Terminated Hellertown Police Officer Facing ‘Highest Rate of Alcohol’ DUI Charge

Note: This article has been updated with additional information.

A Hellertown police officer who was terminated for conduct unbecoming a police officer after it was learned that he has been charged with DUI was charged with DUI at the highest rate of blood alcohol concentration (BAC) last month, according to Lehigh County magisterial court records posted online.

That charge is reserved for individuals determined to have a BAC of .16 or higher, which is twice the legal limit (.08) for most motorists in Pennsylvania.

Tim Piotrowski–a popular borough policeman who was relieved of his duties following a unanimous borough council vote Tuesday night, and upon the recommendation of Police Chief Robert Shupp–was arrested in Upper Milford Township on Aug. 13 by Pennsylvania State Police at Fogelsville Tpr. Kyle Berardinucci, according to the criminal docket filed in his case in Magisterial Dist. Judge Daniel C. Trexler’s Coopersburg court.

In addition to the DUI-highest rate charge, he faces a regular DUI charge as well as citations for careless driving and disregarding a traffic lane, both of which are classified as summary offenses.

The DUI charges are listed on the docket as first-offense misdemeanors.

The Morning Call reported Thursday that the incident in which Piotrowski is charged involved a motorcycle crash at Ridge Road and Woodlawn Drive, and that an eyewitness who helped Piotrowski get back on the road after he allegedly drove off into a cornfield shortly before the crash called police after he saw him slide through the intersection.

The newspaper reported that his blood alcohol concentration was measured at .22.

Piotrowski, 51, of Zionsville, Lehigh County, was hired as a full-time officer by the borough in 2011 and headed the police department’s Block Watch at one point.

He is scheduled for a preliminary hearing on the charges he is facing on Sept. 22 at 11:30 a.m. in District Court 31-3-03 in Coopersburg, according to the docket information posted online.

The public court record for Piotrowski’s case also lists an inactive case from August 1999, in which he was found guilty in October of that year of a summary charge of criminal mischief/damage to property in Bethlehem according to a docket sheet from District Judge Wayne Maura’s court (District Court 31-1-06).

According to Lehigh County civil court records posted online, Piotrowski was also the defendant in a 2010 civil case involving The Ridings at Brookside Condo Association of Warminster, Montgomery County.

The Ridings at Brookside is a housing development in Macungie.

In that case, according to the records, the condo association was awarded an $8,000 civil judgment against him.

The Ridings was also issued a judgment against him in the amount of $1,700.63 in a 2008 case, according to another online court record from Lehigh County.

A summary appeal docket sheet from the Lehigh County Court of Common Pleas indicates that Piotrowski–whose address at the time was listed as Whitehall–was ordered to pay fines in April 2000 after failing to appear at a hearing to respond to a summary charge of Duties at a Stop Sign.

The offense date listed on that docket is Aug. 8, 1999.

After Piotrowski failed to show for the hearing on April 19, 2000, the following message was recorded by Judge John E. Backenstoe on the docket sheet: “After hearing held this date, in the absence of the defendant, after due notice having been given, the court finds the within case is dismissed due to failure of the defendant to appear, and upon motion of the district attorney. Costs to be paid by defendant as imposed by the magistrate. The sentence is that you pay the costs of prosecution, pay a fine in the amount of $25, and a $10 EMS fine.”