Representative Vito J. Fossella, a Staten Island Republican, was found guilty on Friday of a misdemeanor charge of driving under the influence of alcohol after being stopped on an Alexandria road early one morning last spring.The decision, by a judge in Alexandria District Court, was the latest chapter in a scandal that began with his arrest in May, led to an admission that he had fathered a child in an extramarital affair, and eventually forced him to abandon his re-election bid. That decision gave New York Democrats a prime opportunity to pick up a Congressional seat that has been safely in Republican hands for decades.
Mr. Fossella, 43, who has a wife and three children in Staten Island, sat expressionless as Judge Becky J. Moore handed down her verdict. Under Virginia law, Mr. Fossella can appeal to have his case heard by a jury.
The prosecution is seeking a five-day jail sentence, the penalty for drivers who register a blood alcohol content of at least 0.15 percent. According to his arrest report, Mr. Fossella registered 0.133 percent during a roadside breath analysis test. After his arrest, prosecutors have said, he registered 0.17 percent on another machine. The legal limit in Virginia, as in most states, is 0.08 percent.
During the one-day trial, Mr. Fossella’s lawyers tried to undercut the prosecution’s case by challenging the accuracy of the breath analysis machines, a tactic that has been used with varying degrees of success around the country. Judge Moore set a court hearing for Dec. 8 to determine whether the prosecution had established that Mr. Fossella met the legal threshold for the five-day jail penalty.
Neither Mr. Fossella’s wife, Mary Pat Fossella, nor his mistress, Laura Fay, were in the courtroom.
In a statement released after the trial, Mr. Fossella said, “I made a serious mistake, and I want to again apologize for setting the wrong example,” The Associated Press reported. “I believe we live in a nation of laws, that no one person is above the law, and I look forward to the judge’s final determination in December.”
Judge Moore heard testimony from a handful of witnesses, including the arresting officer, Jamie Garnett, who delivered the most damaging account.
Officer Garnett said he stopped Mr. Fossella after the congressman drove through a red light during the predawn hours of May 1. As he approached the congressman in his car, Officer Garnett testified, he noticed that Mr. Fossella’s lips were stained red and his eyes bloodshot, and that the car smelled of alcohol.
He also said that Mr. Fossella swayed when he got out of the car and that he had difficulty completing a series of sobriety field tests, including standing on one leg and reciting the alphabet from D to T.
In his testimony, Mr. Fossella said he had drunk about two glasses of wine at two restaurants where he had gathered with friends and acquaintances.
Mr. Fossella said that sometime later that night, he rushed to Virginia, where Ms. Fay and their 3-year-old daughter live, after receiving news about the girl. “I was told that my daughter was sick,” he said, in the only mention during the trial of the child he had with Ms. Fay.
Earlier on Friday, defense lawyers called to the witness stand several people who had spent part of the evening with Mr. Fossella before his arrest. They testified that Mr. Fossella did not appear to be drunk at any point.
The witnesses included Dr. John D’Ana, a surgeon and friend of Mr. Fossella’s whose testimony was clearly aimed at undercutting that of the arresting officer. Under direct examination by the defense, Dr. D’Ana said Mr. Fossella did not have bloodshot eyes or red stains on his lips, nor was he staggering.
“He appeared as he always does — composed and in control,” he said.
By almost any standard, Mr. Fossella’s fall was rapid and dramatic.
The case might not have generated the kind of tabloid headlines it did if not for the explanation Mr. Fossella gave Officer Garnett the night the officer stopped him on a dark stretch of Seminary Road: that he was on his way to visit his sick daughter in Alexandria.
Once reporters began investigating the circumstances surrounding the arrest, his statement to the officer became public. And Mr. Fossella was eventually forced to admit that he had had an affair with Ms. Fay, a retired Air Force colonel who served as a military liaison to Congress, and that the two had a young daughter — secrets he had kept even from some of his closest friends.
The case upended a promising political career. Mr. Fossella had been a member of the New York City Council before leaders of the once-formidable Staten Island Republican Party tapped him to run for Congress in a special election in 1997, representing a district that includes all of Staten Island and a portion of Brooklyn. He has served five full terms and part of a sixth.
As the only Republican in the city’s Congressional delegation, he was uniquely positioned to run for citywide office, including the mayoralty, a prospect that some of his allies frequently mentioned in private.
