Robert Scheller of Marshfield is led by court officers into Brockton Superior Court Wed. morning before pleading guilty to two drunk driving offenses. (TIM CORREIRA/GateHouse News Service)

By SYDNEY SCHWARTZ
The Patriot Ledger

BROCKTON - A repeat drunken driver with at least 12 convictions was sentenced to six to eight years in prison after he pleaded guilty to charges of driving under the influence in Pembroke and Marshfield.

But as he heard the judge’s sentence Wednesday, Robert Scheller’s attorney, David G. Nagle, asked that his client be allowed to withdraw that plea.

Superior Court Judge Elizabeth Donovan rejected Nagle’s motion.

Following his release, Scheller will be on probation for five years and will have to attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, submit to random alcohol testing and perform community service.

Nagle had asked the judge for two concurrent four-year sentences along with probation.

Assistant District Attorney Karen O’Sullivan recommended that Scheller serve two consecutive five-year terms and be on probation for five years.

Scheller, 57, of Marshfield, has been in jail since last September, when Marshfield police charged him drunken driving and his driver’s license was revoked for life.

A week earlier, he was involved in a car crash in a Stop & Shop parking lot in Pembroke. A Pembroke police officer chose not to charge him and instead turned him over to Marshfield police to be taken home.

A grand jury later indicted him on a drunken-driving charge in that case after hearing testimony from at least two eyewitnesses and the Pembroke officer, Gregory Burns.

According to an internal police investigation, Burns said he did not have enough evidence to prove that Scheller had been driving and said the only witness he spoke with left before he could get his name.

The witness, Philip J. Tortorella Jr., a retired special agent with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, later told the police department that he told Burns he had watched Scheller crash into a pole.

Scheller said Wednesday that the facts were ‘‘mostly true.’’

‘‘Hitting the post and stuff - I never hit the post. There was no damage to my vehicle. All I did was hit a curb,’’ he said.

Scheller had pleaded innocent earlier to the Pembroke and Marshfield charges. On Wednesday, he changed his pleas.

‘‘I’m pleading guilty,’’ Scheller told Judge Donovan. ‘‘This is all my free-will decision. ... I was under the influence. ...I drank that day.’’

Scheller’s previous drunken-driving record is somewhat cloudy. In addition to a string of convictions in Massachusetts over 25 years, O’Sullivan, the assistant district attorney, said he had as many as six out of state convictions, although all of them could not be immediately confirmed.

His rap sheet does include convictions in five states. In 1983, Scheller, while drunk, crashed head-on into a car on Route 3A in Marshfield, sending a 22-year-old woman to the hospital with brain trauma.

‘‘The defendant clearly has an issue with alcohol,’’ O’Sullivan said. ‘‘The defendant has been given every opportunity to get his life back on track.’’

Scheller said he spent two years at UMass-Boston, where he studied psychology. Nagle said Scheller aspired to be a professional hockey player before becoming a cabinet maker.

Scheller said he has worked as a carpenter, installing custom kitchens, since 1967. He said he recently moved from Norwell to Marshfield.

His attorney said he was sober for a long time before last September’s incidents. He attended AA meetings and his ‘‘probation officer was his link to sobriety,’’ Nagle said

When his father died, he had a relapse, Nagle said.

‘‘He is a talented, intelligent, hard-working man,’’ Nagle said in court. ‘‘Alcohol had, quite frankly, devastated his life.’’

Scheller will receive credit for the time spent in custody. He has 10 days to appeal the sentence.

Scheller’s rap sheet

Nov. 10, 1977: Drunken driving, Scituate. Ordered to attend alcohol education

June 25, 1982: Surchargeable accident, Marshfield

Jan. 17, 1983: Drunken driving, Plymouth. Ordered to undergo alcohol treatment

Feb. 24, 1983: Drunken driving, Marshfield. Ordered to attend alcohol education

April 26, 1983: Indefinite revocation, drunken driving

Jan. 16, 1987: License reinstated

May 16, 1989: Drunken driving, Norwell

Dec. 15, 1989: Drunken driving, driving to endanger, Randolph

May 12, 1990: Speeding, Norwell

Feb. 14, 1995: Driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Out of state

May 17, 1997: Driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, driving on a suspended license. Out of state

July 16, 1997: Habitual offender. Out of state

April 1, 1998: Indefinite revocation in Massachusetts on the out-of-state offenses

March 1, 2000: Drunken driving, driving to endanger, surchargeable accident, Norwell

April 7, 2000: License suspended

May 6, 2000: License suspended for 60 days for driving to endanger, one year for drunken driving, four years for habitual traffic offender

May 8, 2002: Indefinite suspension

Nov. 17, 2003: May 2000 suspensions expire

Dec. 12, 2003: Immediate threat, indefinite revocation, Brockton. Based on out-of-state incident

March 18, 2004: License reinstated

March 19, 2005: Surchargeable accident, Norwell

Dec. 22, 2005: Driving an unregistered vehicle, equipment violations, Norwell

Sept. 3, 2006: Crashes a van in a supermarket parking lot in Pembroke. Police say they can’t prove conclusively that he was driving and drive him home.

Sept. 12, 2006: Drunken driving arrest in a school zone in Marshfield. Immediate lifetime suspension

December 2006: Indicted on drunken driving charges by a grand jury for the Sept. 3 accident

Source: Registry of Motor Vehicles

To read our award-winning series “Driving to Endanger,” click here.

Sydney Schwartz may be reached at sschwartz@ledger.com .

Copyright 2007 The Patriot Ledger
Transmitted Thursday, September 20, 2007