Priest loses DUI appeal
In an opinion released Friday, an Alaska court refused to overturn the conviction of a Russian Orthodox priest convicted of driving under the influence — even though his van was turned off and stuck in a snowbank.
According to prosecutors, Dillingham police in 2008 found the priest’s van sitting off the road and stuck in the snow. No one was in the van and there was vomit on the driver’s side door.
Police followed footsteps from the van to the priest’s house at the nearby Russian Orthodox church, where Nicholai Larson was found in his bedroom. Sgt. Dan Pasquariello noticed that he had bloodshot eyes and that his speech was slurred. Larson also performed poorly on a field sobriety test and was arrested for driving under the influence.
Larson, 51, told the officer that he had drunk a cup of rum at the house of a friend and then drove his van to the gym to pick up some people. While driving home, a car approached with its high beams on and he was forced off the road, he said.
Larson and the passengers in the van had to walk home.
He told the officer that he hadn’t had anything more to drink after leaving his friend’s house. A breath test conducted at the police station indicated he had a blood alcohol level of 0.14, or nearly twice the legal limit.
Larson claimed that he drank very little, and questioned how he could be convicted of driving under the influence if he wasn’t actually driving.
The Court of Appeals found that a person can be in control of a motor vehicle, even if the motor is not running, and upheld Larson’s conviction.
A message left for Larson at St. Seraphim of Sarov Orthodox Church in Dillingham was not returned. Quinlan Steiner, director of the Alaska Public Defender Office, also did not immediately return a call.
The appeal court’s ruling says that Larson presented a different account at trial. He said when he arrived home after the van got stuck he realized he left his keys in the vehicle and walked back to get them. Larson said that while walking back, he drank some liquor that he had poured into a soda pop bottle at his friend’s house.
When he reached the van, he sat in the driver’s seat and retrieved his keys from the ignition but then dropped them. When Larson reached for the keys he felt sick, opened the window of the van and vomited, he said.
Larson then testified that he went back home and drank the rest of the liquor in the bottle.
A magistrate found Larson guilty of driving under the influence, convinced that he was intoxicated when he retrieved his keys from the van.
The appeals court found that Larson could be convicted of driving under the influence if, as the magistrate concluded, he was intoxicated when he returned to the van, sat in the driver’s seat and pulled his keys from the ignition.
Larson argued that he was not operating the van because it was actually stuck in the snow and there was no evidence that he even tried to start the vehicle.
The appeals court, citing other cases, ruled that under Alaska law the concept of ”operating” a motor vehicle includes being in ”actual physical control” of the vehicle, regardless of whether it is moving.
”This rule is based on the policy of deterring intoxicated people from assuming physical control of a vehicle, even if they never actually drive,” the ruling says.