Driver pleads guilty in DUI crash that killed Jefferson Hills police officer

Dale T. Provins Jr. was more than just a police officer who died in the line of duty.

His daughter, Mariah Provins, told a judge Monday that her father was a Desert Storm veteran, a dependable son, a fun uncle and, to her, the strongest man in the world.

That’s why his death in a crash caused by another motorist who was drunk at 8:15 in the morning is so painful.

“I hope that, like me, you also think of my dad every single day,” Mariah Provins told Zachary W. Foltz, who pleaded guilty Monday to homicide by vehicle while driving under the influence in connection with her father’s death. “Not as a punishment, but rather as a reminder of how your decisions impact others around you.”

Mariah Provins added: “The best apology is changed behavior, and for this I am hopeful that you will become an advocate against driving under the influence. Please don’t allow my father’s sacrifice, my family’s sacrifice and my sacrifice to have been made in vain.”

Foltz, 25, of Homestead, was ordered to serve three to six years in state prison followed by 4 years of probation.

Foltz, who was crying near the end of the hearing, apologized.

“I am very, very sincerely sorry,” he said.

Deputy District Attorney Kevin Chernosky told the court that Foltz had been driving along Old Clairton Road in Jefferson Hills on June 3, 2020, when the Ford pickup truck he was driving crashed head-on into a Jefferson Hills police SUV driven by Provins, a 15-year veteran on the force.

Provins, 50, was flown to UPMC Presbyterian, where he died from his injuries 10 days after the crash.

As emergency medical workers treated Foltz at the scene, Chernosky said they noted the smell of alcohol on him. His blood-alcohol content measured at 0.107%, above the state’s legal limit of 0.08%, Chernosky said.

The event date recorder in Foltz’s truck showed that he had been traveling 81 mph just 2.5 seconds before the crash, Chernosky said. The speed limit along that section of Old Clairton Road is 35 mph.

Investigators learned that Foltz had been out drinking in Moon until 3 a.m. before the crash.

Provins’ family told Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Thomas E. Flaherty that his hospitalization from the crash was particularly painful because it happened during the early stages of the covid-19 pandemic, and they were often turned away from being able to visit.

“For 10 days, I went to the hospital every day and fought to see my brother,” Rachel Molinaro said. “Because of covid, sometimes they let me in, and sometimes they didn’t.”

She told the court that she often waited for shift change, hoping that a new nurse might be more sympathetic and allow her in.

Molinaro told Flaherty that her son, who was 7 at the time, used to love to dress in a police uniform and pretend to be like his uncle — pretending to arrest bad guys, help old ladies and respond to accident scenes. Since the crash, she said her son’s uniform has hung in the closet untouched.

Patrick Provins, Dale Provins’ brother, works as a paramedic. He told Flaherty that he called his brother the night before the crash.

“The last thing I said to my brother was, ‘Be safe, and I will talk to you tomorrow.’ Well, I never had that chance to talk to him tomorrow,” Patrick Provins said.

Dale Provins Sr., their father and a retired police officer, also submitted a letter to the court.

“He was intelligent, honest, fair, respectful and a joy to be around,” his father wrote. “He was the person most of us wish to be.”

Dale Provins Jr. served six years in the U.S. Marine Corps and Army Reserves and was a police officer for more than 15 years.

“He loved being a cop,” his father said. “His loss to our family is incalculable. Our world, my wife’s and our family’s, has been forever marred by the tragic and premature death of our child.”

Defense attorney Dennis Popojas told the court that Foltz began volunteering with South Park Meals on Wheels at age 7 and continued to work there.

His employer at the program, Pamela Mason, told the judge that Foltz is deeply loved by the residents he serves.

“He deserves another chance,” she said. “He made a terrible mistake, but he’s a great person. He would never harm anyone on purpose.”

Popojas told Flaherty that his client became addicted to drugs and alcohol when he was 17 and ended up losing a college golf scholarship over it.

“This was a monumental lapse in judgment by my client, primarily through dependence on drugs and alcohol,” Popojas said.

Since his arrest, Foltz completed a 30-day in-patient rehabilitation program.

Popojas asked Flaherty to allow his client to serve his sentence in the Department of Corrections’ motivational bootcamp for drug and alcohol abuse, saying that it is designed for people like his client.

“This is an individual that can be redeemed,” Popojas said. “If the boot camp is not a program for him, then it’s not for anyone.”

Chernosky objected, telling the court that Foltz should have to serve his sentence in a traditional prison setting.

Flaherty agreed.

“I think for Mr. Foltz, the burden of him having to carry that throughout his life would be enough for him to get past the drug and alcohol dependency he might have,” Flaherty said.