Man denies DUI 5 charge

A driver whose license was already under suspension for life was charged with his fifth drunken driving offense after he led police on a 2-mile weaving drive through Springfield late at night and then scuffled with officers in his driveway, according to court records.

http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20110108/THISJUSTIN/708299863

Published January 8, 2011 in the Rutland Herald

Man denies DUI5 charge

SPRINGFIELD — A driver whose license was already under suspension for life was charged with his fifth drunken driving offense after he led police on a 2-mile weaving drive through Springfield late at night and then scuffled with officers in his driveway, according to court records.

Gregory Welch, 45, entered innocent pleas this week to a felony count of DUI5 and to accompanying misdemeanor charges of driving despite a suspended license, attempting to elude, providing false information to police and resisting arrest. Welch was ordered to observe a nighttime curfew in his residence while his case is pending.

Springfield Police Officer Anthony Moriglioni said he first noticed Welch’s Chevrolet Blazer just after 11 p.m. on the evening of Dec. 16 while patrolling Route 11 near the F.W. Webb building.

“The driver’s side tires of the Blazer went completely over the double-yellow lines and then drifted back over to the white lane-dividing line,” Moriglioni wrote in his affidavit, adding, “The vehicle then continued to swerve from the yellow to the white line a couple of times…(over) a distance of 300 yards.”

Moriglioni switched on his blue lights but, instead of pulling over, Welch took a left onto Grove Street and then continued onto Union Street. Moriglioni said he watched as Welch drove up over a curb near a fire hydrant and then back into the street before pulling into the driveway at Welch’s residence — a distance of nearly 2 miles from where the pursuit had begun.

Moriglioni said when he grabbed Welch by the wrist and pulled him from the vehicle, asking why he hadn’t stopped, Welch said “he didn’t realize it was he who I wanted to pull over.” Asked how much he had to drink that evening, Welch allegedly replied “Nothing.”

As more police began to arrive, two women came out of the residence to see what was going on and “were given the hard orders” to go back inside, Moriglioni wrote, at which point he said, “Welch started to pull away from me and started yelling and became belligerent.”

Told he was under arrest and to stop resisting, Welch allegedly failed to do so, finally ending up on the ground in handcuffs with “a small cut to the bridge of his nose.”

Police said Welch later blew a 0.142 percent blood-alcohol level on a breath test he took at the Springfield Police Department. The legal limit for driving in Vermont is 0.08.

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