5-time DUI offender pleads to hit-run in Springfield
Gets year probation, tells judge he is sober, going to meetings
A Ridley Park man was sentenced to one year of probation Monday after pleading guilty to accidents with damage to an attendant vehicle and driving with a suspended license, DUI related, for an April hit-and-run in Springfield.
Christian M. Sweeney, 53, of the 400 block of Harrison Street, will serve 60 days on electronic home monitoring, undergo a drug and alcohol evaluation and pay a $500 fine under the negotiated guilty plea worked out by Assistant District Attorney Mary Clay and defense counsel Stephen Schukraft.
Sweeney, a five-time repeat offender for driving under the influence, was charged after a hit-andrun collision with a Volkswagen on the 600 block of Sproul Road on the afternoon of April 19.
According to an affidavit of probable cause for Sweeney’s arrest written by Springfield Detective Daniel McNeely:
Springfield Police Officer Bradley Lord was monitoring traffic in the 700 block of Sproul Road at 5:12 p.m. that day when he received a call for a hit-and-run accident.
Lord found that a pickup truck towing a trailer had struck the rear of a Volkswagen, causing minor damage, but the driver failed to stop and render aid or provide insurance information.
The pickup had passed Lord minutes earlier, so he was able to get the plate number from a license plate reader on his vehicle and determined it was registered to Christian Sweeney.
Lord contacted Sweeney by phone, who admitted to driving the pickup truck and striking the
Volkswagen.
Sweeney provided insurance information, but Lord found it had expired in January. He also found that Sweeney’s license was suspended.
Sweeney agreed to come in to the Springfield police station on May 19 with his father. Sweeney told McNeely at that time that it was actually his father who was driving.
McNeely spoke to the father separately, who said he does not work landscaping with his son and is retired. He said he is now an Uber driver.
McNeely advised Sweeney’s father that the pickup truck driver would be charged with a hit-andrun, to which the father replied, “I’m in a very tough situation.”
The father indicated he wanted to speak to his son again before making a statement and stepped out into the lobby with him. McNeely could clearly hear Sweeney trying to convince his father to tell police he was driving.
After a few minutes, McNeely stepped into the lobby and asked who was driving. Sweeney said it was his father, but the father just stared at the detective and did not speak. At that point, McNeely told them both he was done talking to them.
About an hour later, McNeely received a voice message from Sweeney again indicating his father was driving and that he didn’t want him to get into trouble.
“He went on to tell me he (Christian) doesn’t have a license and if I can cut him a break,” the affidavit reads. “He said he is going to do 3 to 5 years for this and he doesn’t want any more problems.”
Previous offenses
Sweeney was sentenced to 18 to 48 months in prison in July 2021 on his fifth DUI conviction. He had entered an open guilty plea in that case to Tier III DUI, combination of drugs and alcohol, a third-degree felony, and driving with a blood alcohol content above 0.02% with a suspended license.
State parole records indicate he was released Sept. 22, 2022, about seven months before the Sproul Road incident.
Sweeney had also pleaded guilty to three counts of DUI in March 2011, including one for a December 2010 incident where he was found unconscious behind the wheel in front of a Gle
Wawa and was hospitalized with a blood alcohol level of 0.62%, almost eight times the legal limit.
He had also been arrested for DUI in March 2010 and was arrested again in February 2011 after rear-ending another vehicle in a McDonald’s drive-thru line and fleeing the scene. Sweeney was later found by police still in the running car with a bottle of vodka in his pocket and an empty vial of medication in plain view in the center console area of his vehicle.
Sweeney ultimately received a sentence of 11 to 22 months in prison and 38 months of probation for those offenses. He reportedly told the court at that time he was “determined to make a full turnaround in my life,” but online court records indicate he violated probation a little more than a year later.
Sweeney told Judge G. Michael Green on Monday that he has completed various treatment programs, has a sponsor and is attending meetings.
Schukraft said his client, a lifelong resident of the area, also has a helper who drives him and has family support. Sweeney’s father was in court Monday, Schukraft noted.