Chelsea Driver Charged with 4th OUI

BOSTON, Sept. 23, 2013—A repeat drunk driver was arraigned yesterday on charges that he was under the influence of alcohol when he drove his car into a cement pillar on a Revere sidewalk over the weekend, District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said.

HENRY MAZAC (D.O.B. 7/31/52) of Chelsea was arraigned in Chelsea District Court on charges of operating under the influence of alcohol as a fourth offense, negligent operation of a motor vehicle, and a marked lanes violation.  Mazac’s previous convictions came after arrests in Malden in 1990, Cambridge in 1991, and East Boston in 1997. He was acquitted of that offense in the Boston Municipal Court after an earlier arrest in 1983.

Assistant District Attorney Michael Lafleur requested that bail be set at $10,000.  Judge Stephen Abany set bail in the amount of $1,000 and ordered Mazac to refrain from driving, remain alcohol-free, and undergo random alcohol testing.

According to prosecutors, State Police observed Mazac’s 2006 Kia Sorrento traveling northbound on Revere Beach Boulevard without headlights at approximately 2:30 a.m. Sunday.  The vehicle struck a cement pillar on the sidewalk, pushing the pillar from the southbound side of the roadway into the northbound lanes, prosecutors said.  The vehicle then travelled onto the sidewalk and ran over two crosswalk signs across from the Jack Satter House elderly housing complex.

As a state trooper pulled up behind him, Mazac stepped out to check the damage to his vehicle, prosecutors said.  The trooper detected a strong odor of alcohol emanating from Mazac’s breath and his body, prosecutors said.  He allegedly made statements to police that he had just left Kelly’s Roast Beef but had had two drinks at Bill Ash’s Lounge prior to that.

Prosecutors said Mazac failed a series of field sobriety tests when the trooper determined that he could not properly recite the alphabet, stand on one leg, or walk a straight line. Mazac allegedly lost his balance during that final test and the trooper terminated it for Mazac’s safety. A Breathalyzer test showed that Mazac had a blood alcohol level of 0.15 percent – nearly twice the legal limit to drive.

“I should have just gone home from Bill Ash’s,” Mazac allegedly said when told that he was under arrest for operating under the influence.

Mazac was represented by attorney Michael Capone.  He will return to court on Oct. 23.

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 All defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.