SALEM — A Lynn man had a blood alcohol level nearly 31âÑ2 times the legal limit when he careened across a lawn and a backyard and slammed into a rock on Marlborough Road yesterday, police said.
Then, with a deployed air bag, heavy front-end damage and a blown tire, Luis Francis backed all the way out and onto the street, where police found him just after 2 a.m., police said.
Francis, 26, was arraigned a few hours later in Salem District Court on charges of drunken driving and failing to stay within marked lanes. He pleaded not guilty and was ordered held on $250 cash bail. Salem District Court Judge Richard Mori also revoked Francis' bail in a case he was scheduled to stand trial for today in Malden, involving a charge of assault and battery on a police officer.
Salem police Lt. Conrad Prosniewski said police got a call from a neighbor who heard a loud crash in the yard of 75 Marlborough Road and found Francis in his pickup truck, which was stopped in the middle of the road.
Francis smelled strongly of alcohol but denied drinking, Prosniewski said. He agreed to some field sobriety tests, which he failed, at one point falling over as he attempted to walk heel to toe.
At the station, a Breathalyzer test showed a blood alcohol level of .27, a level that Mori remarked on several times. The legal limit for drivers is a blood alcohol level of .08.
His attorney, Gail Nastasia, questioned the Breathalyzer reading. "I just can't imagine him standing here today, 10 hours later, with that blood alcohol level," she said as her client stood next to her in a dock, at times leaning on a plastic-glass barrier.
She went on to describe how Francis had just started a sign business with his father.
A pretrial conference is scheduled for April 14.
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