Collegiate Times

Chief Judge Gino Williams found suspended Virginia Tech football player Zach Luckett guilty yesterday morning of driving while intoxicated and driving after forfeiture of his license.

Williams sentenced Luckett to a 12-month suspended jail sentence. He must report to Montgomery County Jail by Friday at 6 p.m. to begin serving a five-day sentence.

Williams also sentenced Luckett to a suspended 90-day jail sentence, for which he will serve no time immediately, and a $1,000 fine, $750 suspended, for driving after the forfeiture of his license. The Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles will determine any further license penalties.

Luckett must also attend Virginia Alcohol Safety and Prevention classes and have his license suspended for one year. He will pay a total of $500 in fines.

Luckett's attorney, Jimmy Turk, entered a plea of not guilty with stipulations.

Williams ruled in favor of Turk's motion that the charges be considered a first offense, as the New Jersey DUI statute under which Luckett was charged in May was dissimilar to its Virginia equivalent.

New Jersey law stipulates drunken driving is an act that is illegal per se. Laws that hold certain actions illegal per se stipulate such actions cannot be explained or defended in terms of scienter, lack of knowledge of legal wrongdoing, for example. Williams found that statue unconstitutional in Virginia.

In the police report, Officer. G.L. Thomas said he stopped Luckett because he had struck a dumpster while exiting a 7-Eleven parking lot on Aug. 17, 2008. Thomas found the sophomore communication student "extremely cooperative," but said Luckett had a blood alcohol content of .16 percent.

Though the DUI was Luckett's first in Blacksburg, he has had a series of legal troubles since enrolling at Tech, including a public urination charge that he was fined for in August 2006, and a seatbelt violation in November 2006 for which he was also fined. In the summer of 2007, Luckett was charged with a failure to stop at the scene of an accident, a charge that was later dismissed.

Turk said Luckett had returned his vehicle to New Jersey and no longer had a vehicle in Virginia.

The prosecuting attorney said he felt there was sufficient evidence to convict and asked the judge to take into account Luckett's high BAC and the fact that while Luckett's previous conviction was not applicable it had, in fact, occurred.

Williams referred Luckett to VASAP, placing Luckett on probation by the court and given a restricted license after six months' compliance. Luckett will be ordered to report to the local VASAP office within 15 days and must pay the associated fees.

Williams also ordered Luckett to perform 100 hours of community service.

"You received a substantial break because the New Jersey statute is not comparable to the Virginia one," Williams said, "With two DUIs, if you come back with some other alcohol offense, expect to pull a lot of that 11 month, 25 day jail sentence."

In addition to the disciplinary action taken by the courts and football team, Luckett was also penalized by the university's judicial affairs office.

"They gave me three sessions of in-depth counseling where you talk to someone and they try to see what happened and if you have alcohol problems," Luckett said in an earlier interview with the Collegiate Times.

Luckett said that he had been meeting with team coaches on a weekly basis, and expected to meet again after his disposition hearing to discuss the status of his suspension.

Luckett did not return calls to the Collegiate Times on Thursday.

Football head coach Frank Beamer has declined to make an official statement on Luckett since declaring him ineligible before the season began.