CURRITUCK — Currituck Commissioner Ernie Bowden won't serve any jail time as a result of his guilty plea Wednesday to misdemeanor charges arising from an

October 2007 traffic accident.

Bowden, who was charged with causing the three-vehicle pileup, pleaded guilty to an unsafe movement violation, to not wearing a seat belt and to having an open container of alcohol in a vehicle.

He was sentenced by District Court Judge Edgar Barnes to 10 days in jail, suspended for one year on the condition he pay fines and court costs totalling $420 and not violate any laws for a year. Bowden was also sentenced to one year of unsupervised probation.

Bowden had faced charges of reckless driving to endanger, and leaving the scene of an accident that involved property damage, but those charges were either dropped or reduced by prosecutors.

Bowden, 82, did not appear in court.

He was represented by Manteo attorney Kris Felthousen, who asked Barnes to consider Bowden's 24 years of public service to Currituck County before handing down his sentence.

"He has done a great service to the county for numerous years," Felthousen said.

The attorney also said that despite an open container of whiskey being found in Bowden's sports utility vehicle, there was no evidence whatsoever that Bowden was drinking alcohol before the accident occurred.

"He was in an accident," Felthousen said.

After Barnes' verdict, Felthousen told reporters that his client was not guilty of any of the charges. Bowden had pleaded guilty to the lesser charges, he said, because of several facts in the case.

For example, while it is true a highway patrolman found an open whiskey bottle found in Bowden's wrecked 1999 Suburban, the bottle wasn't Bowden's, Felthousen said. It was left there by Bowden's son, who uses Bowden's SUV for transporting garbage in a rental-cleaning business, the attorney said.

Felthousen said the whiskey bottle was empty and Bowden had not been drinking from it when he was on his way to attend a county-related meeting the morning of the accident.

"(The bottle) had a cap on it," Felthousen told reporters after the hearing. "If anything, it was ready to be discarded."

According to the trooper investigating the accident, Bowden was driving his white SUV on N.C. Highway 168 near Survey Road about 11 a.m. on Oct. 17 when the vehicle went off the right side of the road and struck an uncovered trailer hauling farm equipment. Bowden's vehicle then struck a Dodge pickup truck that was hauling the trailer and a John Deere combine in front of the pickup.

No one was seriously injured in the accident, and the drivers of the Dodge pickup and combine both declined medical attention.

Trooper James Chappell said he saw Bowden at the accident scene when he arrived, but didn't immediately speak to him because he didn't know Bowden had been involved in the accident. When he looked around for Bowden 5 minutes later, the commissioner had disappeared, he said.

Felthousen said that after Bowden was evaluated by a paramedic, he called his daughter to pick him up and take him to his regular doctor in Virginia. Felthousen said Bowden informed the Currituck Clerk of Court and an assistant to the county manager what had happened, and that Bowden was clearly not trying to run from the law. He said Bowden was given a ride to a nearby business, where his daughter picked him up, and he was then taken to a Virginia hospital.

"He thought it wise after he waited for a while (for the trooper) to go see the doctors," Felthousen said.

Felthousen also said there were factors out of Bowden's control that contributed to the accident.

"Farm equipment had broken down in the distance. ... We believe a portion of the combine was out in the road sticking out."

Bowden, who represents Fruitville Township on the Currituck commission board, has announced that he is seeking re-election.