Huntington attorney arrested on DUI charge

CHARLESTON -– A Huntington attorney was arrested for driving under the influence after he failed a field sobriety test and had his blood alcohol content measured at more than three times the legal limit.

Derek Marsteller, 48, was arrested at 12:38 p.m. on Nov. 9 for DUI first offense outside of the Charleston Marriott by Charleston Police Officer B.A. Lightner. He had been called to the hotel after people reported an intoxicated male leaving the hotel and walking toward the parking garage.

Once there, Lightner saw a security guard talking to Marsteller, who was driving a Ford Taurus. Lightner began talking to Marsteller and "noticed a strong odor of alcoholic beverages" and saw that he had glassy, red eyes and spoke with "thick slurred speech."

After making Marsteller put the car in park and exit the vehicle, Lightner said Marsteller "was staggering and had trouble standing."

"I then spoke to the parking attendant, Mickey Compton, who stated that she called police after several people told her about an intoxicated male trying (to) get into a vehicle in the parking garage," Lightner wrote in his criminal complaint filed in Kanawha Magistrate Court. "Compton stated that she observed Marsteller operate his vehicle through the parking gage to the gate where she stopped him until my arrival."

Lightner asked Marsteller if he had been drinking.

"I drank, like, two beers," Marsteller responded.

Lightner asked Marsteller to perform the standardized field sobriety test, consisting of the horizontal gaze nystagmus test, walk and turn test and the one leg stand test. Marsteller said he couldn't perform the last two because of a brain injury.

"Marsteller then provided a breath sample into a preliminary breath test," Lightner wrote. "The result was 0.266 BAC (blood alcohol content)."

The legal limit in West Virginia is 0.08.

After he was arrested and taken to the police station, Marsteller provided an insufficient sample into the intoximeter, the complaint states.

According to court records, Marsteller was arrested for DUI previously in Cabell County in 2008, but the charge later was changed to reckless driving.

According to his online biography, Marsteller received his law degree from Ohio Northern University and is admitted to practice in West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky and the District of Columbia. His practice areas include defense litigation, insurance coverage, subrogation, medical malpractice defense, toxic torts, automobile litigation and trucking law.

Kanawha Magistrate Court case number: 10M-11329