Two stories follow:
Date: 5/27/2009
Police: Boy, 12, hits car while driving drunk dad
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Tampa Police have arrested a man they say sat drunk in the passenger seat of his SUV while he let his 12-year-old son drive. Authorities say the boy hit a pregnant woman’s car while making a turn.
Both vehicles had minor damage Saturday. No injuries were reported, but the woman asked to be taken to a hospital as a precaution. She was eight months pregnant.
Police say the boy’s father, 32-year-old Adrian Kegler, was clearly intoxicated. He wasn’t given a breathalyzer test because he wasn’t driving.
Before being released on bail, Kegler was charged with culpable negligence with actual injury. Kegler also was charged with permitting an unauthorized person to drive and child neglect.
A woman who answered the phone at Kegler’s house declined comment.
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Information from: St. Petersburg Times, http://tampabay.com
Date: 5/27/2009
7-year-old drives for help after crash in NM
CLOVIS, N.M. (AP) — A 7-year-old girl survived a crash that killed her father and drove the family’s damaged vehicle to get help, police said.
State police Capt. Jimmy Glascock says 40-year-old Guillermo Montes of Bovina, Texas, was thrown out of the vehicle Saturday night when it went off a highway and rolled over, coming to rest in a field in Curry County.
Glascock says little Elizabeth Kazza realized her father was dead and drove for about three miles until a passing motorist spotted her.
“(It took) a lot of courage. … It’s remarkable anybody could drive after something like that,” Glascock said.
Authorities found Montes dead at the scene. The girl and her 4-year-old brother were treated for minor injuries.
State police said Wednesday that Elizabeth told officers her dad was driving to Clovis, about 25 miles from Bovina, to get beer when they crashed.
They said alcohol was believed to be a factor in the crash. Glascock said beer bottles were found at the scene, and that Elizabeth and her younger brother said Montes was drinking as he drove.
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Information from: Clovis News Journal, http://www.cnjonline.com
Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.
Ex-congressman may get jail for drunken driving
Date: 12/8/2008
By DEVLIN BARRETT
Associated Press Writer
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — Disgraced former Rep. Vito Fossella is headed to court to find out if he has to serve jail time for a drunken-driving incident that wrecked his career by revealing he’d fathered a child from an extramarital affair.
A judge has scheduled a Monday afternoon hearing to decide if Fossella, a New York City congressman for more than a decade, was so drunk he should be slapped with a five-day jail sentence.
Fossella was arrested after running a red light on May 1 in a Virginia suburb of Washington, and convicted of drunken driving in October. Under Virginia law, a driver who registers a blood alcohol content of 0.15 or higher must serve five days behind bars. Police say Fossella’s blood alcohol content was 0.17.
The arrest led to revelations that Fossella — who has a wife and three children in his home district of Staten Island — also had a young daughter with a former Air Force officer.
Fossella decided not to seek re-election this year, and a Democrat won his seat. Now, Fossella faces the prospect of ending his once-promising political career with a stint in the slammer.
Judge Becky Moore of Alexandria General District Court has received pre-sentencing arguments from both sides.
In court papers, Fossella’s lawyer, Jerry Phillips, contends the machine the police used to test Fossella’s blood alcohol content was faulty and for that reason he should not face jail time.
The lawyer is asking the judge to sentence Fossella to a suspended jail sentence, an alcohol safety course and a one-year suspension of his driver’s license in Virginia.
Prosecutor David Lord dismissed the contention there was anything wrong with Fossella’s intoxication test results, and suggested Fossella may have pounded drinks just before getting behind the wheel, which would have led to his 0.17 reading on the machine.
“It is a reasonable inference that if a person ‘slams’ or rapidly consumes alcohol immediately before leaving a bar, the suspect will experience a rising BAC at the time of arrest,” Lord argued, referring to the blood alcohol level.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
By DEVLIN BARRETT
Associated Press Writer
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — Disgraced former Rep. Vito Fossella is headed to court to find out if he has to serve jail time for a drunken-driving incident that wrecked his career by revealing he’d fathered a child from an extramarital affair.
A judge has scheduled a Monday afternoon hearing to decide if Fossella, a New York City congressman for more than a decade, was so drunk he should be slapped with a five-day jail sentence.
Fossella was arrested after running a red light on May 1 in a Virginia suburb of Washington, and convicted of drunken driving in October. Under Virginia law, a driver who registers a blood alcohol content of 0.15 or higher must serve five days behind bars. Police say Fossella’s blood alcohol content was 0.17.
The arrest led to revelations that Fossella — who has a wife and three children in his home district of Staten Island — also had a young daughter with a former Air Force officer.
Fossella decided not to seek re-election this year, and a Democrat won his seat. Now, Fossella faces the prospect of ending his once-promising political career with a stint in the slammer.
Judge Becky Moore of Alexandria General District Court has received pre-sentencing arguments from both sides.
In court papers, Fossella’s lawyer, Jerry Phillips, contends the machine the police used to test Fossella’s blood alcohol content was faulty and for that reason he should not face jail time.
The lawyer is asking the judge to sentence Fossella to a suspended jail sentence, an alcohol safety course and a one-year suspension of his driver’s license in Virginia.
Prosecutor David Lord dismissed the contention there was anything wrong with Fossella’s intoxication test results, and suggested Fossella may have pounded drinks just before getting behind the wheel, which would have led to his 0.17 reading on the machine.
“It is a reasonable inference that if a person ‘slams’ or rapidly consumes alcohol immediately before leaving a bar, the suspect will experience a rising BAC at the time of arrest,” Lord argued, referring to the blood alcohol level.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
