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Defense In Fatal DUI Case Seeks Lesser Charge, Trial Move

PITTSBURGH (AP) - A man charged with killing a western Pennsylvania police officer in a wrong-way crash while intoxicated is asking a judge to reduce the charges and either move his trial or bring in a jury from another area due to pretrial publicity.

Thirty-two-year-old Clair Fink III of Ligonier is charged in Westmoreland County with third-degree murder, vehicular homicide while intoxicated and other crimes in the May 5 crash on Route 30 that killed Ligonier Township Lt. Eric Eslary.

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Defense attorney John Sweeney maintained Friday that prosecutors chose to file the third-degree murder charge only because the victim was a police officer. He also said publicity about the case couldn't help but taint a potential jury pool, so the court should either move the trial or bring in an outside panel.

(Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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