A Macon man is facing a felony driving while intoxicated charge and a probation revocation after police said he drove into the Macon Police Department parking lot on June 12 and registered a blood alcohol content more than three times the legal limit.
Christopher E. Maloney was charged June 29 in Macon County Circuit Court with driving while intoxicated as a persistent offender, a class E felony, and with operating a vehicle without a valid license, a class D misdemeanor.
According to a probable cause statement by Officer Chase Harrington, Maloney drove a pickup into the department’s parking lot the afternoon of June 12 and approached officers near the front entrance. Officers reported the odor of alcohol, bloodshot and watery eyes, slurred speech and unsteady balance. Harrington wrote that field sobriety testing was halted out of concern for Maloney’s safety as he began to lose his balance.
Maloney declined to give police a breath sample and was arrested on suspicion of driving while intoxicated, the statement said. A breath sample later taken by his probation officer indicated a blood alcohol content of 0.283%. Missouri’s legal limit for driving is 0.08%.
Maloney is on probation in a 2022 case in which he pleaded guilty to second-degree assault, a class D felony. He was sentenced in April 2023 to four years in prison, a sentence the court suspended, and placed on probation.
Meisner moved June 15 to revoke the probation, alleging Maloney violated a condition barring him from possessing or consuming alcohol and citing the 0.283 result; an amended motion was filed June 24. Court records show a judge ordered a warrant with no bond on June 12, and Maloney was taken into custody the same day. A hearing in the probation case has been continued to July 8. If the probation is revoked, he could be ordered to serve the prison term.
The complaint alleges Maloney is a persistent offender with prior driving while intoxicated convictions in 2008 and 2010, which raises the current charge to a felony. As a charged persistent offender, he would be required to serve 30 days before becoming eligible for probation or parole, according to the complaint.
The felony charge carries a range of punishment of one to four years in prison, up to a year in county jail, a fine of up to $10,000, or a combination of a fine and imprisonment.
A criminal charge is an accusation, and a defendant is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.