AMHERST — For the second time in seven months, former Pelham police chief Edward B. Fleury has been arrested on a charge of drunken driving.
Fleury, 61, of 10 King St., Pelham, was arrested at 7:03 p.m. Sunday on Main Street in front of the Amherst police station on charges of operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol, failure to stay within marked lanes, reckless operation of a motor vehicle to endanger and possession of an open container of alcohol, Amherst Police Detective Marcus Humber said.
He pleaded not guilty in Eastern Hampshire District Court Monday to the charges and was ordered to remain alcohol free and submit to screenings, according to court documents. He was also ordered to remain at his home from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. and not operate a motor vehicle.
Police took a call from a driver following Fleury’s vehicle on Northampton Road, who observed that it was crossing the solid yellow lines and that the driver was throwing beer cans out the window, according to Amherst police logs. The vehicle then turned onto South Pleasant Street and then Main Street before it was stopped by a police officer. One of the responding officers saw Fleury drinking from a can before he was pulled over, according to court documents.
Fleury allegedly told officers that he had consumed one beer and that he was coming from work, according to court documents.
Fleury was arraigned last October on drunken driving charges three days before his sentencing in superior court in Springfield on illegal gun storage charges.
At the sentencing, Fleury was ordered to give up all his firearms and was sentenced to two years of probation and a $7,500 fine after a jury found him guilty of 12 of 22 counts of improper firearms storage.
Fleury pleaded not guilty in Eastern Hampshire District Court on Oct. 2 to the charges of operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol and negligent operation of a motor vehicle. That case is still pending, according to the Northwestern district attorney’s office. A motion to revoke bail in that case because of Fleury’s latest arrest was denied, according to Mary Carey, a spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office.
In the earlier case, Pelham police had been notified Aug. 17 about a hit-and-run crash in Hadley that allegedly involved a vehicle registered to Fleury’s home address. When a Hadley police officer got to Fleury’s home, Fleury was found slumped forward with his head resting against the steering wheel of the vehicle in his driveway, according to the officer’s report.
Emily Cutts contributed to this report.Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
