Bob Huggins, former WVU men's basketball coach, waives preliminary hearing for DUI charge

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Former West Virginia University men's basketball coach Bob Huggins appeared in a Pittsburgh courtroom Monday morning on a DUI charge.

According to court records, Huggins waived his preliminary hearing. He was arrested in Allegheny West last month and quickly resigned as WVU's men's basketball coach. 

Pittsburgh police said an officer found him getting into the driver's side of an SUV on Merchant Street off of Ridge Avenue just before 8:30 p.m on June 17. Police said the car was blocking traffic with a flat shredded tire.

According to the criminal complaint, as the officer tried to help Huggins, she noticed he was having trouble driving the car, and "almost [hit] the wall behind him." The officer then put her lights on and called for backup.

Court records said Huggins failed standard field sobriety tests and had a 0.210 BAC, more than twice the legal limit. Officers also saw he had textbook signs of intoxication, including slurred speech and glassy eyes, and discovered two garbage bags filled with empty beer cans in the SUV which was leased by WVU.

Police said Huggins didn't realize he was in Pittsburgh. Instead, he told them he thought he was in Columbus, Ohio, for a basketball camp. He told them the last thing he remembered was stopping at a Burger King in Washington, Pennsylvania, around 1:30 p.m.

Huggins was the head coach at WVU for 16 years. Before that, he was the head coach at the University of Cincinnati, before he was fired following a similar incident. Surveillance video from that incident in 2004 shows Huggins once again failing a field sobriety test. Police charged him with DUI, but he pleaded no contest and was fired the next year.

A formal arraignment is scheduled for Aug. 17.