Driving instructor charged with OUI during lesson

March 6, 2008 03:37 PM Email| Comments (0)| Text size – +

By Steven Rosenberg, Globe Staff

NEWBURYPORT -- A Salem driving instructor who police say had a blood alcohol level of nearly three times the legal alcohol limit pleaded not guilty today in Ipswich District Court to operation of a vehicle under the influence of alcohol.

Ipswich police said Daniel Winsky, 52, whose driving instructor’s certificate was revoked by the state in January, works for a private driving school in Ipswich. According to police, Winsky was in the passenger seat instructing two student drivers when he was stopped the day after Christmas. According to the police report, police were notified by an Ipswich woman, Jane Schaller, who spotted Winsky exiting his driving instructor’s car and entering the Cumberland Farms in downtown Ipswich.

Schaller told police “she could smell an odor of alcohol” coming from the instructor while standing in the checkout line with him, according to the report. Minutes later, police stopped the driving instructor’s vehicle, which belongs to Anthony’s Auto School of Ipswich.

According to the police report, Winsky was in the passenger’s seat when stopped, a student driver was in the driver’s seat, and another student was in the rear seat. Police reported that Winsky’s eyes were “bloodshot and glassy” and had “a strong odor of alcohol coming from his breath.” Winsky denied that he had been drinking. But according to police, he failed four sobriety tests at the scene, including a portable breathalyzer test which registered .233 compared to the legal limit of .08.

After the car was stopped, both of the driving students said they had not smelled alcohol on Winsky, according the report. But in a interview with an Ipswich police detective two days after the incident, the report states that one of the students and told the officer that Winsky "had alcohol on his breath" during a previous driving lesson.

Police searched the auto school car when Winsky was stopped but did not find any alcohol. Winsky told police he had been taking cough medicine, and a bottle of Robitussin cough syrup was found in a bag in the back of the car. Winsky was not arrested at the scene, and the car was driven away by Sandra Larson, an employee of the auto school.

On Jan. 10, Winsky was sent a citation charging him with operating under the influence of alcohol, and at a Feb.12 hearing, an Ipswich court clerk found probable cause to issue the complaint. At yesterday’s hearing, Judge Allen Swan released Winsky without setting bail, and ordered Winsky to refrain from his auto instruction work while the case was being heard. Sawn set a pretrial date of April 24 at the court.

Winsky, who could not be reached for comment, has not faced previous criminal charges, said Ann Dufresne, a spokeswoman for the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles. Dufresne said that the registry’s Safety and Compliance Unit held a hearing on the matter Jan. 11 and permanently revoked Winsky’s driving instructor’s certificate.

Dufresne said Winsky could appeal the decision if found not guilty.

After the arraignment, John Morris, Winsky’s attorney, strongly denied the charge. “He wasn’t drinking, he wasn’t driving. He takes his position very seriously, and they didn’t arrest him. I think that says a lot.”

Morris also said that under state law, the results of the portable breathalyzer test are not admissible in a court.