PA State Trooper faces DUI Charges
A Pennsylvania State Police corporal, well known in law enforcement circles as an accident reconstruction expert, has waived his arraignment on charges he was driving drunk on Route 422 before crashing his Honda Accord while off-duty in December.
John Quigg Jr., 48, of Wyndmoor, waived his formal arraignment in Montgomery County Court and a not guilty plea was entered on his behalf to charges of driving under the influence of alcohol and a careless driving-related traffic violation in connection with a one-vehicle crash along Route 422 in Upper Merion in December 2009.
By waiving his arraignment, Quigg, who is represented by defense lawyer Timothy Woodward, did not have to appear before a judge for a formal reading of the charges lodged against him. Quigg remains free on bail pending his next court hearing.
“Corporal Quigg was going through a difficult time in his life. He made a decision that he deeply regrets,” Woodward said on Thursday.
The state Attorney General’s Office is prosecuting the case. Woodward indicated he plans to request that Quigg be accepted into an Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition program, a special probationary program that allows first-time, non-violent offenders to clear their records after successfully completing a period of probation.
Quigg, according to Woodward, completed a 30-day alcohol rehabilitation program at a Berks facility.
“He’s continuing his rehabilitation on an outpatient basis,” Woodward added.
Court documents indicate an investigation of Quigg began about 8:50 p.m. Dec. 17 when a Collegeville woman who was driving westbound on Route 422 called police to report erratic driving by another driver traveling from Route 76 onto Route 422. The woman was following the gold 2000 Honda Accord sedan, court papers indicate.
The erratic driver, later identified as Quigg, was driving his vehicle well below the posted speed limit, “swerving back and forth between the right and left lanes and traveling in the center of the highway over the lane markers,” according to the criminal complaint.
At one point, Quigg’s vehicle stopped in the center of the westbound lanes, authorities alleged. After remaining there momentarily, the vehicle slowly traveled off the highway into the center median, rolled down a slight incline where its front end struck and “became wedged under the guide rail at that location,” according to the arrest affidavit filed by state police Corporal Marcus Gibbs of Troop K, Philadelphia barracks.
After the collision, and before police arrived, the Collegeville woman and an Upper Providence man in another car stopped to render assistance to Quigg.
“They both observed the defendant slumped over in the driver seat. The defendant was unresponsive to their presence and had an open bottle of what appeared to be an alcoholic beverage sitting between his legs,” Gibbs wrote in the arrest affidavit.
Police said the alcohol was identified as a 375ml bottle of vodka.
Quigg was transported by ambulance to Phoenixville Hospital where he submitted to a blood test. Court documents do not indicate what Quigg’s blood-alcohol content was determined to be.
In addition to the uncapped bottle of vodka, a bottle of a nutrient enriched water beverage, with the cap sealed, was also found inside Quigg’s vehicle, court papers indicate.
