Elizabethton City Councilman Richard Tester pled guilty in General Sessions Court on Wednesday to a charge of driving under the influence and will spend two days in jail.
Tester, 42 of Elizabethton, appeared in Carter County General Sessions Court with his attorney Steve Finney to enter the plea before Judge David Shults. The case was heard by Shults, who serves as a judge in Unicoi County, after Carter County General Sessions Court Judge Keith Bowers Jr. recused himself from the case citing the fact that he knows Tester on both a personal and a professional level.
The charges against Tester stem from a police traffic stop on April 2 after a 911 caller reported a gold Chevrolet Tahoe was driving recklessly on Highway 67 heading into Elizabethton from Johnson City and the driver was possibly intoxicated.
Elizabethton Police Department Cpl. James Sexton said he saw the vehicle described by the caller traveling eastbound on West Elk Avenue near Buck Van Huss Drive and clocked the vehicle with his radar traveling 68 miles per hour in a 45 mph zone. The officer also noted he saw the driver make a sudden lane change, cutting off another vehicle and nearly striking a concrete highway divider before swerving back into its original lane.
After Sexton stopped the SUV, he was able to identify the driver as Tester.
Sexton said Tester admitted he had consumed “a couple of drinks with dinner” and noted that Tester performed poorly on field sobriety tests before refusing to submit to any blood or breath tests to determine his blood alcohol level. Sexton noted in his report on the incident that officers found “several open containers of alcohol” inside the SUV driven by Tester.
Officers charged Tester with driving under the influence, reckless driving, violation of the implied consent law and violation of the open container law.
As part of the plea agreement Tester entered on Wednesday, the charges of violation of implied consent and reckless driving were dismissed by the state. Tester entered a guilty plea to charges of DUI and violation of the open container law.
Under the terms of the plea agreement, Tester will serve a total of 48 hours in jail and will receive credit for any time he already served on the charge before he was released from custody.
“We know he had very little time served already,” Finney told Shults in court on Wednesday. “He served a few hours.”
Assistant District Attorney Mark Hill also informed the court that Tester had very little pre-sentence credit in the case.
“He was released by the magistrate on an OR (own recognizance) bond, so he has very little time served on this,” Hill said.
Tester will report to the Carter County Jail on August 26 to serve the remainder of his 48 hour jail sentence.
In addition to the two days in jail, Tester will also serve 11 months and 29 days on misdemeanor probation, pay a $350 fine along with court costs, and his driver’s license will be suspended for one year. Tester surrendered his driver’s license in court on Wednesday but also filled out a request form for the court to grant him a restricted license that would allow him to drive to and from work. Shults said he had signed the form granting the request.