Guilty of reckless driving, refusing alcohol test
After a half a day of trial, a judge found James William “Bill” Fletcher III on Tuesday not guilty of driving while intoxicated (DWI) but guilty of reckless driving and refusing a blood/breath alcohol test in Rappahannock District Court.
All of the charges stem from a traffic stop last June at a Blue Rock polo match which resulted in Fletcher’s arrest in front of about 100 onlookers.
“While I harbor deep suspicions, those suspicions don’t equate to reasonable doubt,” Judge William Fitzpatrick said before announcing his final verdict.
In his testimony, arresting officer Deputy John Alishauskas said that he observed Fletcher on June 7 driving at a high rate of speed heading east on Route 211, passing another car. Alishauskas said he turned on his police lights and followed the gold Lexus SUV into the parking lot of the Blue Rock polo grounds. He confirmed Fletcher was traveling 78 mph in a 55 mph zone.
Alishauskas said he observed Fletcher, 72, of Sperryville, as having glassy, bloodshot eyes and a “faint” smell of alcohol. He said Fletcher had also urinated on himself.
Alishauskas ran Fletcher’s license and called his partner, Deputy Matthew Bennett, for backup, which he said is standard procedure in DWI stops. Fletcher then started walking away from his car toward the crowd watching the match.
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Alishauskas said Fletcher told him he had been visiting Commonwealth’s Attorney Art Goff’s house an hour prior in Amissville where he had one bourbon and ginger ale. Goff had recused himself from the case along with presiding Judge Jessica H. Foster who cited her close work with Goff.
Fletcher then became belligerent and irate, according to Alishauskas, and told the officer he was in a bad mood and held up his fist. Alishauskas testified Fletcher told him he would “clean [his] block” if the deputy put hands on him. Alishauskas in return told Fletcher, “it will be the last thing you do,” and then put him in handcuffs.
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Alishauskas testified Fletcher asked him, “You do know who Art Goff is?” and told him “Art’s not going to prosecute this case,” that the deputy “is going to pay for this,” and “[Alishauskas] has got nothing on him.” He said Fletcher declined legal counsel, stating that he himself was a lawyer.
At the Sheriff’s Office where Fletcher was taken after the arrest, Fletcher attempted a calibration breath test (CBT) which is understood to be more accurate in determining blood alcohol content than other tests, because it compares breath samples and requires a 20-minute waiting period to allow for any residual alcohol that may be present in the mouth to dissipate. Fletcher then said “he helped design the machine, he knows how to manipulate the machine,” according to Alishauskas.
Alishauskas explained that after 20 minutes of observation, the test takes three breath samples and needs at least two of those to be done correctly to get a result. Fletcher completed the first attempt, but inhaled into the tube on the last two attempts, which he was instructed not to do, according to Alishauskas. He said Fletcher declined doing another test and declined a blood test.
Alishauskas said he began to read Fletcher a required form about the refusal process, and Fletcher interrupted and said “[his] dad wrote the form.” Fletcher’s father, James William Fletcher II was president of the Rappahannock Bar Association.
When Fletcher was on a video call with the magistrate, Alishauskas said he began dry heaving into a trash can and left several times to vomit over a railing outside.
Alishauskas, who was trained as a paramedic, said he offered medical attention to Fletcher on multiple occasions at the office, and that the magistrate asked him if he needed medical assistance. Fletcher refused both offers at the time.
Whitson Robinson, Fletcher’s attorney, disputed several aspects of Alishauskas’ testimony of events. He questioned word choice in the police report, in particular that Alishauskas wrote that he “never took his eyes off of the vehicle” when in pursuit. “How do you keep your eyes on him and make a turn?” Robinson asked.
Robinson also called into question specific times written in the police report, and said the word “approximately” was not used throughout, and some of the times could possibly be wrong, indicating that the report was not totally accurate.
“We’re going to go through your whole report,” Robinson said. “I’m calling into question your validity here … Words matter … you write these words down because you’re going to take this man’s freedom away.”
Robinson also alleged that Alishauskas and Bennett included that Fletcher urinated in the report to “humiliate” him, and asked if they considered his age and that he may have been speeding to get to a restroom, or asked him about his health concerns.
“You felt compelled to put it in there to embarrass him, didn’t you?” Robinson said. “Maybe he had to pee, that’s why he was rushing to get over there … perhaps he had to go walk away to find a bathroom.”
After both prosecution witnesses testified, Robinson moved to strike the prosecution’s testimony, and said the commonwealth did not have sufficient evidence to charge Fletcher, which special prosecutor Edwin Consolvo disputed.
“Nobody asked him a single question about his health, and we’ve got a guy over here that’s a paramedic,” Robinson said. “The only evidence in front of this court is the ‘copy and paste’ glassy eyes, his gait … generic language that everybody uses … there’s a lot off here and if there’s a lot off here, that gives us reasonable doubt.”
Judge Fitzpatrick denied the motion to strike.
Robinson called Virginia State Patrol (VSP) trooper Eric Smith to the stand, who stopped at the scene to see if Alishauskas needed assistance. He testified that he spoke to Fletcher, who he knew on a first-name basis, and he was not close enough to detect a smell of alcohol or see his eyes. He left a few minutes after arriving.
Consolvo said Smith being from Rappahannock and knowing Fletcher may have led Smith to “not want to get involved” on the scene.
During closing arguments, Consolvo said Fletcher’s actions — threatening an officer, not “making good decisions and bad judgement” — is “overwhelming evidence” of Fletcher’s intoxication. Robinson reiterated the presence of reasonable doubt in the case.
“He’d be the first drunk driver in history to tell the exact amount he’d been drinking,” Consolvo said. “The test [of DWI] is that you don’t make good decisions when you drive, bad decision making, bad judgement … [saying] ‘I’m going to get out of this’ — that is the bravado of a person who’s been drinking too much.”
Fitzpatrick said he does not doubt the two deputies’ testimony or that of the state patrolman, but said the “sum total” of the evidence of DWI was not “compelling enough” to find Fletcher guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
The judge found him guilty of refusal to take a blood or breath test, for which his license will be suspended for 12 months. The judge also found him guilty of reckless driving, but did not sentence him.
Fletcher has three other cases in District Court involving traffic stops, including two more charges for speeding and one more for reckless driving. He will be sentenced in a “global disposition” meaning that the result of all of the pending charges will be considered at sentencing.
Robinson said after the trial that he plans to appeal the charges of reckless driving and refusal of a blood/breath test.
Ireland Hayes is a reporter for Foothills Forum, a nonprofit organization that supports local news in Rappahannock County.
