Canfield police charge Youngstown man with child endangering, cited for DUI

CANFIELD — City police charged a Youngstown man with child endangering and cited him for driving under the influence of alcohol with four children in his vehicle.

Lance Thomas, 43, of Canfield Road, pleaded not guilty to the charges at his arraignment Tuesday in Mahoning County Area Court here. He has a pretrial hearing set for July 16.

According to a police report released today, police stopped Thomas initially for traveling left of center on North Broad Street on Sunday night.

Upon stopping Thomas, the officer said he could smell the scent of alcohol. Thomas was asked to step out of his sport utility vehicle and perform a series of tests to see if he had been drinking, according to the police report.

Thomas became irritated by the tests, but eventually he was given a breath-analysis test. The test read .200, more than twice the legal limit of .08.

His girlfriend was also in the vehicle, and she told police Thomas had a few drinks at a family party they went to that night.

Police advised that they could not let Thomas drive with four children, one as young as 2, in the SUV.