Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Charge: Driver caught drunk two weeks after DUI sentencing

A Kent man previously convicted of drunkenly running into a pedestrian has again been charged with drunk driving.

Seventeen days after he was sentenced in another drunk driving incident, Patrick Rigg, 45, was arrested leaving a Kent bar and found to be again drunk behind the wheel, King County prosecutors claimed in charging documents.

Writing the court, Senior Deputy Prosecutor Amy Freedheim noted that Rigg was convicted of vehicular assault in 2002 after crashing into a pedestrian. He had also twice been convicted of drunk driving, including a July 2010 incident for which he was sentenced March 2.

"Given his unwillingness or inability to not become intoxicated and drive, he is a very grave danger to this community and given his history, he knows the dangers that he places on innocent citizens and yet still he continues to drive impaired," Freedheim told the court.

According to charging documents, a state trooper spotted Rigg leaving the Central Pub shortly after midnight on March 19. Believing Rigg to be impaired by alcohol, the trooper pulled him over and administered several field sobriety tests.

Prosecutors contend Rigg failed the tests, and a blood draw that showed his blood alcohol level to be .14, nearly double the legal limit.

"When asked if he believed his driving was affected by alcohol, the defendant answered by saying, 'I don't think I was that bad,'" Freedheim told the court.

Rigg has been charged with felony DUI. He remains jailed on $150,000 bail.

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