Teacher pleads no contest to DUI charge
NBC 10
Published: October 9, 2009
Updated: October 9, 2009
A second-grade teacher in Bristol pleaded no contest Friday to a drunken driving charge.
Kathleen Borgia appeared in Providence District Court for what was to be a probation violation hearing.
Brogia pleaded no contest to driving under the influence; the state dropped a charge of refusing a chemical test.
She was fined $100 and her license was suspended for six months. A judge also ordered her to attend substance abuse counseling.
Police and prosecutors said Borgia was driving erratically and smelled of alcohol on Sept. 28 while on her way to Colt Andrews School in Bristol. Her lawyer, Michael Egan, said his client had been taking prescription drugs and had been dealing with psychological and personal problems at the time.
“Obviously, Miss Borgia has some serious issues she has to deal with, some of them mental health-related, some of them physical. She has some serious medications she’s on right now, and she needs to address that and get her life together,“ Egan said.
The Bristol Phoenix reported last month that Borgia was suspended with pay.
Court records indicate Borgia has a history of alcohol-related problems.
The Bristol-Warren School Committee voted in 2008 to fire Borgia for a series of alcohol and domestic abuse incidents. She was reinstated on appeal.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Reader Reactions
I’m sorry I brought up politics too
Alkeryia. But this Kennethnk… I can’t fathom how somone can be such an…......on every single subject that is so important in our society.
chesapeake, pardon me, my friend, I just realized it was in your post about politics. It is usually kenneth who brings that up.
*yawn* As usual, kenneth, politics, politics, politics. Like it has any to do with this, let alone you knowing noting about me or my politics. The answer to all alcohol problems, I never said I had. Chesapeake, allow me to expound on your very astute points.
I am not sure where you got the idea that I think that everyone who drinks alcohol drives drunk; that statement is ludicrous. Those who do are committing a crime, and should receive appropriate punishment, that punishment being more severe if they injure or kill someone. I am sure if someone in your life was killed by a drunk driver, you would feel quite differently. Pleading no contest is taking personal responsibility? Then knowledge of our legal system is far out of YOUR grasp, and I assure you, not out of mine.
It is not a “police mistake” to drop the charge of refusal of a chemical test, she has the right to do it. They then have the right to charge her with that (also a crime), and they did. The court decided to drop it.
As far as taxation, my point was that the Bristol taxpayers (who pay her salary) tried to have her removed from the classroom, but the UNION fought to return her there, and the court ordered it. Now, the Bristol taxpayers are again paying the salary of someone who is at this time unfit for the job she is being paid to do. Before you jump on me for that one, if she were to complete a treatment program and prove her sobriety, that would be great. Whether she would then be fit to return to the classroom isn’t for me (or you) to say. Ordering substance abusers into treatment seldom works, and with her past history, her motivation to change seems very low. Reading her arrest record for several alcohol related, violent crime speaks for itself.
I maintain that drunk driving is a choice, and a bad one.
Kennethnk,
I think we all know about the dangers of Alcohol. Food, Guns, Tobacco, and bunji jumping.
But your answer is
Not to plead guilty, (Take no personal responsibility)
Police mistakes….(Take no personal responsibility)
Taxation….(Take no personal responsibility)
You make it sound like everybody who drinks achohol drives drunk, ruins there lives, there health and kills our youth.
Your solutions are out of you grasp of knowledge….. like you politics.
Wow alkeryia I had no idea your posts were the answers to all the Alcohol problems in our country sorry I said anything different then you o most high please forgive me.
Drunk driving is a choice you say well so is selling Alcohol to people that drive knowing the effects it has on people and portraying it as harmless to make a buck is a Moral Crime that shouldn’t go unpunished either.
God Bless this women and help her through her problems.
Yeah, kenneth, she is brilliant. Just like you.
You union bashers are blaming them for the police’s mistakes.I have been told by manny of lawyers to never submit to any tests because they are not correct and the burden of proof is on the police to show guilt so why even try to help them.
Pleading guilty for a refusel is much better then guilty as a DWI as charged she is a smart women with lots of problems for sure.
When do we start to get real about the dangers of alcohol we all know what it does but yet they sell it like it has no adverse effects on our society . Health care costs families and carreers ruined kids and teenagers being killed and yet we think alcohol is innocent here and place no extra tax or penalties for destroying the lives of millions of people.
Watch our children die from ALCOHOL we just want to persecute the users and blame the unions for it.
God Bless America
May I add surfcoaster, as does ANYONE, regardless of name, deserve what they get if they do this. That said, they don’t get what they deserve (drunk drivers, nevermind drunk teachers), they get a slap on the wrist. The state dropped the refusal of a chemical test, why?? So she got $100 fine and a 6 month suspension. He ‘ordered’ her to undergo substance abuse counseling, when we all no that it has no effect if the motivation isn’t there to change. In the meantime, she is suspended with pay. So, in reality she is being rewarded; I bet the Bristol tax payers love that one.
Drunk driving is not an accident, it is a choice. When a person makes this choice, in this case several times, punishment, REAL punishment is called for.
mic7412
I don’t think you know the facts here, she was arrested on her way to school to teach 2nd graders at 9 am, she has a laundry list of past alcohol/violence charges against her, nolo to felony assualt among them. She hid behind the union and forced her way back into a classroom of 2nd graders and she obviously still has major issues with alcohol. She is ignorant and selfish and deserves what she gets, she needs help and has been given ample opportunity to get it, she made her own bed and has already been given enough chances. Look in the mirror???? You’re kidding right?
If she was a kennedy i am sure she would have been let go. Is he still not the congress man? lets be real, we have teachers that have substance abuse issues.do we address those people. what about the other teachers that have had DUI’s. Look in the mirror before you start slamming her!
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