The jury trial in former Staten Island Rep. Vito Fossella’s drunken driving case is set to get underway this morning in Alexandria, Va.

After being convicted of driving under the influence in October and sentenced by a General District Court judge to five days in jail in December, the disgraced congressman immediately appealed, setting up a date in Alexandria Circuit Court.

Jury selection should begin sometime after 9:30 a.m. The court has set aside today and tomorrow for the trial.

During the trial, Fossella’s attorneys questioned the validity of the results of the Intoxilyzer test, in part because it misprinted, twice, the name of the officer who administered the test. Interference from police radios and cell phones and the presence of hand sanitizer on Fossella also could have produced a higher reading than was actually the case.

The legal team also pointed out that a field sobriety test indicated a .133 blood-alcohol content, which falls below the .15 threshold. Fossella, testifying on his own behalf, told the judge he did not drive drunk and was traveling to see his sick daughter when he ran a red light in Alexandria. He paid his $100 fine for the red-light violation on Nov. 5.

In papers filed with the court, Alexandria prosecutor David Lord cited another Virginia case where a judge ruled that the higher sobriety test result — taken hours after the defendant was driving — trumped the field sobriety test. Alcohol content rises in the period after a person stops drinking.

“Congressman Fossella, I’ve been sworn to follow the law and must impose jail time,” Cheif Judge Becky Moore said while imposing the sentence Dec. 8.

The DUI arrest was the first step that sparked Fossella’s fall from grace and led him not to seek re-election for his seat in November. After the media questioned why Fossella was bailed out by Alexandria retired Air Force Colonel Laura Fay, he admitted that he fathered a child out of wedlock with her.

Fossella, who was first elected to Congress in 1997, left Washington at the end of last year. He has not announced what he intends to do, but some speculate that he might run to win back his seat in 2010 after recent appearances around Staten Island.

Source: SiLive