A repeat DUI offender claims to have passed out and has no recollection of crashing his vehicle into an SUV that held a pregnant woman and her children; he is now facing several criminal charges. J.L., 53, say that he woke in his car on January 19, saw that his windshield was broken, and proceeded to drive home. He admitted that it was his drunkenness that caused him to pass out shortly before the accident.
J.L. has since pled guilty to fourth offense driving under the influence, five counts of accidents involving injuries and operating a vehicle without a court-ordered ignition interlock. Judge Kelly Banach has scheduled his sentencing for August 21. According to Judge Banach, J.L. will face a mandatory 1-year prison term, with an 11-year maximum. J.L. is currently behind bars in lieu of his $25,000 bail amount. He has 3 prior drunk driving convictions.
J.L.'s blood alcohol content registered a 0.37 percent – 4.5 times over the legal limit of 0.08 percent to operate a vehicle – after the accident. He had driven his Sentra through a stop sign at the corner of Tilghman Street and Albright Avenue, then hit a Chevrolet Blazer. J.L. then allegedly woke up and continued driving until he entered his own parking garage.The Blazer was carrying J.P., who was 31 weeks pregnant, her 2 boys aged 9 and 3, and her father was at the wheel.
The reason J.L. left the scene? Although he claimed to have a loss of memory about the accident, he remembered being at the market and wanting to get home to unload his grocery bags. According to police records, witnesses followed him, all of the way to his garage behind his house, and then waited there until police arrived.
J.P. had a bit of a scare during the collision, some spilled juice had fallen into her lap and she was afraid that she had lost her baby. Instead, she was treated for bumps and bruises in an area hospital. She has since delivered a healthy baby.
Records from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation show that J.L.'s license required him to have an ignition interlock device. The system would require J.L. to blow into it to detect if he was sober enough to drive. However, J.L. never had the device installed.
In 2004, J.L. entered the first-time offenders program for DUI. In 2007, he pled guilty to second offense DUI. In the second case he was sentenced to 3 to 23 months in county prison. By 2010 J.L. had his third DUI offense. His blood alcohol was measured at 0.16 percent in the incident. He was sentenced to one to five years behind bars. In 2011, he was paroled. He was on probation at the time of the current crash.