If you take a three-hour drive southeast of Loudoun County, you will travel backwards in time. When you arrive in James City County, you will find James City County, known as home to historic Jamestown and its proximity to Colonial Williamsburg, two of America’s finest links to our proud past.
James City County is also the place where police recently arrested the Commonwealth’s Attorney for Surry County on a charge of driving under the influence. The 73-year-old prosecutor was arrested on Saturday around 3:40 p.m.
Law enforcement officials said the Surry County prosecutor brushed his car against another vehicle as he drove it on to the Jamestown-Scotland Ferry on Saturday afternoon. According to an area television station, the prosecutor initially bumped a curb with his vehicle. Ferry employees reportedly tried to stop him at that point, but he apparently drove his car on to the ferry where he then struck another car.
There were no injuries, and damage to the vehicles was described as minor.
James City County police officers were called to the scene, however, and after talking with the prosecutor, reportedly administered a half-dozen field sobriety tests. The TV report says he “failed them completely.”
He was then arrested and charged with DUI and a failure to have in his possession a valid driver’s license.
It’s likely that the prosecutor has been on the opposite side many times, charging others with driving under the influence of alcohol. Now he will find out how the other half lives. Like most people interested in doing all they can to avoid the harshest of Virginia’s drunk driving penalties, he will soon speak with an attorney experienced in effective DUI defense.
Source: WTKR.com, “Warrant: Surry Co. Commonwealth’s Attorney, charged with DUI, given six field sobriety tests, ‘failed them completely,'” Charlene O’Reggio, Mike Mather, Dec. 1, 2014