Maine Man Sentenced for 9th Drunken Driving Conviction

WEST BATH, Maine - A Maine man accused of crashing into a police car while intoxicated last year has been convicted of drunken driving for the ninth time.
 
Mark Burson, of Limestone, was sentenced Wednesday. He will serve seven years in prison followed by three years of probation.
 
Burson's attorney had asked for a four-year sentence, saying Burson struggled with alcoholism, while prosecutors had pushed for 10 years.
 
Investigators say Burson's blood-alcohol level was more than four times the legal limit when he hit a Topsham police car, injuring an officer.
 
At his sentencing, Burson apologized to the officer.
 
Burson, who is 56, was first convicted of drunken driving in 1979, when he was a teenager.