(Stillwater, Okla.) — A Cushing man has pleaded no contest to drunk driving on Highway 18 southwest of Cushing, attempting to bite a trooper’s arm, engaging in a pattern of criminal activity by drunk driving in Payne and Logan counties, leaving the scene of a property damage accident and failing to carry proof of insurance.
Questioned in court by District Judge Phillip Corley, Lonnie W. Seitsinger, 58, said that he entered a no contest plea Friday because he has no memory of the incident.
Seitsinger, who has been jailed since his arrest five months ago, has four prior felony drunk driving convictions for which he served about eight years in prison, court records show.
The judge ordered a background report Friday on Seitsinger pending his May 9 sentencing at which he could receive a 28-year prison term due to his criminal record.
Seitsinger was arrested by Oklahoma Highway Patrol Trooper Robert Burrows at 1:12 p.m. Sept. 23, 2013, on State Highway 18, two-tenths of a mile south of Eseco Road, southwest of Cushing, court records show.
The trooper, who was dispatched to the area regarding a two-vehicle hit and run property damage collision, was advised “the defendant had fled the scene southbound and had crashed into a creek on SH 18, south of Agra,” an affidavit said.
Seitsinger “had been contacted by Agra police officers and had also been treated by medical personnel from the Chandler Fire Department,” the affidavit said.
Seitsinger smelled of alcohol and was arrested by the OHP trooper for drunk driving, along with leaving the scene of a property damage collision, the affidavit said.
When the trooper put Seitsinger in the right front passenger seat of his patrol car and reached across to buckle his seat belt, Seitsinger growled, leaned forward and attempted to bite the trooper on his right arm, the affidavit said.
After Seitsinger put his mouth on the trooper’s right arm, the trooper asked him not to bite — and tried three more times to buckle Seitsinger’s seat belt, the affidavit said.
Seitsinger then looked at the trooper and spat in the trooper’s direction, but the spittle missed the trooper, the affidavit said.
At that point, the trooper put a medical breather mask over Seitsinger’s mouth and nose that he obtained from the Chandler Fire Department, the affidavit said.
While the trooper was transporting Seitsinger to the Payne County Jail, “defendant stated that he wanted to ‘kick your ass,’ and ‘bite your ear off,"” the affidavit said.
Seitsinger asked repeatedly for the trooper to “give me a beer” and “take these chains off and dump me in a ditch,” the affidavit said.
At the Payne County Jail when Seitsinger was asked to take a breath test for the presence of alcohol, he “responded in a growling voice ‘no,’ while shaking his head in a side to side manner,” the affidavit said.
“Defendant yelled, cursed, spit repeatedly into the mask on his face and continued to make verbal threats,” against the trooper and Payne County jail staff, the affidavit said.
According to court records, Seitsinger has four prior felony convictions for driving under the influence of alcohol in:
* 1988 in Lincoln County, for which he received a four-year sentence;
* 1989 in Lincoln County, for which he received a four-year sentence;
* 1990 in Payne County, for which he received a four-year sentence;
* 1997 in Lincoln County, for which he received a seven-year sentence.
***
