ALBANY — For driving while intoxicated in Westerlo in October, a 25-year-old man from Delmar got two to six years in jail, a $2,000 fine, and an 18-month license revocation, according to a release from the Albany County District Attorney’s Office.

With Judge Stephen Herrick presiding, Steven Dennis’s sentence on Jan. 8 included participating in a victim impact panel, and mandatory use of an ignition-interlock device after he gets out of custody, the release says; Dennis, 25, pleaded guilty to the Class D felony on Nov. 25.

As part of his conviction of driving while intoxicated in October 2013, Dennis was required to have an ignition interlock device in any car he drove, but, when police pulled him over on Oct. 13, 2014, Dennis was driving a Jeep without the device and without a valid driver’s license, according to the release.

Dennis was in his Jeep, parked on the side of Newry Road at the intersection of Route 32 in Westerlo when police passed him, then turned around. Dennis then started the Jeep and drove away, “almost striking a civilian vehicle”; he drove through a ditch onto Carr Road and led police on a high-speed pursuit, driving onto a dirt road, then crashing into a tree, the release says.

Dennis admitted to police that he drank alcohol before driving and his breath test indicated his blood-alcohol content was .13, above the legal limit of .08 for driving while intoxicated. 

— Marcello Iaia