Charges held against off-duty state trooper accused in fatal DUI crash

ERIE, Pa. — A Pennsylvania state trooper accused of homicide while driving under the influence appeared in court Monday for a preliminary hearing.

All charges against Jeffrey Dalessandro were held for court and officials said Dalessandro will be arraigned sometime in June.

Dalessandro is accused of being drunk when he crashed his pickup truck head-on into an SUV, killing a 21-year-old newlywed in Erie in February.

Investigators said Dalessandro had a blood alcohol content of nearly twice the legal limit although defense attorney Leonard Ambrose said that information may not be admissible.

“The statute requires that blood be taken within two hours in order to have automatic admission at trial and it’s obvious from the record that this blood was not taken with the two-hour window,” Ambrose said. “That’s going to be a point of contention in the case.”

Ambrose said he plans on arguing that Dalessandro wasn’t visibly intoxicated at the time of the crash.

The victim’s family attended the hearing, but did not comment before or after.

Dalessandro remains on unpaid leave from his job at the Moon state police barracks.

WPXI