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Lieutenant at NCP pleads guilty to 2 counts of DUI
Published: November 17, 2009
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share thisSUNBURY - A lieutenant at Northumberland County Prison in Sunbury, who was charged twice with driving under the influence (DUI) of alcohol relating to incidents that occurred within a year of each other, pleaded guilty Monday morning to two counts of DUI and will be sentenced within 60 days.
Michael Joseph Faust, 47, of Coal Township, entered the plea agreement before Northumberland County Judge Charles Saylor, who ordered the defendant to undergo a drug and alcohol assessment and CRN evaluation. Saylor is scheduled to sentence Faust within 60 days.
Faust was charged by Trooper Raymond O'Donnell of state police at Stonington with two counts of driving under the influence of alcohol, failure to drive in a single lane and careless driving relating to an incident that occurred just after midnight Feb. 18 along Route 61, near Crocus Road in Shamokin Township.
Police reported Faust had a blood-alcohol content of .107 percent.
Last November, Faust was charged by Trooper Brian T. Ronk of state police at Stonington with two counts of DUI, careless driving, failure to drive in a single lane, speeding, failure to wear a seat belt and failure to sign his registration card and driver's license. Those charges relate to an incident that occurred at 1:50 a.m. March 30, 2008, on Route 61 near Jasmine Road in Shamokin Township.
Police reported Faust had a blood-alcohol content of .123 percent in the March 30, 2008, incident.
Faust, who was represented by Attorney Joel Wiest, had applied to be placed in the Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition (ARD) program through the county district attorney's office on the first set of DUI charges and was scheduled to face a hearing on May 5, 2009, to determine if he would be accepted in the ARD program. But that hearing was canceled when the second set of DUI charges was filed.
Faust, who is a lieutenant at the county prison and a former state constable, has worked at the county prison for more than 20 years.
On April 8, he was suspended without pay by the county prison board. The suspension, which went into effect immediately, will remain intact pending the outcome of Faust's legal proceedings.
Faust is a former member of Shamokin Area School Board and served as a special deputy under county Sheriff Charles Berkoski from 1996 to 1999. Berkoski, who died while still in office, was succeeded by current Sheriff Chad Reiner.
Faust attempted to run for county sheriff in 2007, but was ruled ineligible by Saylor for the May 2007 Democratic primary election after he failed to report as part of his official financial statement $1,533.03 in earnings he made in 2006 as a state constable.
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