Judge Rules Intoxicated Father Did Not Endanger Child

A Henrico Circuit Court judge ruled on Tuesday that driving with a child in a vehicle while intoxicated does not constitute child endangerment. 39-year-old Raleigh Thomas Campbell was arrested last December at gunpoint in front of the Short Pump Regal Cinemas, after getting in a dispute with a woman at the Beach House Bar & Grill at the Shoppes At Innsbrook.

Judge Daniel T. Balfour said that while he was convinced Campbell was intoxicated, he did not believe his actions warrented child endangerment, citing state laws that define endangerment as something more reckless than those of this case. All but one month of the year-long sentence Campbell was to serve in jail was suspended, but his driver’s license will be revoked for one year because of his refusal to take a field sobriety test. He asked the judge to consider allowing him to serve his time on the weekends in order to sustain the business he owns with his girlfriend of two years.

Campbell was also found not guilty in the death of his ex-girlfriend Carrie Ann Williams, of Chesterfield. She was found shot to death and wrapped in a plastic bag in 2002.