By Michael Copley, Staff Writer
mcopley@powhatantoday.com

Michael Vanarsdale lost control of the car he was driving February 4, 2009 and hit a tree on Flint Hill Road in Powhatan.

On July 22 he pleaded guilty to illegally operating a vehicle as a habitual offender.

According to evidence, Vanarsdale registered a blood alcohol level of .11 at the time of the wreck and was convicted of driving under the influence in General District Court in an earlier hearing.

Trooper Jackson of the Virginia State Police responded to the February 4 accident and said he found Vanarsdale injured at the scene. Vanarsdale apparently spent a number of months in the hospital and once released, according to Jackson’s testimony, admitted to the officer that he was driving illegally as a habitual offender.

The Circuit Court sentenced Vanarsdale to 12 months in prison on July 22, the mandatory minimum sentence in the case. According to court documents, he was convicted at least once before of driving as a habitual offender.

“We’re just lucky you hit a tree and not a car load of people,” Judge Thomas Warren said before sentencing, “because then we would have dead people to contend with.”