Sweeney indicted on DWI charge

BALLSTON SPA -Former U.S. Congressman John Sweeney was indicted Friday morning by a Saratoga County grand jury on felony driving while intoxicated charges.

The charges relate to his arrest in April, when state troopers stopped Sweeney, 54, of Clifton Park, on state Route 9 for speeding.

Police suspected Sweeney of being intoxicated at the time, but he refused to take a sobriety test, police said. He was charged with DWI.

It was Sweeney’s second alcohol-related arrest in less than 18 months.

His previous alcohol-related arrest came in November 2007, after police said he nearly clipped a police cruiser on the Northway, while driving with a blood-alcohol content of 0.18, more than twice the legal limit of 0.08.

Court documents from that arrest showed Sweeney had a young woman in the car with him who was reportedly sitting on his lap. His lawyer later confirmed a young woman was with him, but denied she was sitting on his lap.

Sweeney pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor DWI charge in the Northway case, was fined $1,000, and had his license suspended for six months.

Sweeney was unseated from the 20th Congressional District in 2006 by Kirsten Gillibrand, who is now a U.S. senator.