PEABODY, Mass. -- A Lynnfield accountant was "completely out of control," with a blood alcohol level nearly three times the legal limit, when he drove through the scene of a bus fire Friday evening, a Peabody District Court judge concluded yesterday.
As a result, Roland Caron, 51, will spend the next 90 days in Middleton Jail, deemed too dangerous to the public to release under any circumstances, Judge Richard Mori ordered after a brief hearing.
Caron, who had been free on $5,000 cash bail he posted over the weekend, was taken back into custody after prosecutors filed a motion asking that he be held without bail.
Caron pleaded not guilty to charges of second-offense drunken driving, driving to endanger, failing to stop, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, and assault with a dangerous weapon, which was the SUV that police say he drove at them as he attempted to elude arrest.
When police did catch up with him, he had a coffee cup about one-third full of vodka and two vodka bottles, one of them empty, in the car, according to a police report.
"He's lucky to be alive," Mori said after reading a police report by one officer who, faced with Caron's speeding BMW heading directly toward him, drew his gun in an effort to get the driver to stop.
Police and a prosecutor described a wild scene on Washington Street around 7:30 Friday evening, as Peabody firefighters were dealing with an MBTA bus that had caught fire.
Prosecutor Aimee Conway said Caron "showed absolute disrespect for all of their lives" as he barreled through the area, driving over fire hoses, forcing firefighters and police officers to jump out of the way, and clipping one officer.
According to police reports filed in the case, Caron first came to the attention of police as he came to a dead stop at a traffic detour at Quinlan Square.
Caron told officers that he was trying to get to the Italian American Club and insisted that he had to go down Washington Street, which was blocked because of the fire.
Patrolman Justin Cecil noticed the smell of alcohol on Caron's breath and told him to pull into the parking lot of Mallia's, a local towing business.
As Cecil attempted to direct traffic, a second officer, Patrolman Christos Zamakis, went over to the SUV to investigate.
Within moments, police said, Caron's BMW pulled out of the parking lot and headed up Swampscott Avenue.
Officers fanned out around the area looking for the vehicle and spotted it as it again approached Washington Street and the fire scene.
The officers held up their hands and yelled for the driver to stop, then had to dive out of the way as the SUV kept coming toward them. Zamakis briefly pulled out his gun, hoping that would get the driver to stop. It did not, and Zamakis put the gun away, choosing not to shoot at the car in such a crowded and congested area.
Patrolman Antonio Santos found the SUV and Caron in a driveway farther down Washington Street.
Caron failed a series of sobriety tests, police said. He later registered a blood alcohol level of almost 0.24, three times the legal limit of 0.08.
As police drove Caron toward the station, he asked if they were taking him home. Told that he was under arrest, Caron volunteered that it would be his third such arrest. Police were able to find just one prior drunken-driving arrest, in Connecticut in 2005.
John Ruehrwein, who represented Caron during yesterday's hearing, suggested that his client was confused but called the incident "isolated," citing Caron's ties to the community, including children and his career as a certified public accountant.
Caron, a graduate of St. John's Prep and Babson College, is active in many community groups, Ruehrwein said, and is not a flight risk.
But when Ruehrwein suggested that Caron was "cooperative" with police, both the prosecutor and Mori expressed skepticism.
"I wouldn't describe him as cooperative at all," said Mori, who went on to call the prosecutor's motion to deny bail "appropriate."
When it became clear that he was not going home yesterday, Caron, swallowing hard, pleaded with the judge, offering to enter treatment immediately.
Caron was also told that he will have to hire his own attorney to represent him in the case, which is back in court on Thursday for a pretrial hearing.
Copyright 2012 - The Salem News, Beverly, Mass.
