A Butler County Common Pleas Court judge will render a verdict following a bench trial Tuesday, March 31, for a Cranberry Township man charged with crashing into a neighbor’s car while driving drunk.

Judge Joseph Kubit presided over the nonjury trial for Mark A. Reisert, 59, who is facing two counts of driving under the influence of alcohol and six summary traffic violations, including driving without a license and accidents involving damage, filed by township police.

Charges of aggravated assault, strangulation and simple assault police filed against Reisert for allegedly assaulting the woman whose car he struck were withdrawn at his preliminary hearing in June.

Officer Ryan Slack testified police were dispatched to an apartment building at 20315 Route 19 shortly after 1 a.m. July 25 for a report of an intoxicated man who wrecked his car and was assaulted by bystanders.

When he arrived at the scene, Slack said he saw a white Toyota wrecked into a Honda Accord. Reisert wasn’t at the scene, so police started walking to his apartment when a woman told them Reisert was in the bathroom of her apartment.

Footage and audio from Slack’s body camera was played in court. After officers placed him in handcuffs, Reisert told police he was coming home when a pry bar slipped on to the gas pedal. He said he was then beaten up by a man and a woman, and then drank a couple beers afterward.

Also in the recording, Reisert said he defended himself and then drank a beer after getting beaten up.

“It was a simple wreck,” he said in the recording.

Slack said Reisert’s car struck the wheel well area of the other car. Tire tracks led from the parking lot, down a grassy hillside to the crash site. Reisert’s car also struck and pushed a cement barrier in the parking lot, Slack said.

He said he smelled alcohol on Reisert’s breath, he had slurred speech, glassy and bloodshot eyes and his car smelled like alcohol. He said beer cans were found inside and outside the car. Reisert had facial injuries and blood on his shirt and blood was found in the woman’s bathroom, Slack said.

After complaining of head pain, Reisert was taken to a hospital and, after he was treated, agreed to a blood-alcohol test, Slack said.

Reisert did not testify.

Defense attorney Joshua Snyder argued all the charges except driving without a license should be dismissed because no evidence about the crash was presented and Reisert drank beer after the crash. Since no evidence about the crash was presented, there is no way to determine if he was drunk at the time of the crash, Snyder said.

Assistant district attorney Robert Zanella argued Slack smelled alcohol and found beer cans in Reisert’s car. He also noted Slack testified about the time of the dispatch and his time of arrival at he scene. A blood test was conducted at the hospital and Reisert was found hiding and bleeding in someone else’s apartment.

In a bench trial, there is no jury and a judge both decides the outcome of the case and hands down any potential sentence.