Alleged drunk driver hits judge he faced in 1998

[April 20, 2010]  ROCKVILLE, Md. (AP) -- A man has been charged with driving drunk and hitting the car of a retired Maryland judge who once spared him jail time in previous drunk driving case.

The suspect, 45, was scheduled to be in court Wednesday to face trial on eight charges related to the August crash where he hit a car being driven by retired Montgomery County District Judge Edwin Collier. Collier, 86, and his wife Ellen Collier, 82, were both injured in the crash.

Collier presided over a case in 1998 in which police charged the man with drunk driving after an officer saw his car idling in a parking lot and gave him a sobriety test. He pleaded guilty in that case, and Collier spared him jail time, even though the man had been arrested on drunk driving charges twice in three months.

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Information from: The Washington Post, http://www.washingtonpost.com/

[Associated Press]

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