Obama uncle admits facts in drunken driving case

(AP) Obama uncle admits facts in drunken driving case
By DENISE LAVOIE
Associated Press
FRAMINGHAM, Mass.
A Massachusetts drunken driving charge against President Barack Obama’s uncle will be dismissed if he stays out of trouble for a year, officials said Tuesday.

Onyango Obama, 67, admitted to sufficient facts at a hastily scheduled hearing. That means he didn’t plead guilty but acknowledged Massachusetts prosecutors had enough evidence to convict him.

Onyango Obama is the half brother of the president’s late father. He was arrested in Framingham in August after a police officer said he made a rolling stop at a stop sign and nearly caused the officer’s cruiser to crash into Obama’s sport utility vehicle.

On Tuesday, the judge ordered him to give up his driver’s license for 45 days. But he will be allowed to drive to and from his job as the manager of a liquor store in Framingham. Two other traffic violations were dismissed.

“He felt it was in his best interest to put this behind him,” said his attorney, P. Scott Bratton. “He wants to return to his normal, quiet existence in society.”

Obama, who is from Kenya, is also appealing a deportation order that dates to 1992, when he failed to renew his application to remain in the U.S. Bratton called it a technical error. He moved here as a teenager in the early 1960s to live with a host family and attend high school.

Bratton said Obama has had no contact with the White House about the drunken driving case.