Driver pleads no contest to DUI charges

A Rhode Island man entered a plea of no contest in Newport Thursday on charges he was driving drunk in Portsmouth -- almost 30 years after he was convicted on a charge of driving to endanger.

Michael Faria smashed into a parked car on Dexter St. in July, according to a police report.

But in 1983, he caused a crash where a 9-year-old girl suffered a permanent traumatic brain injury.

That girl, Meredith Coffey, now must use a wheelchair. Her father, Neil, says police told him at the time that Faria was intoxicated -- and had a blood alcohol level of .215 at the time of the crash.

Faria later pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of driving to endanger.

Neil Coffey was expected to be in court Thursday for Faria's hearing, in hopes to get Faria's driver's license taken away from him for good. "Someone like this should not be on the road anymore," Coffey told Eyewitness News earlier this year.

Before Thursday's proceedings, Faria's attorney had declined to comment on the pending case.

Faria is due to be sentenced Sep. 6.