Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Jury acquits man of drunken-driving charge
YOUNGSTOWN — A jury has acquitted a 48-year-old Austintown man of a felony drunken-driving charge. The jury rendered its verdict today in the case of Michael G. Coleman of South Raccoon Road.
The trial began Monday before Judge Maureen A. Sweeney of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court. Coleman was arrested by a state trooper at 11:45 p.m. Dec. 31, 2004, on Mahoning Avenue in Austintown, but he declined to complete the field sobriety test and refused to take a breath-analysis test, said Michael J. McBride, assistant county prosecutor.
The charge was a fourth-degree felony because Coleman had three prior drunken-driving convictions in the last six years, McBride said. The defense lawyer was John B. Juhasz.