Jail time suspended in incident with gun

By Ben Orcutt -- borcutt@nvdaily.com

FRONT ROYAL -- A Linden man pleaded guilty on Wednesday in Warren County General District Court to reckless handling of a firearm.

Mark Allen Kuser, 35, of 464 Newton Drive, was sentenced to 60 days in jail, all suspended, and ordered by substitute Judge Robert T.F. Colby to pay a $100 fine and $71 in court costs.

Colby also ordered that Kuser be placed on 12 months of unsupervised probation. Kuser also was charged with driving under the influence, second offense within five years.

Court records say Kuser had a blood-alcohol content of 0.12, which is above the legal standard of 0.08 for intoxication in Virginia.

Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Nicholas L. Manthos said Friday there was some concern about when Kuser was arrested and when the blood-alcohol test was administered, which is why the DUI charge was dropped.

Manthos said the incident occurred at 12:25 a.m., but the blood-alcohol test was not administered until 4:13 a.m., which is beyond the three-hour rule.

"There was no driving behavior," Manthos said, adding that state Trooper David Christopher Glovier responded to a call of shots being fired.

Manthos also made it clear that the trooper involved in the case did not do anything wrong in the process of arresting Kuser.

Glovier says in a complaint form filed with the court that he responded on March 28 to a complaint of shots fired at 611 Newton Drive.

Glovier says in his complaint form that he encountered and tried to stop a motorist who was leaving the area.

"The vehicle began backing up and finally stopped," Glovier says.

Glovier says Kuser got out of the vehicle and "had a strong odor of alcohol on him. He performed poorly on field sobriety tests."

Glovier goes on to say that "Kuser told me he shot at people at the bottom of his driveway." Glovier says he found a gun shell in Kuser's back pocket.