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	Preacher Pleads Guilty to Driving While Drunk TriCities October 26, 2007 http://www.tricities.com/tristate/tri/news.apx.-content-articles-TRI-2007-10-26-0006.html A Bristol Virginia Baptist preacher arrested at a Johnson City car wash in July pleaded guilty Thursday to a drunken driving charge. Thomas Dale Tester, a.k.a. Tommy Tester, 58, of Hobbs Road, Bristol, Va., was sentenced to 11 months and 29 days, which was suspended to 24 hours in jail – 16 hours of which he has already served. He also will have to serve 24 hours picking up litter with the Washington County, Tenn., Detention Center's DUI litter pick-up crew. Tester, the minister of Gospel Baptist Church at the time of his arrest, also entered a "best interest" plea to a charge of indecent exposure and was sentenced to five months and 29 days, which was suspended to probation. According to the plea agreement, six months of his probation will be supervised, his attorney Wes Edens, said after the hearing. Tester will also pay a total of $700 in fines, plus court costs, and he must stay away from downtown Johnson City and all Johnson City parks. According to court documents, Tester, who was wearing a skirt, drove up to Belmont Carwash, got out and urinated in a wash bay in view of children. When police arrived to investigate the indecent exposure call, Tester offered to give the officers oral sex, according to their incident report. During Thursday's hearing, Tester's attorney told Washington County General Sessions Court Judge Robert Lincoln that "because [Tester] was intoxicated, he doesn't remember very much about," the From Page B1 indecent exposure at all. Edens said Tester's blood-alcohol level was .208 percent. The legal limit for intoxication is .08. When Lincoln asked Tester what intoxicant he used that night, he responded, "Vodka." Police found a half-empty bottle of vodka in Tester's Toyota Camry. In addition to his pastoral duties at the time of his arrest, Tester also worked at Christian radio station WZAP 690 AM. He was relieved of his duties at the station after his arrest, according to a statement from Al Morris, station owner. The sign at Gospel Baptist Church on Reedy Creek Road, listed Tester as the pastor as of Thursday night.
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