DUI Arrest Comes Almost Six Years After 2007 Crash

Almost six years after Darien police say he hit a utility pole while intoxicated, a (now) 28-year-old man has been arrested on a warrant, but only because he showed up in court on a completely different charge.

Shortly before 6:43 p.m. on Oct. 28, 2007, police say, Rafael Oliva of Norwalk, then 23, struck a utility pole with his boss's van (which he'd taken without permission), with a blood-alcohol content more than twice the legal limit and without a driver's license.

The accident occurred on the Post Road near Saltbox Lane. No other persons were injured or vehicles struck in the incident, and no one else was in the van with Oliva.

Despite the dangerous nature of the incident, which sent Oliva to the hospital, a warrant for his arrest wasn't signed by a judge until May 2008, five or six months later, and Darien police never found Oliva, a resident of 46 Fairfield Ave., Norwalk, until he showed up in state Superior Court in Stamford.

Oliva was recently arrested by Stamford police in connection with a domestic incident.

A Darien Police Department spokesman did not say what efforts the department made to find Oliva between the time of the incident and the suspect's arrest.

Oliva was driving a 1994 blue Dodge Ram van when he struck the utility pole on the south side of the Post Road near its intersection with Saltbox Lane, according to the arrest warrant.

When a police officer asked Oliva how much he'd been drinking, the driver replied, "Thirty beers."

Oliva had minor injuries and was transported to Stamford Hospital, where blood tests showed his blood-alcohol content was 0.188 (0.08 is the legal limit).

At some point, police applied for a warrant, which a judge signed in May 2008.

On July 22, 2013, when Oliva appeared in state Superior Court in Stamford in connection with an arrest in an alleged domestic incident, Darien police arrested him on charges of driving while under the influence, operating a motor vehicle without a license and taking a vehicle without the owner's permission.

Oliva was held on a $2,500 bond, which he did not immediately post. He was scheduled to appear in court on the charges on Thursday.

An online search of Connecticut Judicial Branch court records didn't show a defendant with the name "Rafael Oliva," but a man with the same birth year (1984) and similar name was next due to appear in court on Monday, Aug. 5, in state Superior Court in Norwalk and on Aug. 13 in state Superior Court in Stamford.

Information in this article was supplied by police who are accusing a suspect of a crime. The accusation has not been proven in court.