Cop
arrested for second DUI
BY PETER CAMERON
A police officer who works for
departments in Jessup and Honesdale was arrested after officers said he crashed
into several parked cars in Carbondale last week.
Officer David Matthew Clark
refused to submit to a blood test, according to officers, and was charged with
DUI and reckless driving.
At the scene of the wreck
Friday on Wayne Street, officers asked if he had been drinking. Officer Clark
responded “Yes, I’m abliviated (sic),” according to the report.
Officer Clark, 40, 145 Father
John Drive, Lake Ariel, was charged with DUI in 2009, when his blood-alcohol
content tested at 0.16 percent.
He previously worked for the
Carbondale Police Department but was fired in 2007 after he assaulted a
73-year-old man. Charges from that incident were expunged when he completed the
Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition program, commonly called ARD.
On Wednesday, he directed
questions to his attorney, Bernard Brown.
“We’re just asking that, at
this time, the community reserves their judgment until they get all the facts,”
Mr. Brown said.
A preliminary hearing is
scheduled for July 10. The conditions of his bail were not available Wednesday.
The police officer has not been
suspended from his part-time job at either department, but the chiefs said he
has been removed from both schedules.
A guilty verdict for the DUI
will likely result in Mr. Clark losing his job, at least in Honesdale.
“If he did what they say he did
and he gets convicted of it, then we probably will let him go,” Honesdale
Police Chief Richard Southerton said. “But I think it’s only fair to give the
system a chance to work.”
Jessup Police Chief Joseph
Walsh had a similar stance.
“Until the case is adjudicated,
I can’t say that he is or is not guilty
