ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- Disgraced former U.S. Rep. Vito Fossella changed his DUI plea to guilty Monday because he was moved by the death of a young Major League pitcher in a crash with a suspected drunken driver, the New York Daily News reported.
Fossella's arrest last May in D.C.'s suburbs uncovered a mistress and 3-year-old daughter in Alexandria, a secret he'd kept from his wife and three children on Staten Island. It also derailed his political career, forcing him to drop his reelection bid.
Fossella was convicted in October and sentenced to five days in December, but he immediately appealed. His lawyer told the Daily News that Fossella changed his mind following the death of Los Angeles Angels' pitcher and Maryland native Nick Adenhart, 22, early Thursday morning.
Just hours after pitching six scoreless innings in his season debut, Adenhart and three friends were in a car broadsided by a minivan that ran a red light, police said. Adenhart, a 20-year-old woman and a 25-year-old man were killed.
The driver of the minivan, 22-year-old Andrew Thomas Gallo, was charged with three counts of murder and drunken driving.
During his trial, Fossella testified that he was rushing to see his sick, secret daughter when he was pulled over. He said he performed the field sobriety tests properly and had had two to three glasses of wine that night.
The officer that stopped him testified that his lips were stained red, his eyes were bloodshot, he smelled of alcohol and he failed to perform the field sobriety tests properly. He also blew a blood alcohol level more than twice Virginia's legal limit, police said.
Local
Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia local news, events and information
Fossella's lawyers argued the test was faulty, and the former family values congressman was supposed to appear before a jury for his appeal Monday morning, but instead, he just pleaded guilty and was ordered to serve the five-day sentence with credit for one day served, the Daily News reported. He likely will begin serving this week and was told he can serve on the weekends.
