Brashear`s Troubles Continue

Philadelphia Flyers winger Donald Brashear, of Evesham, NJ, pleaded guilty Tuesday to charges of refusal to take a blood-alcohol test and unsafe operation of a motor vehicle.

In exchange for the guilty pleas, a prosecutor dropped a drunken driving charge against Brashear. A charge of careless driving was downgraded to unsafe operation.

Municipal Judge Michael Diamond sentenced Brashear to 12 hours of alcohol counseling and suspended his driver's license for 180 days. Brashear must also pay fines and court fees of $610.

Brashear was arrested Dec. 19, hours after a Flyers' loss, and charged with drunken driving, a crime punishable in New Jersey by up to 30 days in jail for first offenders.

Brashear, 32, who lives in Evesham, refused to submit to a blood-alcohol test, authorities said.

His lawyer, Charles Nugent, said his client maintains he was not driving drunk when he was pulled over.

The disposition of the case came two days before the Flyers are to play the New Jersey Devils in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Brashear, known as an enforcer for the Flyers, played in 64 regular-season games and finished fifth in the NHL in penalty minutes with 212.

The arrest was not Brashear's first brush with the law.

In 1997, he was charged with aggravated assault after a fight outside a bar on the New Jersey shore. Charges in that case were dropped when he agreed to participate in an intervention program. In 2001, he was sentenced to six months' probation in an assault in Vancouver.

Brashear is perhaps best known as the victim of an on-ice attack in 2000 by then-Boston Bruin Marty McSorley. McSorley hit Brashear, then with Vancouver, in the head with his stick, knocking him unconscious. McSorley was suspended for a year by the NHL.

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Author: NBC10/AP