Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Lower Makefield man headed to trial on ninth DUI charge

Posted: Wednesday, December 5, 2012


For the ninth time, a 41-year-old Lower Makefield man stood before a district judge on a drunken driving charge Tuesday.
This time, police said Richard Derik Collins’ blood alcohol content registered a .202, police say. That’s more than twice the legal limit for a licensed adult driver and above the legal limit for a driver with a DUI-suspended license such as Collins.
Still, he pleaded not guilty before Bensalem District Judge Leonard Brown, who held him for trial on all charges, including DUI at the highest rate and driving with a blood alcohol content of .02 or greater with a DUI-suspended license, as well as related summary offenses.
The most serious charges are first-degree misdemeanors, which each carry a maximum penalty of five years in jail.
The lone witness at the hearing was Pennsylvania State Trooper Frederick Williams Jr., who testified that he was running speed checks on Aug. 31 along northbound Interstate 95 in Bensalem when he clocked a pickup truck driven by Collins traveling at 74 mph. The posted speed limit is 55 mph.
After pulling over Collins just north of the Street Road exit shortly after 7 p.m., the trooper said he smelled a “moderate” amount of alcohol in the truck’s cab. Williams said that he asked Collins to produce his driver’s license, registration and proof of insurance, but Collins said he couldn’t provide it.
Instead, Collins gave the trooper his name and birth date, which, when Williams checked, showed his driver’s license was DUI suspended in Pennsylvania, he said. The trooper added that he smelled a strong odor of alcohol and that Collins’ movements were slow and sluggish.
Williams had Collins get out of the truck and perform three standard field sobriety tests, and he showed signs of impairment during all of them, according to a probable cause affidavit.
The trooper placed Collins under arrest and he was taken to a local hospital to have blood drawn.
Pennsylvania state police filed the most recent DUI-related charges Sept. 12. Court records show that Collins was convicted of DUI in 1993, 1994, twice in 1995, 1999, 2005 and 2008.
He also had a DUI conviction prior to 1993, when arrest and convictions became available through online court records, according to Bucks County Deputy District Attorney Robert James.
Bucks County prosecutor Lindsey Vaughan presented the court a certified PennDOT driver history that showed Collins had two previous convictions for driving with a DUI-suspended license in September 2004 and December 2007.
Under cross examination by defense attorney David Knight, Williams said he couldn’t recall if Collins told him how much he had to drink that day. He did remember Collins said he was driving home from his job at a garage in Philadelphia.
Knight asked the trooper if he pulled over Collins that evening for speeding only, and not for driving issues. Yes, Williams said.
“You did not notice any other erratic driving,” Knight said. The trooper agreed that he didn’t notice any erratic driving.
Collins remains in Bucks County prison on a detainer, according to online county prison records. That means he must stand before a judge for any chance of getting released.
Collins is serving his final year of probation stemming from his last DUI-related conviction for fleeing the scene of a two-car crash in 2007 on Route 413 in Middletown that sent three people to a hospital.
In November 2008, he pleaded guilty to charges related to that incident including drunken driving, aggravated assault by vehicle while DUI, hit and run, driving without a license and related offenses. He was sentenced to 18 to 36 months in prison, four years of probation and a $2,500 fine.
At his sentencing, Collins apologized and said that he has not touched alcohol since the crash. His attorney also told the judge that his client completed an intensive alcohol rehabilitation program after his arrest.

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