A Delco man was sentenced to prison after pleading guilty to an 11th DUI
Mark Perrotta, 57, had a "white powdery substance" on his moustache and suspected heroin in his pants pocket when he was arrested, police said.
A Delaware County man who struck a parked car in 2019 in what prosecutors say was his 11th DUI offense was sentenced this week to nine to 18 months in prison and one year of probation.
Mark Perrotta, 57, of Folsom, entered a guilty plea to driving under the influence and drug offenses during a hearing Monday before Delaware County Judge James P. Bradley.
Perrotta’s attorney, Stephen Schukraft, said he felt Bradley’s decision was fair. He noted that Perrotta had been in jail since his arrest — nearly 18 months by the time of his hearing Monday.
In announcing Perrotta’s arrest, prosecutors said he had previously been convicted of driving under the influence 10 times, most recently in 2006. But because that last conviction was more than 10 years before his most recent arrest, Pennsylvania law dictated that Perrotta be treated as a first-time DUI offender rather than face the harsher penalties of a repeat conviction.
» READ MORE: A family’s push to change Pennsylvania’s DUI law seemed like an easy win. But it died a slow death in Harrisburg.
An officer in Eddystone confronted Perrotta in December 2019, moments after he struck a parked car with his truck, according to the affidavit of probable cause for Perrotta’s arrest.
Perrotta appeared unsteady on his feet and had a “white powdery substance” on his mustache, the affidavit said. The officer later found five bags of what appeared to be heroin in Perrotta’s pants pocket, one of which was open.
Perrotta refused to have his blood drawn for testing. And he told police the pants he was wearing — and the heroin inside them — didn’t belong to him.
Schukraft said that Perrotta had made an “incredible turnaround” in his life since 2006 but that a prescription for the powerful drug OxyContin for relief from a work injury had led him to heroin addiction.