Deputy House Majority Leader Raymond Sullivan, D-Dist. 29, pled no contest last Thursday following an April 22 arrest for drunk driving.
The plea agreement stipulates a three-month license suspension, $500 in fines, 20 hours of community service and attendance at an anti-drunk-driving school, according to an Oct. 23 Providence Journal article.
Sullivan had originally entered a plea of not guilty in May, according to the Journal, but changed the plea to no contest last week after Judge Anthony Capraro ruled that evidence affirming the certification of the breathalyzer used by police during the traffic stop was admissable.
The breath test placed Sullivan's blood alcohol content at 0.178, more than double the legal limit of 0.08, the Journal reported, and the police said Sullivan struggled to recite the alphabet after reaching the letter "p" on the night of his arrest.
During testimony entered before Sullivan changed his plea, Sullivan's girlfriend, Emilie Aries '09, told the court Sullivan had picked her up from T.F. Green Airport before they headed to a TGI Friday's in Warwick, where Aries said Sullivan ordered a "clear drink in a pint glass," adding that his speech and behavior "seemed normal," according to the Journal.
In her statement to police at the time of the arrest, Aries, a former Herald communications director, said she had drunk "not as much, nearly" as Sullivan, according to the Journal, but she said in court she had been flustered when she saw her boyfriend being arrested and had meant to say "apparently."
Sullivan, 32, was re-elected to a third term last year.
