After a long-running dispute between the police department and the current mayor of Macungie, the mayor's thirty-year-old son has pleaded guilty to DUI and was sentenced to 45 days of house arrest, as reported by The Morning Call.
J.R.H., in his second DUI offense, will also be on a 4 ½ month probation following his house arrest.
Lehigh County court papers show that Judge Maria L. Dantos additionally ordered J.R.H. to pay a fine of $750, to discontinue drinking and undertake drug and alcohol counseling.
J.R.H. is also to finish a safe driving course.
The Mayor of Macungie, R.H., is J.R.H.'s father.
Angelo Almonti, a Whitehall-based attorney representing J.R.H., said, "I think he just wanted to put it behind him." Almonti continued by saying that the sentencing was "fairly standard" and that his client, as the son of the mayor, "didn't get any special treatment, nor did he get punished any more."
J.R.H. was arrested almost two years ago for both drunken, and careless, driving. Macungie police officers that arrested him said that his blood alcohol was 0.13 percent at the time of the arrest.
The legal driving limit is 0.08 percent.
Part of the negotiated guilty plea deal allowed for the removal of the charge of careless driving.
R.H., campaigning for mayor before his son's arrest, denied allegations that he told officers in the Macungie police department that he was going to "get" whichever one of them arrested his son.
R.H. took office in January 2010. At the time, the police chief, E.H.Jr., denied giving the mayor the department's complete work schedule - as he believed that the alleged threat could put his officers in danger.
The issue of the work schedule was the subject of a court battle that involved not only the mayor and police chief, but also the borough council. Judge Michele A. Varricchio ruled that R.H. was now the chief law enforcement officer of the borough, and as such, was entitled to access police department records.
J.R.H.'s arrest occurred on October 28, 2009. Police officer T.B. had heard an engine revving up near S. Poplar and Hickory streets and pulled the driver over.
In checking
J.R.H.'s identification, he learned that he may be related to the same man campaigning for the mayor's seat.
Officer T.B. then contacted Cpl. M.M. to join him. Officer T.B. returned to J.R.H.'s vehicle.
He testified that it was then that he noticed the odor of alcohol.
Officer T.B. gave J.R.H. three sobriety tests - he failed all of them.
In court, Almonti had argued that the officer had no just cause in pulling his client over. He had filed pre-trial paperwork asking for the case be dropped.
Almonti claimed that the blood used in the blood-alcohol test was not taken legally.
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