By Bobby Kerlik
The Pittsburgh Tribune Review
PITTSBURGH — A Pittsburgh firefighter who took a Rivers Casino security truck for a drunken joyride will serve six months of probation and pay a fine, an Allegheny County judge ruled Tuesday.
William White, 51, of Marshall-Shadeland pleaded guilty to two counts of drunken driving, one count of unauthorized use of a motor vehicle and two summary counts of harassment and reckless driving stemming from the Dec. 30 incident in the North Side.
His plea ends an embarrassing situation not only for him but for the Pittsburgh fire bureau, said his attorney, Robert Del Greco.
“He continues to be contrite for his behavior,” Del Greco said. “It was alcohol-infused. He’s taken considerable measures to put this unfortunate episode behind him.”
Common Pleas Judge Donna Jo McDaniel took into account the nearly three days he spent in jail after the incident and a month he spent in an alcohol rehabilitation facility before sentencing him to time served. She also imposed a $1,000 fine and probation, and ordered him to attend safe-driving school.
“I assume you lost that night?” McDaniel asked.
“Um, yes,” White answered.
The incident will cost White his job, fire union president Joe King said.
A departmental trial board fined White $17,000 and ruled he must retire when he reaches 20 years of service next year, King said.
“We don’t condone the behavior of some of our guys,” King said.
White served an unpaid suspension after the incident but is back on the job, Del Greco said.
The incident started early Dec. 30 at the North Shore casino when security guard Ken Dodson found White urinating in the casino’s parking garage. Dodson said he drove White to the casino’s front entrance to call a cab.
When White got out of the guard’s Ford Ranger, he got into a confrontation with a woman, Dodson said. White then got back in the Ford Ranger and drove away.
Two police officers encountered White driving in the wrong lane on Brighton Road. White nearly hit a police cruiser before stopping on Highwood Street in Marshall-Shadeland, where he ran off and tried to scale a fence, police said.
Police said White spit at an officer trying to arrest him.
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