ATTLEBORO - Bristol County District Attorney Paul Walsh Jr. flatly denies dropping a drunken driving case involving the wife of a former aide to President Bill Clinton because of her political connections.

Walsh maintained in an interview with The Sun Chronicle Wednesday that the case was dropped for legal reasons, saying the evidence was "pretty thin."

Prosecutors dropped the case against Suzanne Magaziner in Attleboro District Court last Friday, even before a hearing during which evidence would have been heard by a judge.

Typically, judges are asked to rule on defense motions to dismiss a criminal case.

Mrs. Magaziner, 54, of Bristol, R.I., is the wife of Ira Magaziner, a college friend of Clinton and his advisor on health care and the Internet during his presidency. The couple is also friendly with Governor-elect Deval Patrick. Mrs. Magaziner helped organize a fundraiser for Patrick during his gubernatorial campaign.

Both donated $2,000 to Patrick's campaign, but a spokesman said Patrick did not intervene in the case. The Magaziners have also donated to the campaigns of President Clinton and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-NY.

When told of the perception by some that the case was dropped because of the Magaziners' political ties, Walsh responded he did not know Mrs. Magaziner or her husband.

When asked whether he was asked to drop the case, Walsh responded, "I did not get a call from Bill Clinton. I did not get a call from Deval Patrick, and I didn't vote for either one of them."

Walsh said breath-test results indicating Mrs. Magaziner was intoxicated would have been thrown out before trial because state police could not produce maintenance records on the breath-testing machine kept by the state Office of Alcohol Testing.

Prosecutors were required to produce the records at the request of Mrs. Magaziner's lawyer, who asked the court to either throw out the breath-test results or dismiss the case.

"They were trying to get these records," Walsh said, adding that he was not faulting state police.

Prosecutors routinely bring drunken driving cases to trial without breath-test results, but Walsh still maintained evidence in the case was "pretty thin," with only observations of the trooper and a motorist driving behind Mrs. Magaziner, who called police.

When asked why prosecutors dropped the case before a judge had a chance to hear testimony and arguments, Walsh responded it would have been a "waste of judicial time, money and resources" to proceed with a case he felt could not be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.

Walsh said he made the decision after consulting with Roger Ferris, the local prosecutor on the case. Ferris said earlier he was "directed" to drop the case, but declined to say by whom. He did not say his superiors told him to drop the case as reported in Tuesday's Sun Chronicle. Mrs. Magaziner was arrested just before midnight on April 4 on Interstate 95 in Mansfield after another motorist reported a vehicle in front of him was driving erratically.

He called state police on his cell phone, and a dispatcher told him to continue following the suspect vehicle until a state trooper could intercept it.

Trooper Brian McKenna then followed Mrs. Magaziner's Chevrolet Suburban and stopped it, allegedly after seeing the vehicle weaving on the highway, according to his police report.

Mrs. Magaziner admitted to having two glasses of wine earlier in the evening, but denied being drunk. She allegedly failed a field sobriety test and took a breath-alcohol test which indicated she had a blood-alcohol level of 0.12 percent. The legal limit for intoxication is 0.08 percent.

Although Walsh said it was not rare to drop a case before a judge has a chance to hear defense motions, a lawyer who has represented the 2,200-member state police union said it was unusual.

"Obviously you have the independent observations of a motorist, which is beneficial to the case," said Timothy M. Burke, who now represents troopers in private cases.

Burke noted that the arresting officer also made his own observations before pulling over Mrs. Magaziner's vehicle.

"Certainly in this case, a judge or a jury should have had the opportunity to determine her guilt or innocence," Burke said.