David Bisard working on plea on second arrest, but no deal yet

A plea deal has not been reached on the second drunken-driving charge facing former Indianapolis police officer David Bisard, though negotiations are underway for an agreement by mid-January.

The second drunken-driving charge was filed following Bisard's arrest in April, when a test revealed his blood alcohol level was 0.22 percent — nearly three times the legal threshold for driving under the influence in Indiana.

In a separate case, the 39-year-old was sentenced Nov. 26 to 16 years — with three years suspended — in a 2010 drunken-driving crash that killed a motorcyclist and seriously injured two others.

On Nov. 5, an Allen County jury convicted Bisard of nine counts of drunken driving, reckless homicide and criminal recklessness for driving his patrol car into the group of motorcyclists while responding to a non-emergency call in his patrol car.

Bisard's fate in the second drunken-driving case may be sealed, based on his testimony at his sentencing hearing in Allen County. Bisard adamantly denied, as he has all along, that he had been drinking or was intoxicated when he slammed into the motorcyclists on Aug. 6, 2010.

But he followed that up with an admission that he was drunk when he crashed a pickup truck in April on Indian Lake Boulevard South Drive in Lawrence.

After the 2010 crash, Bisard testified, he grew depressed and withdrawn, turning to alcohol to "ease my pain."

"I take full responsibility," Bisard said, for driving while intoxicated on April 27, 2013.

He said that DUI arrest caused him to lose the trust of his family and friends and made it difficult for people to believe he wasn't drunk at the time of the fatal 2010 crash.

Prosecutors charged Bisard with two misdemeanor counts in the April case.

If convicted, Bisard could be sentenced to one year in prison.

Any sentence would have to be served consecutively to the sentence in the fatal case, said Peg McLeish, a spokeswoman for the Marion County prosecutor's office. That's because the new arrest occurred while Bisard was free on bond in the prior drunken-driving case.

John Tompkins, a prominent Indianapolis defense attorney who concentrates on DUI cases, said Bisard's admission to being intoxicated at the time of the April crash can be used against him in the new case.

"It would not seem," Tompkins said, "there really is any option" to a conviction or guilty plea.

Bisard's attorney, John Kautzman, declined to comment on the pending case. Kautzman said Tuesday that Bisard indicated that he wishes to appeal his convictions in the fatal crash.

This story will be updated.

Call Star repoprter Tim Evans at (317) 444-6204. Follow him on Twitter: @starwatchtim.