Former Reading Principal Pleads Guilty To DUI
After nearly two years of missed or canceled court dates, former Reading Elementary School Principal Lou Lafasciano pleaded guilty last Friday to driving under the influence. He received a 90-day license suspension and a $700 fine after he changed his plea from his last hearing, which took place March 25, 2014.
Lafascino was cited March 19, 2014, when he was employed as the part-time principal at Reading Elementary School, and he’s avoided just about every court appearance over the last 20 months. Sometimes the judge was double-booked. Sometimes Lafasicano was granted extra time because he switched attorneys.
This is the most prolonged DUI case Deputy Windsor County State's Attorney Glenn Barnes has seen in his career.
“That case is an unusual case in that there were a bunch of continuances that were nobody's fault,” he said.
A motion to suppress was filed in September 2014 and a hearing was rescheduled for November 2014. The state continued that hearing because the officer was unavailable to testify. The hearing was rescheduled for February 2015 and then canceled by the court because there was a scheduling conflict. Lafasciano's hearing was rescheduled for May 2015 and delayed until July 2015 and then delayed again because the judge had an injury that prevented her from having any hearings over the summer. The hearing was re-scheduled for September 2015, then canceled again because it was scheduled at the same time as a jury trial. Finally, last week, Lafasciano (who announced his retirement the same week he was pulled over) had his day in court.
Over the 20-month wait, state officials routinely insisted the case wasn’t that important.
“Things just keep popping up with the officer, attorneys or judge having a scheduling conflicts. Unlike the folks at the Standard, the court hasn't tagged this case as particularly high priority,” said Barnes by email in February when Lafasciano’s motion hearing was canceled.
At another missed court date in the spring, April 30, 2015, a clerk said Lafasciano required an hourlong time slot and there were more important cases.
Lafasciano, who has no previous criminal record, was pulled over for a routine traffic stop March 19 at 6 p.m. on Route 132 in Sharon. Lafasciano had difficulty performing three sobriety tests. He told State Police Trooper Joseph Pregent that he recently broke his back. After the tests, Lafasciano blew a 0.174 percent blood alcohol level on a preliminary roadside breath test, according to Pregent. The legal limit is 0.08.
A DUI hearing is supposed to take place within 45 days of a person being pulled over. That's how the system was built, according to the Department of Motor Vehicles. During those 45 days, the person can drive if they are first-time offenders but second-time offenders get their licenses suspended immediately and have to wait until a court date. Three strikes, and the offender loses driving privileges.
Sometimes it takes more than 45 days for a hearing, but that's rare.
“It's normal that it gets resolved well within the 45 days. Usually it does,” said Chauncey Liese, the chief of driver improvement at the Vermont Department of Motor Vehicles, who oversees suspensions and reinstatements.
At a scheduled 3 p.m. hearing on Friday, Lafasciano walked in a few minutes late, blamed traffic, went to a private room and sat down with the judge and his attorney Robert Lees. Fifteen minutes later, he walked out the office.
He thanked his attorney inside the court building and walked outside before he could be interviewed by reporters.
First-time DUI offenders get their licenses suspended 90 days. They have to participate in the Department of Health's Project CRASH program, file proof of insurance and then pay a $90 license reinstatement fee before they can drive again.
The evening Project CRASH, “Counter measures Related to Alcohol and Safety on Highways,” meets for four, 2 1/2 hour sessions. The offender participates in discussion groups, completes homework assignments and prepares for an interview at the conclusion to see if he or she needs alcohol therapy. The Project CRASH evaluator and director determine when and if a person passes a treatment program. Almost everyone who starts CRASH finishes it. There’s also a CRASH weekend program that begins on Friday evening, continues all day Saturday, and ends on Sunday afternoon.
“I have to say I’m completely embarrassed by this,” Lafasciano told the Standard in March 2014.
A phone call to Lafasciano’s attorney wasn’t returned.