Bathrobe-wearing driver in two-car crash charged with OUI

BANGOR – A man dressed in a bathrobe and sweat pants was charged with drunken driving after a two-car accident on State Street during the weekend, according to police.

Officer Ed Mercier said he saw a white Chevy Blazer on the right side of State Street and a dark-blue Toyota sport utility vehicle parked in the center lane with its hazard lights flashing at about 9:30 p.m. Sunday.

That section of State Street is newly paved and does not yet have painted lines, but it does have reflective markers to separate lanes.

The driver of the Toyota approached the officer and said that the other vehicle had been driving down the center of the street and sideswiped his SUV.

Richard Mooney, 63, of Bangor was driving the Blazer that struck the other vehicle.

When Mercier arrived, Mooney was sitting in the back of the other driver’s SUV because he had locked himself out of his own vehicle. The other driver told police that Mooney was having trouble standing so he let him sit in the Toyota.

According to the report, Mercier went to the SUV and began talking to Mooney. As the officer was questioning the man as to why he was wearing his bathrobe, he noticed the man’s bloodshot eyes and slurred speech and smelled alcohol on his breath.

Mercier asked Mooney what he had had to drink. According to the report, he responded, “Nothing. I don’t drink, only Odoul’s,” a brand of low-alcohol beer.

After he failed a field sobriety test, Mooney told police he had consumed a few beers and glasses of wine.

Mercier charged Mooney with operating under the influence and took him to the Police Department, where he blew a 0.20 on an Intoxilyzer.

He was taken to Penobscot County Jail.