MONROE, La. -- A city judge on Friday found former Louisiana-Monroe football coach Mike Collins innocent of a drunk driving charge stemming from the April crash of Collins' car into a Monroe home.

Collins was found guilty of careless operation of a vehicle, fined $175 and placed on three months of supervised probation.

City Judge Daryl Blue announced his verdict Friday morning. The non-jury trial had ended Wednesday. Defense lawyers had argued that Collins had fallen asleep at the wheel because he suffered form sleep apnea.

Collins was an assistant at Monroe who took over as head coach in September 2002 when head coach Bobby Keasler quit following an 0-3 start. Collins resigned April 4 after his arrest in connection with the accident.

During closing arguments, city prosecutor Carlton Parhms said defense claims that Collins was suffering from undiagnosed sleep apnea were an attempt to ``skew'' the differences between that disease and narcolepsy, which causes a person to fall asleep unexpectedly. Parhms also said regardless of Collins' diagnosis by a doctor _ which was made after Collins' arrest _ Collins should be held responsible for drinking and driving.

``He makes a conscious decision to drink knowing he may have a problem,'' Parhms said.

``The only irresponsibility Mike Collins has shown is that this man didn't go to a doctor to get this illness diagnosed,'' defense lawyer Todd Newman said during closing arguments.

Monroe Police Department officers Jeff Pilcher and Roy Cox provided conflicting views of the department's protocols for testing drivers suspected of driving while intoxicated.

Pilcher said anyone in a ``violent'' accident such as Collins' should not be given a field sobriety test because of trauma and that the results wouldn't be valid.

``Because of the severity of the accident, you will not get a true field sobriety,'' Pilcher said.

Pilcher also said standard police procedure is to ask a list of questions -- like whether or not the driver is on medication -- to determine whether a field sobriety test could yield adequate results. However, Cox said, police department procedure allows the officer to determine whether the questions or the test could be conducted first.

``It's not always done at the scene,'' Cox said. ``That's just how I do it.''

Pilcher testified that he considered Collins an ``acquaintance'' and ``friend'' and acknowledged changing an accident report on the accident.

Pilcher had initially checked on the report that Collins had been drinking and that he was impaired. However, after a telephone discussion with Newman six days after the report, Pilcher changed the report to say that Collins had been drinking but was not impaired.

``I determined he may have fallen asleep,'' Pilcher said. ``I found no evidence of alcohol or containers in the vehicle.'' Pilcher said he had talked with Collins for a total of about two hours the night of the accident while Pilcher was providing security at Top Gun, a Monroe nightclub. Although other officers testified they noticed Collins stumble, having glassy eyes and the odor of alcohol on his breath, Pilcher said he did not see any of those signs.