Pellegrino, if he makes bail, will be subject to a curfew and twice-weekly reporting to probation.
Julian Pellegrino confers with his lawyer, Raipher Pellegrino, at bail hearing MondaySPRINGFIELD – A drug test showing cocaine use has landed Julian Pellegrino back in jail.
Hampden Superior Court Judge Tina S. Page on Monday ordered Pellegrino, who is awaiting trial on charges resulting from a 2009 car crash which seriously injured another driver, held in lieu of $100,000 cash bail or $1 million surety.
Page said she has “serious concerns” Pellegrino can abstain from using drugs and alcohol if released on his own recognizance.
The bail was set because Pellegrino, who was free on his own recognizance pending his trial, tested positive for cocaine in a regular drug screen which was part of his conditions of pre-trial release.
Pellegrino is charged with operating a motor vehicle under the influence of drugs and causing serious injury.
Page said if Pellegrino, 42, of 29 Savoy Ave., gets out on bail he must stay home between 6 p.m. and 7 a.m. He must remain drug- and alcohol-free, report twice a week in person to the probation office, and go to three Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous meetings per week.
Pellegrino’s lawyer, Raipher D. Pellegrino, asked Page to release Pellegrino with a requirement for daily drug and alcohol screening. He said the trial date is Sept. 7, so it is not too far off.
Raipher Pellegrino is Julian Pellegrino’s brother. Also sitting in the courtroom but not participating for the bail hearing Monday was their father, retired Springfield Juvenile Court Judge Joseph A. Pellegrino.
The head-on crash occurred on Dec. 20, 2009, at 2:20 p.m., when Pellegrino, driving a 2004 Ford truck eastbound on Granby Road in Chicopee, crossed the line into the westbound lane.
His truck collided with a 1998 Honda driven by 26-year-old Mark A. Costa, of Chicopee, police said.
Both drivers were taken to Baystate Medical Center. Costa suffered two broken legs and other injuries.
Last month, Hampden Superior Court Judge Cornelius Moriarty II denied Julian Pellegrino’s effort to get results of a blood test on blood taken at the hospital thrown out as evidence. Pellegrino claimed they were obtained illegally.
Chicopee police followed proper procedures in obtaining the results of the blood testing, the judge ruled. The result of the blood test is not public, Assistant District Attorney James M. Forsyth said.
Forsyth said Pellegrino was held without right to bail since Friday, when the positive drug test happened.
Julian Pellegrino, who briefly considered a run for state representative in the 9th Hampden District in 1999, is a member of a prominent Springfield family.
He is the son of Kathleen B. Pellegrino, a former police commissioner. Raipher Pellegrino is a past Springfield city councilor.
In November, he was arraigned in Springfield District Court for a new charge, driving while under the influence of liquor. He still faces that charge in District Court.
When he was arrested on the District Court charge, he was held without right to bail for about a month because the new charge violated his conditions of pre-trial release on the Superior Court case. But Pellegrino successfully challenged that District Court decision in Superior Court and was released on his own recognizance.
Page noted the positive blood test for cocaine is the second violation of pre-trial release, with the November arrest the first.
