Cumberland DUI Charges
Allen Cwalina quits as Pennsylvania’s deputy labor secretary after DUI crash conviction
By MATT MILLER, The Patriot-News
October 15, 2009, 3:15PM
A conviction for a drunken-driving crash in a state car has prompted a top state Department of Labor & Industry official to step down.
A department spokesman said today that Allen Cwalina, 50, of Lower Allen Twp., resigned as deputy secretary for administration on Oct. 8, days after being suspended without pay from his $122,000-a-year-job.
On Oct. 2, Cumberland County Judge J. Wesley Oler Jr. convicted Cwalina of drunken driving with general impairment and causing a crash while intoxicated. A jury wasn’t able to reach a verdict on a more serious charge of driving while under the highest level of intoxication.
District Attorney David Freed said this afternoon that he hasn’t decided whether to retry Cwalina on the charge the jury couldn’t resolve.
Cwalina faces a mandatory 30-day prison term for the convictions by Oler.
At trial, Cwalina, a former Northumberland County commissioner, claimed he didn’t drink until after he crashed into a curb and a parked car near his home in the Beacon Hill development on Nov. 26.
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