Free for four hours

By Jaime North
The Daily Item

Sun, May 18 2008

— DANVILLE -- Fewer than four hours after being released on parole for threatening neighbors with an AK-47 last summer, a Valley Township man found himself back in jail, accused of showing up drunk at Montour County Courthouse.
David Winders, 42, who was sentenced Tuesday to 31 days to 18 months in jail but released on 31 days credit for time served, was placed in jail on a parole violation after he registered 0.1 percent on a personal breathalyzer test, Montour County District Attorney Robert Buehner Jr. said
Winders, of 95 Creek Road, returned to the courthouse in the afternoon following his morning sentencing proceeding to pick up paperwork for his parole, Buehner said.
When Winders arrived, Buehner said courthouse officials noticed he smelled of alcohol.
"He was apparently drunk," Buenher said. "It was enough for people who notice those kinds of things to notice it on him. He was charged as a parole violator and placed in jail."
During the morning sentencing proceeding, Buehner requested Winders be evaluated for drug and alcohol abuse, but Columbia-Montour Judge Scott W. Naus did not make it a condition in the court order.
Winders admitted his excessive alcohol use was a contributing factor in the neighbor dispute in July.
District Judge Marvin Shrawder even ordered a special bail condition for Winders to avoid alcohol when he was arrested last summer.
"For him to abide by the recommendation (of the evaluation) is in his best interest for his rehabilitation," Buehner said Tuesday during the sentencing proceeding.