother-in-law, Peter Adams, told the Herald. “He doesn’t deserve that. Everybody talks about the negative, but he’s a wonderful person. I saw him at Christmas and he was good. Typical Matt: smiling, laughing, joking with his brothers.”

It was a stark, shocking end of the road for the pol who once commanded the greeting “Mr. Chairman” and orchestrated the biggest public works project in the nation’s history.

Instead of going to court for his arraignment yesterday, Matt went to the hospital.

Haverhill District Court Judge Stephen S. Abany issued a default warrant for Amorello’s arrest yesterday after he failed to appear for his arraignment on drunken driving and motor vehicle charges.

Abany was informed Amorello, 52, was an “inpatient” at UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester. Hogan is expected to appear in court this morning and ask for a continuance date.