No bail for alleged drunken driver with son, 2, in car

LYNN – A judge ordered a Magnolia man held without bail after a prosecutor said Matthew Lever drove Route 1 drunk Saturday night with his two-year-old son strapped in the back seat.Lever, 31, pleaded innocent Monday to his third operating under the influence of alcohol charge since 1995 and charges of operating to endanger, possession of an open container and negligent operation.Judge Ellen Flatley ordered Lever held in the Essex House of Correction in Middleton until next Monday when he will return to District Court for a dangerousness hearing.Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Kirshenbaum said she will ask state troopers who arrested Lever and an Arlington father and daughter who followed him on Route 1 to testify at the hearing.Troopers arrested Lever shortly after 10 p.m. in the Saugus Walgreens parking lot after John and Allyson Spencer spotted a vehicle swerving between lanes and followed it to the parking lot. Troopers saw Lever sitting in the passenger seat of that vehicle with a toddler in a car seat behind him. They also spotted two open beer cans and three unopened cans in the car.Lever denied driving and said his wife dropped him off at Walgreens. He then told troopers his brother-in-law dropped him in the lot.”He changed his story,” Kirshenbaum said.Police said Lever refused a breath-detection test for alcohol and troopers said he was unsteady on his feet when he got out of the vehicle.Boston attorney Gary Zerola said “there is no evidence” Lever had been driving. Lever’s police record lists a 2000 charge of operating under the influence and a 2002 charge of operating under the influence of drugs. His record also lists a 1995 OUI offense as well as drug and assault charges.Zerola said police “ran his (Lever’s) record and jumped to a conclusion.””His brother-in-law will testify he dropped him off. Matt was not driving,” Zerola said.