news-record.com

GRAHAM (MCT) — A former Burlington police lieutenant was found guilty Thursday of driving while impaired.

Robin Harlukowicz, 44 — who had been employed by Burlington police since 1989 until she resigned earlier this year — was charged on April 29 with driving while impaired after registering .21 on a breath test nearly two hours after she turned off N.C. 87 South onto Windsor Drive just south of Graham and veered into an embankment.

District Court Judge Wayne Abernathy found Harlukowicz guilty Thursday afternoon, after hearing several hours' worth of testimony.

Harlukowicz will be sentenced Aug. 26.

At Thursday's hearing, Harlukowicz's attorney Clay Hemric argued that Highway Patrol Cpl. E. Strader didn't have probable cause to arrest her that night. Officers never asked if she was the driver and she never volunteered that information, Hemric said.

Alamance County Assistant District Attorney Paul Soderberg argued that a witness found her in the driver's seat, the SUV was registered in her name, her license was found inside the SUV and tire tracks proved the SUV had driven off the road.

Abernathy ruled that officers had probable cause to believe she was impaired and to believe that her vehicle was driven on a public road, but only narrowly had probable cause to believe that she'd been driving when the SUV crashed on the embankment.

The N.C. Supreme Court has ruled that being in the driver's seat doesn't prove a person was driving.

A witness — William Aydt — testified that he heard Harlukowicz say "I messed up" during a sobriety test that night.

''That one statement is all it took to save this case," Abernathy said, looking at Strader and Alamance County district attorneys. "This was a really close case. I've done a lot of research on it. If I didn't believe she said that (there wouldn't be probable cause)."

Once Abernathy found probable cause, Hemric told the judge he had enough evidence to make a decision in the case.

Abernathy then rendered the guilty verdict.

Harlukowicz had been employed by Burlington police since 1989 and was promoted from staff sergeant to lieutenant in the Operations Division in April 2008, police Assistant Chief Greg Seel said. She was placed on administrative leave while the office conducted an investigation but resigned before that investigation was concluded, Seel said Thursday.