THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, May 13, 1995 TAG: 9505130244
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARC DAVIS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 56 lines
Arnold O. Peterson, who led police on a high-speed chase in January that ended with a spectacular crash and two people dead, is out of jail on bond and is being treated for alcoholism, his lawyer said Friday.
Peterson will plead guilty next month and will receive a jail sentence, said his lawyer, Carole Terri Frantz. He faces charges of involuntary manslaughter and drunken driving.
Frantz declined to discuss details of the plea arrangement. ``He's going into custody, there's no question of that,'' she said.
Peterson was released from the Norfolk jail earlier this week and taken directly to an alcohol-treatment program, Frantz said. Peterson wanted to undergo treatment before entering a guilty plea because ``the treatment they offer behind bars is lacking,'' Frantz said.
She declined to say which program Peterson is in.
Peterson's trial is scheduled for Thursday, but probably will be rescheduled to June, Frantz said.
He was bonded out of jail Wednesday when his mother posted $78,000 in real estate and a bonding company posted another $122,000 in surety, the magistrate's office said.
Peterson, a 47-year-old heating and air-conditioning salesman, led police on a 15-mile chase through Virginia Beach and Norfolk Jan. 21.
The chase started when Peterson sped past a radar checkpoint on International Drive in Virginia Beach, then refused to stop for a police officer. Police chased Peterson onto the Virginia Beach-Norfolk Expressway, then off the highway onto Brambleton Avenue in Norfolk. At Brambleton and Duke Street, Peterson's van sped through a red light and rammed a 1983 BMW.
Two people in the car, Richmond lawyer William L. Rosbe, 50, and Teresa Guille Timms, 40, of Virginia Beach, were killed. Peterson was not seriously hurt. A judge ordered him held on $250,000 bond, later reduced to $200,000.
At the time of the crash, Peterson was free on $7,500 bond, pending trial on a previous drunken-driving charge in Virginia Beach. He was later convicted in that case, fined $1,000 and sentenced to 30 days in jail. He also has a series of other driving convictions.
In a March interview, Peterson said he knows he did wrong and should have stopped for police on International Parkway. He admitted being an alcoholic and said that drinking helped ruin his marriage.
Peterson also said he felt mistreated by the news media and anti-drunken-driving groups.
``I know I did wrong,'' Peterson said in March, ``but it really seems like I am being singled out. . . . They won't be satisfied until I get the maximum conviction and sentence.''
KEYWORDS: DRUNKEN DRIVING INVOLUNTARY MANSLAUGHTER BOND DUI by CNB