obie7661
11-22-2006, 01:00 AM
By Rick Armon
Beacon Journal staff writer
A Kent man who already ranks among the worst drunken-driving violators in the state has been arrested for a 16th time.
Chester R. Callebs, 43, was arrested Friday by Stow police after his vehicle was found stuck on a concrete barricade at the railroad tracks near the Middlebury Road Bridge. The bridge is closed for repairs, but he apparently tried to drive around the construction and became stuck, police Lt. Rick Meyers said Tuesday.
Callebs was charged with operating a vehicle under the influence, driving under suspension and illegal license plates. He refused to take a blood-alcohol test, Meyers said.
Callebs pleaded not guilty Monday in Cuyahoga Falls Municipal Court and remained in the Summit County Jail in lieu of a $50,000 cash bond. A message left for him at the jail was not returned.
Meyers said he was unfamiliar with the other convictions -- it was Callebs' first such arrest in Stow -- and didn't know how Callebs was able to accumulate so many drunken-driving arrests. ``That's a good question,'' he said.
Callebs hasn't had a valid driver's license since 1991 and has been convicted 15 previous times of drunken driving, the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles said. He was arrested on his 15th violation in October 2005 in Streetsboro. He was sentenced in January to a year in state prison but was released in August.
Though his license has been suspended since 1991, courts have suspended his right to drive 30 times in that time.
``This is the traffic equivalent of five life sentences,'' BMV spokesman Fred Stratmann said.
Callebs is barred from registering a vehicle in his name because of the number of offenses, Stratmann added. It was unclear Tuesday who owns the vehicle that Callebs was driving.
Callebs ranks among the state's worst repeat drunken drivers. Twenty-five people had been convicted as many as 16 times as of December 2005, according to the BMV. Two people were tied with the most convictions: 19.
Beacon Journal staff writer
A Kent man who already ranks among the worst drunken-driving violators in the state has been arrested for a 16th time.
Chester R. Callebs, 43, was arrested Friday by Stow police after his vehicle was found stuck on a concrete barricade at the railroad tracks near the Middlebury Road Bridge. The bridge is closed for repairs, but he apparently tried to drive around the construction and became stuck, police Lt. Rick Meyers said Tuesday.
Callebs was charged with operating a vehicle under the influence, driving under suspension and illegal license plates. He refused to take a blood-alcohol test, Meyers said.
Callebs pleaded not guilty Monday in Cuyahoga Falls Municipal Court and remained in the Summit County Jail in lieu of a $50,000 cash bond. A message left for him at the jail was not returned.
Meyers said he was unfamiliar with the other convictions -- it was Callebs' first such arrest in Stow -- and didn't know how Callebs was able to accumulate so many drunken-driving arrests. ``That's a good question,'' he said.
Callebs hasn't had a valid driver's license since 1991 and has been convicted 15 previous times of drunken driving, the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles said. He was arrested on his 15th violation in October 2005 in Streetsboro. He was sentenced in January to a year in state prison but was released in August.
Though his license has been suspended since 1991, courts have suspended his right to drive 30 times in that time.
``This is the traffic equivalent of five life sentences,'' BMV spokesman Fred Stratmann said.
Callebs is barred from registering a vehicle in his name because of the number of offenses, Stratmann added. It was unclear Tuesday who owns the vehicle that Callebs was driving.
Callebs ranks among the state's worst repeat drunken drivers. Twenty-five people had been convicted as many as 16 times as of December 2005, according to the BMV. Two people were tied with the most convictions: 19.