NEWBURYPORT — A Medfield man who crashed his Jeep into a Low Street building over the summer pleaded guilty to a second drunken driving charge last week and saw his driver’s license suspended for 90 days, according to Newburyport District Court records.
Alfred Roberta, 64, also admitted he could be found guilty of negligent operation of a motor vehicle and was found responsible for speeding greater than at a reasonable speed.
Judge Peter Doyle accepted the guilty plea on Dec. 21 during Roberta’s appearance in court.
In addition to losing his driver’s license for three months, Roberta was placed on probation for two years. He was also was ordered to pay more than $850 in fees and fines and complete an alcohol safety awareness program.
Court records show Roberta was driving through the Giuseppe’s parking lot at 257 Low St. on July 29 when he struck another vehicle, sending it into a corner of the restaurant. Roberta then struck a curb and fence before driving over a retaining wall and hitting a medical office building next door.
Local first responders extracted Roberta from his car around 8 p.m. and transported him to Portsmouth Regional Hospital.
As a precaution, city building inspector Greg Earls was called to assess the damage and make sure the building remained sound. In need of repair, the medical office was closed for several days following the crash.
Roberta was conscious but bleeding from his nose, hand and leg when Officer Joshua Tierney responded to the crash. He told Tierney he did not remember how the crash occurred and had not been eating at Giuseppe’s. However, employees there who saw the crash told Tierney Roberta had indeed been inside prior to the crash.
Tierney eventually found Roberta’s wife who told him they had eaten dinner there and that he was retrieving their car from the lot to pick her up.
“She stated he had a couple of drinks art dinner. I asked her what type of alcoholic beverage, and she stated ‘Truly’s,’” Tierney wrote in his report, referring a type of hard seltzer.
After Roberta was placed in an ambulance, Tierney learned that Roberta’s car struck a parked Chevy Equinox in the Giuseppe’s lot. The collision sent the Chevy into the building, causing downspout and siding damage. The Equinox also sustained serious damage.
Tierney and Sgt. Gregory Whitey followed the believed path of Roberta’s vehicle as it left the Giuseppe’s parking lot.
“The vehicle then appeared to strike a curb at 255 Low St., before striking a large three-rail-line post tense, and metal support beam, damaging approximately 30 feet in length of fence, before flying off the approximately 5-foot retaining. wall, and striking the northwest side of 253 Low St.,” Tierney wrote in his report.
Roberta was eventually summonsed to court following the crash and reported for a clerk magistrate hearing on Oct. 13. Following the hearing, the clerk ruled there was enough probable cause to arraign him on the charges. He was formally arraigned on Dec. 5 in the same courthouse, according to court records.
Dave Rogers is the editor of The Daily News of Newburyport. Email him at: drogers@newburyportnews.com. Follow him on Twitter @drogers41008.