Yale man accused of drunk driving in Cushing jailed on $25,000 bail

  (Stillwater, Okla.) — A 60-year-old Yale man, who was 24 when he was sent to prison for a college student’s death stemming from an argument over a bagel, has been jailed on $25,000 bail pending a Sept. 9 court appearance on a charge of driving under the influence of alcohol in Cushing after three prior DUI convictions in Payne County.

    If convicted in his latest case, David Joe Doty could be given as much as a 20-year prison term, court records show.

    Doty was arrested in Cushing at 6:40 pm on Aug. 24 by Oklahoma Highway Patrol Trooper Ryan Long after Doty allegedly failed to come to a complete stop at the stop sign at Highland Ave. and E. North Street, an affidavit said.

    During the traffic stop, Doty smelled of alcohol and spoke with heavy, slurred speech; his eyes were droopy, watery and bloodshot, the trooper alleged in his affidavit.

    “Doty stated that he had consumed three shots of liquor before driving,” the affidavit alleged. When Doty took a breath test at the Cushing Police Department, his blood alcohol was .16, the affidavit alleged.

    When Doty was 24 in 1988, minutes before jury selection was to begin for his manslaughter trial, Doty pleaded guilty to the charge he had knocked 19-year-old Ebert Eissenstat to the ground in a 2 am scuffle outside A.J.s Bar and Grill near the Oklahoma State University campus on April 25, 1987.

    Eissenstat, an OSU sophomore, died of a skull fracture two days later after hitting his head on the pavement in front of the bar, prosecutors said.

    Eissenstat had been in the bar arguing about a bagel with Doty’s friend, when he stepped outside and was struck, according to testimony in a preliminary hearing.

    A large number of young people gathered in front of the bar where Eissenstat was lying on the pavement, but no one called an ambulance, witnesses said.

    “At the time, we didn’t think it was serious,” explained a witness, who said all the people were friends.

    After about 20 minutes, Eissenstat was taken in a private car to the Stillwater Medical Center, from which he was transported by air ambulance to St. Francis Hospital in Tulsa, but he never regained consciousness, authorities said.

    On Oct. 4, 1988, Doty was sentenced to a year in prison for first-degree manslaughter followed by four years of probation, according to state Department of Corrections records.

    On Jan. 25, 2001, Doty was given two concurrent five-year prison terms for two separate felony DUIs in 2000 in Stillwater, but on Nov. 2, 2001, the balance of his sentence was suspended, court records show. Doty was convicted of a third felony DUI in 2016 for driving under the influence on Norfolk Road in 2015, for which he was given seven years of probation, court records show.