S. Kingstown man arrested for 4th DUI

TIVERTON, R.I. (WPRI) - A South Kingstown man is locked up in the ACI after he was arrested for drunken driving for the second time within the last six weeks and for the fourth time within less than five years.

David Cihat, 42, was arrested by Rhode Island State Police at 1:42 a.m. on July 4 on Route 24 North in Tiverton.

“He was driving very erratically,” Captain Frank Castellone said. “And he failed a field sobriety test.”

Castellone said Cihat was driving with a suspended license and refused to submit to a chemical breath test after he was brought to the state police barracks in Wickford.

On May 18, Cihat was arrested in South Kingstown on DUI charges. Now, he faces two pending DUI charges to go along with a pair of no contest pleas for DUI’s in Cranston in 2009 and Lincoln in 2007.

• DAVID CIHAT’S DUI RECORD
• July 4, 2012             DUI Charge - Pending
• May 18, 2012            DUI Charge - Pending
• November 21, 2009   DUI Charge - No contest plea
• December 29, 2007   DUI Charge - No contest plea

Court records indicate Cihat lost his license for three months and was fined and given community service for each of the first two drunken driving no contest pleas.

Under state law,  a second DUI within five years carries an automatic prison sentence of at least 10 days. But according to the Attorney General's office, Cihat's criminal docket sheet does not indicate he was sentenced to prison time after his second DUI.

Target 12 has asked the Cranston City Solicitor’s office, which prosecuted Cihat’s 2009 DUI, whether Cihat received jail time or home confinement. The answer is unavailable at this time.

State police tell Target 12, Cihat’s blood alcohol level after the Route 24 arrest is unknown because he refused to take a breath test and investigators say that in at least three of Cihat’s DUI arrests, he refused the chemical test.

Cihat is currently locked up on a probation violation stemming from his May 18 DUI arrest.

"We can’t comment on what the court does,” Captain Castellone said. “But we will remain vigilant in enforcing the DUI laws.”