MAN FACES 8TH DUI RAP
COPS: PROSPECT PARK MAN ASLEEP IN U.D. INTERSECTION BUSTED AGAIN
UPPER DARBY » A Prospect Park man was taken into custody Thursday for what police said was his eighth DUI arrest.
Timothy Fries, 48, of the 600 block of Summit Avenue, has been incarcerated since his arrest on the morning of Feb. 22. Charged with DUI, driving with blood-alcohol content of .02 or greater while his license was suspended and careless driving, he’s being held at the county prison in lieu of posting 10 percent of $25,000 bail, according to online court records.
According to township Police Superintendent Michael Chitwood, a bus driver for the Upper Darby School District who had just dropped students off at Hillcrest Elementary School alerted police to a vehicle stopped in the intersection of State Road and Fairfax Avenue.
It was about 8:45 a.m. when township Police Officer John Donohue was dispatched the intersection for a maroon Jeep Cherokee which was blocking the roadway. “The operator was asleep behind the wheel,” states the affidavit of probable cause document authored by Donohue.
According to the affidavit, Donohue was met at the scene by the 911 caller whose school bus could not get around the Jeep.
Donohue approached the Jeep and found the operator asleep, and the car transmission in drive, the affidavit states. The driver was identified as Fries.
“I knocked on the window and the operator would not wake up,” the affidavit states. “(Donohue) opened the driver’s door and reached in to put the transmission into park.”
It was at that point that the driver woke up and, with slurred speech, according to the affidavit, asked the officer what was going on.
Donohue smelled a strong odor of alcohol from the operator’s breath, and also noticed his eyes were “glazed over and bloodshot,” the affidavit states.
When Donohue asked the driver to exit the vehicle, he “struggled getting up and stumbled out” of the vehicle.
Donohue asked the operator if he had been drinking.
“Yes, some beer and vodka last night,” Fries reportedly responded, according to the affidavit.
According to the affidavit, Fries failed three fieldsobriety tests including a horizontal gaze nystagmus test, a walk and turn test and a one-leg stand test.
“All of the combined factors led (Donohue) to opinion that Mr. Fries was incapable of safely operating a motor vehicle on the traffic ways of the commonwealth,” the affidavit states.
Donohue took Fries into custody. According to the affidavit, Fries refused chemical testing.
“While at headquarters the criminal history and driver’s record of Mr. Fries was checked. Mr. Fries has been arrested seven times for DUI,” the affidavit.
Additionally, Fries has two prior convictions for driving with a suspended license with a blood-alcohol content .02 or greater, the affidavit states.
According to online court records, Fries was sentenced to confinement after pleading guilty to second-degree misdemeanor driving under the influence of alcohol offenses in 1989, twice in 1992, 1993, twice in 1997, 2000. His sentences ranged from 90 days to two years.
He was sentenced in 2008 to serve two to five years for DUI, third offense, according to online court records.
Fries’ criminal history also includes guilty pleas for other offenses including resisting arrest, possession on of marijuana, escape and simple assault, online records show. Additionally, he has active case in Philadelphia involving a possession of a controlled substance offense, records show.
Chitwood lauded the school bus driver.
“This guy is a danger to society,” Chitwood said of Fries. “He should not be behind the wheel of a 5,000-pound vehicle.”
A preliminary hearing is listed for March 6 before Magisterial District Judge Robert J. Radano. It was not immediately known if Fries had retained an attorney.