Fossella won’t have to appear in court on Monday

Rep. Vito Fossella (R-N.Y.) will not be required to appear in court on Monday when his DUI is scheduled to come up on the Alexandria City Court docket.

That is about the only break that the embattled Staten Island lawmaker has gotten since his May arrest for drunk driving.

{mosads}Fossella’s attorney, Jerry Phillips of Phillips, Beckwith, Hall and Chase in Fairfax, Va., has already worked out with the court a date to have Fossella’s DUI case tried, thereby rendering Monday’s status hearing moot, according to the Office of the Commonwealth’s Attorney for the City of Alexandria.

The spokesman for the prosecutor’s office said Fossella will not be required to appear in court on Monday. In fact, his case may not even be called because its status is now known. The lawmaker is scheduled to go on trial on June 26.

But the bad news keeps coming for Fossella, who, after being arrested for DUI and allegedly registering a blood alcohol content of more than twice the legal limit, is under increasing pressure to resign now that his DUI has developed into a full-fledged scandal.

The Staten Island Advance, Fossella’s hometown paper, on Thursday called on him to resign after the six-term lawmaker admitted to having fathered a child with a woman with whom he was having an affair.

“Vito Fossella’s well-deserved shame at being arrested for driving while intoxicated last week evolved rapidly in the interim into abject disgrace. Because of that moral descent, and the distractions and ugly controversy all of it brings, he should resign from his seat in the House of Representatives,” read the Advance’s editorial.

“Far too much damage has been done to his personal reputation and credibility at this point for him to recover and be an effective public servant,” the editorial continued. “And there is too much potential for pointless and endlessly embarrassing digressions into this scandal if he chooses to stay in public life.”

House Republican leaders on Thursday began to hint that they believe that Fossella will not escape unscathed, although for the time being they are deferring to the lawmaker regarding decisions about his political future.