Barber Acquitted Of Two Charges

Denis D. Barber '60 was found guilty last week of three out of six charges arising from an accident in Back Bay on March 20, where he injured Robert Stevens of Jamaica Plain. Barber was acquitted of driving under the influence of alcohol and driving an uninsured and unregistered automobile.

Judge Theodore A. Glynn, Jr. gave the Leverett House junior a three-month suspended sentence for leaving the scene of an accident and failure to identify, a $50 fine for negligent driving, and placed the charge of driving the wrong way on a one-way street on file.

An M.D.C. detective, off duty, stopped the car at Boylston and Charles Sts., where Barber had driven from the scene of the accident, on Columbus Ave., near the Statler Hotel.

Driver "Confused"

Testifying on his own behalf, Barber told the court that "the first time I saw the injured man was at the moment of impact." He stated that he was "very confused" and neither accelerated nor slowed down after the accident.

He did not know Columbus Ave. was one-way when he entered it, but realized when he saw lights coming toward him rather than from behind. Barber said, about the liquor charge, that throughout the evening he had had only two small cups of Bourbon punch at a Yearbook party and a total of four beers at the Palace Bar and the 411 Lounge in Boston.

Barber, a diabetic, had taken insulin at 10:30 a.m. on the morning of the day of the accident. Dr. John C. Wells, associate physician of the University Health Services, testified that at the time of the accident the insulin would have had its maximum action.