Jun 14, 2017 2 min read

WAYNESBURG – A Greene County judge last week reversed a driving under the influence conviction he imposed against a Washington Township man in September.

President Judge Farley Toothman Friday overturned Frank Steven Borovichka’s DUI conviction, saying in retrospect the state did not provide enough evidence during the nonjury trial to prove Borovichka was drunk when he crashed in a truck on Route 19 near Ruff Creek in January 2015.

Borovichka, 64, of 515 Purman Run Road, had filed a post-sentence appeal, and his argument was heard in April.

While Toothman overturned the DUI conviction, he upheld guilty verdicts on false reports to police, accident involving damage and careless driving. Toothman, who sentenced Borovichka in December to three days of house arrest, six months of probation and a $875 fine, ordered he be resentenced.

Toothman wrote in his order investigators did not prove Borovichka was intoxicated at the time of the crash, although they apparently brought enough evidence during the original trial to persuade the judge to convict. Greene County District Attorney Marjorie Fox said there’s nothing prosecutors can do about Toothman’s reversal because they cannot appeal an acquittal.

Borovichka crashed his pickup truck into a guardrail Jan. 14, 2015, on Route 19 in Washington Township. State police said Borovichka left the scene of the crash, and when they contacted him at his home, he first told them his wife was driving the vehicle alone and crashed. His wife could provide no details about the crash, which led police to believe she was not the driver. They said Borovichka eventually admitted he was driving.

Toothman wrote while Borovichka admitted to drinking a beer after the crash, police did not show he was intoxicated beforehand.