N.Y. congressman gets jail time
ALEXANDRIA, Va. - Representative Vito Fossella was sentenced yesterday to five days in jail for drunken driving, a humiliating coda to a political career ruined by revelations that he had fathered a child from an extramarital affair.
Judge Becky Moore of Alexandria General District Court decided the New York Republican was so drunk he met the legal threshold for a five-day stint in jail.
She ordered him to begin serving his sentence on Dec. 19, but Fossella's lawyers said they would immediately appeal, which would postpone indefinitely his reporting to jail.
The 43-year-old congressman left the courthouse without answering reporters' questions.
His May 1 arrest led to revelations he had fathered a child through an affair with a former Air Force officer. The congressman has a wife and three children in his home district of Staten Island.
Fossella chose not to seek reelection and will leave Congress next month. In last month's election, a Democrat won his seat, the only one in New York City that had been held by a Republican in the current Congress.
Fossella was arrested after running a red light on May 1 in a Virginia suburb, and convicted of drunken driving in October. Under Virginia law, a driver who registers a blood alcohol content of 0.15 or higher must serve five days behind bars. Police say Fossella's blood alcohol content was 0.17.
Fossella's lawyers tried to convince the judge that the breath-test machine used on Fossella was faulty, but the judge was not convinced.
ASSOCIATED PRESS 