DATE: Wednesday, September 3, 1997          TAG: 9709030663

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY JON FRANK, STAFF WRITER

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   65 lines

SMITH IS CONVICTED OF DRUNKEN DRIVING BILLS' STAR WAS ALSO FINED $250 AND GIVEN A 30-DAY SUSPENDED JAIL SENTENCE.

NFL star Bruce Smith was convicted of drunken driving and refusing to take an alcohol breath test on Tuesday after a judge refused to believe that a sleep disorder caused him to pass out in his car at an intersection in July.

General District Court Judge John B. Preston fined Smith $250 and gave him a 30-day suspended jail sentence on condition of good behavior for 12 months.

The drunken-driving conviction carries an automatic suspension of driving privileges for one year. Preston added another three-month suspension to Smith's license for the breath-test conviction. The judge then amended the license suspension to allow Smith to continue driving to and from work.

Larry Cardon, Smith's attorney, immediately appealed the conviction to Circuit Court. Cardon said the appeal is scheduled to be heard Oct. 23.

Smith, two days after starting his 13th season Sunday with the Buffalo Bills, said little during the trial, asking only that he be allowed to sit down briefly because his right knee was bothering him.

The condition of Smith's knees, in fact, was part of his defense - along with the claim that Smith apparently suffers from sleep apnea, a disorder that prevents sufferers from getting enough sleep at night.

Cardon said that Smith's four knee operations prevented him from passing the standing-on-one-leg sobriety test that was administered to him by Virginia Beach Police Officer Alison Fletcher on the morning of July 27.

Cardon also said that sleep apnea caused Smith to fall asleep at the wheel at the intersection of Rosemont and Holland roads, which is where Fletcher found Smith sitting in the driver's seat of his black Mercedes sports car.

Fletcher testified on Tuesday that when she approached the car at about 6:30 a.m., the engine was running. Fletcher was dispatched to the scene after police received a telephone tip that a motorist was in need of assistance at the intersection.

Fletcher said Smith was sitting in the driver's seat ``slumped over with his head down'' when she approached the car.

Three times, Fletcher said, she asked Smith if he was OK. Each time she asked, Fletcher said, ``the defendant did not move.''

Smith did not regain consciousness, she said, until she unsnapped his seatbelt, shut off the car, and attempted to check his pulse.

That's when Smith began talking to Fletcher, she said.

``At that point I could smell a strong odor of alcoholic beverage coming from him,'' Fletcher said. ``He just kept saying, `I want to go home.' ''

Smith, she said, tried to start the car but stopped when Fletcher told him to.

Fletcher described Smith as ``incoherent'' with bloodshot eyes and a flushed face. Fletcher said she had to ask Smith four times to get out of the car before he complied.

``There was a glow coming from his face,'' Fletcher said. ``He was glassy-eyed.''

Once out of the car, Fletcher said, Smith was ``unsteady on his feet'' and needed to brace himself against the back of the car to keep from stumbling.

``He was not steady on his feet at all,'' Fletcher said. ``He was swaying.''

Smith could not complete the 30-second leg stand test, indicating to Fletcher that he was not sober. He also needed several attempts to recite the alphabet, another sobriety test used by police. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

IAN MARTIN/The Virginian-Pilot

Bruce Smith... KEYWORDS: DRUNKEN DRIVING ARREST

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