Former Palmer City Council member sentenced in 2022 drunken driving case

What you need to know:

• Former Palmer City Council member Richard Best was sentenced this week to three days in jail or under house arrest, a $1,500 fine, a 90-day driver’s license suspension, and other penalties after being convicted last month of operating under the influence in 2022.
• Best was arrested in October 2022 after failing a field sobriety test. His breath alcohol content measured 0.128 following an early morning traffic stop on the Glenn Highway.
• He resigned from the Palmer City Council earlier this year amid potential sanctions tied to the Anchorage case and an unrelated charge that was later dropped. He had previously pleaded guilty to refusing a chemical test following a traffic stop in Palmer.

ANCHORAGE — An Anchorage judge this week sentenced former Palmer City Council member Richard Best to three days in jail or under house arrest and a 90-day driver’s license suspension for operating a vehicle under the influence in 2022.

An Anchorage jury found Best guilty of operating under the influence following a trial last month. Anchorage District Court Judge Chris Darnall sentenced him on Monday.

Best will serve three days in jail or under house arrest in mid-March, according to Darnall’s order. He must pay a $1,500 fine, his license will be suspended for 90 days, and his vehicle will be impounded for 30 days. He will also be required to serve one year of probation, participate in the state’s Alcohol Safety Action Program, and keep an ignition interlock device on his vehicle for six months.

Best, 56, appeared in court Monday with his attorney, Lisa Rosano. He declined a request for comment.

Rosano said Best is taking his past conduct seriously and has made efforts to change his behavior.

“Those were some dark days, and sometimes people act out of character,” she told Darnall during the sentencing hearing. “He’s made some important life choices to move on from that chapter.”

Best also pleaded guilty last year to refusing a chemical test after a traffic stop in Palmer. State prosecutors dismissed a charge of driving under the influence as part of that plea.

Best resigned from the Palmer City Council in February following turmoil over potential council sanctions against him. The sanctions were linked to the then-pending Anchorage charge and an unrelated Palmer charge of driving with a revoked license in late January, which was later dropped.

Best was first elected to the Palmer council in 2006. He applied last month to fill a council seat vacated after Jim Cooper was elected Palmer mayor but was not selected for the position.

Anchorage prosecutors charged Best with operating under the influence following an Oct. 22, 2022, traffic stop after he was observed driving toward Palmer on the Glenn Highway at 97 mph at about 3:00 a.m., according to a probable cause statement filed with the charges.

Rather than immediately responding to the officer’s overhead lights, Best turned off his headlights, made a wide turn off the Birchwood exit, crossed the overpass and stopped his vehicle in a position that blocked an off-ramp exit lane, according to court documents filed by a municipal prosecutor.

Officers “observed a strong odor of alcohol emanating from the defendant’s breath,” and Best admitted to drinking a shot of vodka an hour before the stop, according to the prosecutor’s document.

He was arrested for operating under the influence after failing a field sobriety test, the probable cause statement said. He was transported to the Anchorage jail, where his breath alcohol content was measured at 0.128. Alaska’s legal blood-alcohol limit for driving is 0.08. He was released later that day, the statement said.

Rosano filed a motion last year to dismiss the OUI charge, saying the field sobriety test at the time of his arrest was inaccurate because Best had received a steroid shot in his back earlier that day. Speeding and turning off his headlights could be linked to reckless driving, not necessarily driving under the influence, she wrote.

“Investigators knew and/or should have known that field sobriety tests conducted on a seriously injured person are not reliable evidence of intoxication,” according to the document filed by Rosano. “The evidence of high speed and turning off lights while on the road may potentially indicate reckless driving.”

That motion was denied, and the jury heard evidence on the impacts of the medical treatment, Darnall, the judge, said during the sentencing hearing Monday. 

“I absolutely believe the jury verdict is correct, but I can also see how and why we ended up in trial,” Darnall said. “I could understand how a medical treatment can lead somebody to make different decisions and ultimately can lead them to end up doing something they might not otherwise do.”

-- Contact Amy Bushatz at contact@matsusentinel.com