PEABODY — Police said a 46-year-old man who rode a scooter to the liquor store Monday morning was arrested soon thereafter for drunken driving, for the fifth time.
Victor M. Rita of 42 Driscoll St., Peabody, was held without bail following his arraignment Monday, pending an Aug. 2 dangerousness hearing at Peabody District Court. He pleaded not guilty to the fifth-offense, drunken-driving charge, as well as to driving with a revoked license and driving an unregistered vehicle.
On Monday morning, Patrolman Mark Saia pulled over the scooter on Wallis Street at 9:11 when he saw the vehicle didn't have a registration sticker, the officer wrote in his report.
Rita told Saia he didn't have the registration and could only produce a state identification card. Saia later discovered Rita's license status was revoked for a previous drunken-driving arrest.
Saia could smell alcohol on Rita and his eyes were bloodshot, he wrote in his report.
Rita denied drinking that morning but said he had a few drinks the previous night, according to the police report. He said the smell could be from spilling alcohol on his shorts.
Rita blew into the Breathalyzer and registered a blood-alcohol level of .174, more than double the state legal limit.
In a bag, police found three nip bottles of vodka and a bottle of Budweiser beer.
Rita has previous convictions for drunken driving, his latest one in March 2004, when he was involved in a single-vehicle crash on Highland Avenue in Salem during a snowstorm.
In the 2004 crash, the car Rita was believed to be driving struck a guardrail, continued through an intersection and went over another guardrail before landing in the opposite lane.
Witnesses told police they saw the driver get out of the driver's seat and then get into the back seat.
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