Fort Wayne mayor gets suspended sentence for drunken driving
This image taken Oct. 9, 2022 provided by the Allen County Sheriff’s Dept. shows Fort Wayne Mayor Tom Henry. The mayor of Indiana’s second-largest city had a blood alcohol reading nearly twice the state’s limit for driving when he was arrested over the weekend for drunken driving, court records show. Henry was charged Monday, Oct. 10, 2022 with operating a vehicle while intoxicated and operating a vehicle with a blood alcohol content of 0.15% or more, both misdemeanors. (Allen County Sheriff’s Dept. via AP)
FORT WAYNE, Ind. (AP) — The mayor of Indiana’s second-largest city has received a suspended one-year jail sentence after he pleaded guilty to operating a vehicle while intoxicated endangering a person.
Fort Wayne Mayor Tom Henry also was ordered Thursday to pay more than $3,000 for a fine, court costs and restitution to the city and to the driver of the car he struck. He’s also required to submit to random alcohol and drug testing and to report to an alcohol countermeasures program. The 70-year-old Democrat’s driver’s license was suspended for 90 days.
Henry’s blood-alcohol level was 0.152 after he was arrested Oct. 8, court records said. Indiana’s legal limit to drive is 0.08.
He had told police he drank “too many glasses of wine at a fundraiser” at a Fort Wayne theater, records show. The mayor was swaying, argumentative and had slurred speech, according to an arrest report.
After his release from jail, Henry read a statement to reporters apologizing “for the poor decision I made to get behind the wheel” after drinking at the event.
Henry, first elected in 2007, has said he plans to run again in 2023.