When Ludlow Police Officer Sean Knox saw a smoking and steaming Jeep with a broken windshield, he followed it.
SPRINGFIELD – Leonard Asselin slammed his Jeep into a parked car in Ludlow on the afternoon of Feb. 12, then drove off.
When Ludlow Police Officer Sean Knox saw a smoking and steaming Jeep with a broken windshield, he followed it.
When it stopped and Knox walked toward it, Asselin got out, put his hands behind his back and said, “I’m f...ed.”
Those were some of the facts of the case told to Hampden Superior Court Judge C. Jeffrey Kinder Friday by Assistant District Attorney Richard B. Morse.
Asselin pleaded guilty to operating under the influence of alcohol, fourth offense.
Asselin also pleaded guilty to driving with a suspended license (as a habitual traffic offender), leaving the scene of a property damage accident and negligent operation of a motor vehicle.
Under a plea agreement, Asselin was sentenced to two years in the Hampden County Correctional Center in Ludlow, followed by three years probation.
Morse said Asselin had been drinking that afternoon at the Polish American Club in Ludlow and later slammed into the parked car on Fuller Street. The parked car was pushed 30 feet and was essentially destroyed, Morse said.
“No one had been sitting in the car, thankfully,” Morse said.
The front license plate from Asselin’s car fell into the trunk of the smashed car.
Defense lawyer Benjamin Farrell said Asselin realizes he has an addiction and at the time of this arrest had a good job and a devoted girlfriend.
“He understands this may be the last opportunity to go back to that life,” Farrell said.
Morse said previous operating under the alcohol convictions were in Wilbraham in 2009, and in Agawam in 1998 and 1995.