Embattled Staten Island Congressman Vito Fossella was convicted tonight of driving under the influence after a Virginia cop said the politician couldn’t recite the alphabet or even stand on one leg after he was pulled over.
Judge Becky Moore scheduled a Dec. 8 hearing to decide if prosecutors had met the legal requirement for high blood alcohol content, which would mean a mandatory five-day jail sentence.
Fossella was also found guilty of running a red light and will have to pay a $100 fine for the traffic violation.
Officer Jamie Gernatt testified that when he approached Fossella’s car on May 1 in Alexandria, he smelled wine and concluded that the politician had been hitting the juice.
“There was a strong odor of alcoholic beverage coming from the car and his lips were stained red,” Gernatt testified in Alexandria General District Court.
When Fossella was asked to recite the alphabet beginning with the letter “D,” he struggled – skipping the letters “G” and “K,” Gernatt said.
Fossella’s lawyers tried to have the alphabet sobriety test tossed, unsuccessfully arguing that the cop should have started with the letter “A.”
Fossella’s arrest led to revelations the married 43-year-old congressman had fathered a child with Laura Fay, a Virginia woman and retired Air Force colonel.
Fossella was at one point asked to stand on one leg for 30-seconds as part of another field sobriety test.
Gernatt said Fossella had to use his arms to maintain his balance, but his lawyers countered that the congressman was nervous.
After Fossella was given the field sobriety tests, he blew a blood- alcohol level of 0.133 on a hand-held Breathalyzer – above the state limit of 0.08.
He was arrested and taken to the Alexandria police station, where a second test on an Intoxylizer 500 machine was inconclusive. Fossella was then taken to the Mt. Vernon, Va., police station for a third test, which registered the higher blood-alcohol level of 0.17.
Fossella, who was not wearing his wedding ring yesterday, vehemently defended himself against the charges – testifying that he had “no more than a glass and a half of wine during dinner” – plus a few more sips at a bar hours before he was busted for blowing a red light.
Fossella’s parents were in the courtroom, while Fay or his wife were not.
Thomas Workman, a defense witness and electrical engineer who specializes in Breathalyzer tests, said the machine was faulty the night Fossella was arrested.
“The software failed on this machine and there really is no other explanation,” he said.