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  Bristol Pastor Gets 24 Hours Jail Time, 24 Hours of Litter Pickup,
a Year Probation and Fined $800 for DUI, Indecent Exposure Charges


By Dee Goodin
Kingsport Times News
October 26, 2007

http://www.timesnews.net/article.php?id=9003586

Johnson City — With several of his supporters in the sessions courtroom of Johnson City's Downtown Centre, a Bristol, Va., preacher pleaded guilty to driving under the influence and indecent exposure Thursday afternoon.

Thomas Dale Tester, 58, 17426 Hobbs Road, Bristol, Va., pleaded guilty to the incident that occurred in late July.

According to his arrest warrant, Johnson City Police Department officers arrested Tester after he allegedly pulled up to their vehicle in a blue 2007 Toyota Camry and offered oral sex to the officers. The officers had gone to 308 S. Belmont St. to investigate an indecent exposure report.

Tester's arrest warrant said the man, who reportedly was wearing a skirt at the time, then got out of his vehicle and urinated in a Belmont Car Wash bay within public view and in the presence of children.

Officers also reportedly found a half-empty bottle of vodka and an empty bottle of oxycodone.

In court, Wes Higgins, Tester's attorney, said his client's blood alcohol was 0.08 at the time of the arrest.

When Sessions Judge Robert Lincoln asked Tester about his actions, including wearing "a denim miniskirt," Higgins said that because his client was intoxicated, he remembered nothing about the specifics of the incident.

Tester, known to many as Tommy Tester, worked for the Christian radio station WZAP-AM and served as a pastor of a Bristol area church.

Lincoln agreed to a sentence of 24 hours in jail, 24 hours of litter pickup, probation for a year, and an $800 fine.

 
 

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