CHICORA — Suspected drunken driver Harold Dean Ellenberger remains jailed on a quarter-million dollar bail.

Fear for other motorists prompted the unusually high bail for such a crime, said District Judge Lewis Stoughton.

"This is about protecting the community," said Stoughton, who imposed the hard-to-meet bail requirement. "This is his fourth DUI in 16 months. We need to make sure he's off the road."

Ellenberger, 73, of Fairview Township on Tuesday waived his preliminary hearing before Stoughton, on charges of driving under the influence, careless driving, open container and stop sign violations and other traffic offenses.

State police in Butler filed the charges after Ellenberger was pulled over at 4:19 a.m. March 27 for suspicion of drunken driving on Hazelnut Road near Slippery Rock Road in Fairview Township.

A month later, state police in Kittanning arrested Ellenberger for driving drunk in Perry Township, Armstrong County, and charged him with DUI, careless driving and two other traffic violations.

He was found sleeping behind the wheel of his sport utility vehicle that was stopped April 26 on the wrong side of Queenstown Road.

A preliminary hearing in the Armstrong County case is scheduled July 18 before District Judge James Owen.

Ellenberger has been in the Butler County Prison on $250,000 bond since May 6, when Stoughton arraigned him on charges in the March DUI case.

The defendant did not have an attorney when he appeared before Stoughton and waived his hearing this week. Attorney David DeFazio, recently hired to represent Ellenberger on all pending criminal cases, said he plans to ask Butler County Court to lower his client's bond.

"But," DeFazio said, "that would be with the understanding that he would check himself in for in-patient alcohol rehabilitation treatment."

Meanwhile, Ellenberger has a day set in Butler County's DUI Court on June 11 for drunken driving charges in connection with a February arrest.

Troopers about 4:30 a.m. Feb. 1 found Ellenberger slumped over the wheel of a Chevrolet Cavalier off Hazelnut Road in Fairview Township, with his foot on the brake of the still running car, according to court documents.

Police said the car was still in drive with its lights on, and was stuck in a foot-high snowbank.

The defendant, when arrested Feb. 1, was already on probation in connection with a DUI case in January 2006.

Ellenberger in that case was pulled over when a trooper on Route 268 in Fairview Township spotted the defendant driving a car without its headlights on, documents said.

In last year's case he was admitted into the county's Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition program.

That program is a common placement for first-time offenders charged with most non-violent crimes, and does not include jail time.

Those placed into the program do not admit guilt, but must adhere to requirements set by a judge. Defendants who complete their probationary period in the program have their records expunged.

Ellenberger's status in the program, however, is in jeopardy, due to his Feb. 1 arrest for DUI.

The county's adult probation office has recommended Ellenberger be removed from ARD for failure to abstain from alcohol.

A hearing on that is set June 28 in Butler County Court.