Penn State official gets diversionary program after being charged with DUI in Centre County
A director in Penn State’s student affairs department was accepted Wednesday into a pre-trial intervention program that gives her an opportunity to have her DUI charges dismissed and her record expunged.
Anna C. Barone, who was still listed as of Wednesday as the university’s student care and advocacy director, was admitted into a 12-month Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition program. Centre County Judge Brian Marshall approved her admission.
The diversionary program — which is offered at the discretion of Centre County District Attorney Bernie Cantorna’s office — is designed for first-time offenders or people with minimal criminal records.
Under the conditions of the program, Barone must complete outpatient counseling, a safe driving course and an addiction awareness program. Her license will be suspended for 60 days and she is not allowed to drink alcohol when she’s enrolled in the program.
Defense lawyer Jason Dunkle declined comment after the hearing.
Barone, 41, of Patton Township, was charged in February with two misdemeanor counts of DUI and a summary traffic violation for driving with a blood alcohol content of 0.25%, about three times the state’s limit.
She was stopped in December after she crossed the centerline of South Water, Willowbank and West Water streets five times, Spring Township police wrote in an affidavit of probable cause. She nearly crashed into an officer’s patrol vehicle on South Water Street.
Barone told an officer she left an “apartment party” after having one drink. She had glossy eyes, slurred her words, smelled of alcohol and failed field sobriety tests, police wrote.
She also had an “unsteady gait” and used the vehicle to help maintain her balance, police wrote. A blood test was completed at Mount Nittany Medical Center.
Barone has worked for Penn State since at least 2014. She was named student care and advocacy director in March 2017. Penn State spokeswoman Lisa Powers wrote Wednesday in an email to the Centre Daily Times that Barone is still employed at the university.
She was the first of two student affairs officials to be charged in less than a month with drunken driving. Diane L. Andrews, the university’s special assistant to the vice president for student affairs, is scheduled to be placed in the ARD program May 8.
