SAXONBURG — A Winfield Township man being held in Butler County Prison for consecutive driving under the influence charges asked a district judge Wednesday to let his mother know that his bond was cut in half, and all three cases against him have been held over for Common Pleas Court.

Police arrested Kenneth J. Gibson, 53, after he allegedly crashed into a car Jan. 30, and police suspect he was driving under the influence.

The day before, on Jan. 29, the same officer with Buffalo Township police had charged Gibson for suspected DUI. After the Jan. 30 crash, Gibson was taken to Butler County Prison on a $100,000 bond.

Gibson also is facing another DUI for an unrelated December arrest in Winfield Township.District Judge Sue Haggerty held charges in all three cases for county court, and she agreed to reduce the total bonds on his cases to $50,000.Haggerty promised to relay this information to Gibson's mother upon his request. Haggerty also admonished Gibson for stressing his mother out.“The problem is you don't listen, and you get that hooch in you, and you're all messed up from it,” Haggerty said. “You've had too many accidents in such a short amount of time after staying clean for eight months.”Before his sobriety, Gibson was charged and pleaded guilty to driving under the influence related to a Feb. 7, 2020, incident. In that case, Gibson pleaded guilty Sept. 14 and was sentenced to 72 hours to six months in jail.Three months later, state police charged him Dec. 17 for driving under the influence, general impairment and driving with a suspended license, among other charges. Then, he was charged in the two January incidents.Because of all these charges, Assistant District Attorney Amanda Scarpo, who was present during Wednesday's district hearing, said that one of Gibson's DUIs will turn into a felony at the county level to conform to a state law that a third DUI offense in 10 years must be a felony.In the Jan. 29 incident, Buffalo Township police Sgt. Scott Hess said he found Gibson around 11:35 a.m. Jan. 29 in a PT Cruiser in a ditch a little off Reimer Road after a 911 call for a possibly intoxicated man parked on the road.The car was stopped, but running, and it was in gear. Because of his suspected intoxicated condition, Gibson was not responding to the officer on the scene.Hess eventually had to enter the car from the passenger side to place the vehicle in park and to turn off the engine, police said. In the driver's footwell, the officer allegedly noticed two opened bottles of liquor.Later, because Gibson was still not responding, Hess and Police Chief Tim Derringer, who subsequently arrived, had to remove him from the car.Gibson was arrested and taken to Allegheny Valley Hospital in Natrona Heights for a blood test, which he allegedly refused. He subsequently was admitted to the hospital, police said, for treatment of his “high level of alcohol intoxication.”At some point, he was discharged from the hospital.The next day, around 12:55 p.m., police said, he rear-ended his car into another vehicle on South Pike Road, just several miles from where they found him the day before.The other driver and three passengers, two of them young children, apparently were not injured.Hess recognized Gibson from the prior day's arrest, according to charging documents. The defendant appeared intoxicated and he showed impairment during field sobriety tests, investigators said. Gibson was arrested again. Police again took him back to Allegheny Valley Hospital, where he again allegedly refused to submit to a blood test.After this, Gibson was taken to Butler County Prison on $50,000 bond each for the two recent cases.During Wednesday's hearing, Scarpo said she didn't agree with Public Defender Ryan Helsel's request to reduce Gibson's bond.“I'm incredibly opposed to it,” she said. “He presents a danger to society, and had an accident with a family in the car. Luckily, no one was hurt.”Helsel countered that Gibson is a lifelong resident of the area and is dealing with alcohol-related issues.Gibson said he wanted to get back to his addiction treatment to stop drinking.Haggerty agreed with Scarpo about the community safety concern, and she set additional conditions if Gibson is able to make his bond. She required that Gibson wear SCRAM, an ankle monitor that tests for alcohol consumption.Haggerty also granted Scarpo's request that Gibson be released to probation if he posts bond, so that the government can keep tabs on him while his case progresses.

Kenneth J. Gibson