PENNSDALE — While driving intoxicated on Interstate 180, 50-year-old Dean Leroy Johnson allowed a 12-year-old boy to sit on his lap in an apparent attempt to allow the youngster to drive on the four-lane highway, state police alleged in court papers.

Johnson, of Nisbet, had a blood-alcohol content level of 0.17 when the incident occurred about 1:30 p.m. May 19, police said.

In addition to the boy, there was an 8-year-old girl in the 2004 Ford pickup truck, police said.

In the center console was an open can of beer, police said.

Johnson was pulled over at the Lycoming Mall off-ramp by a state trooper who saw a boy sitting on Johnson’s lap as he was traveling east on the interstate.

Through their investigation, police learned that Johnson initially had encouraged the girl to drive, but the boy “volunteered over her” so she wouldn’t have to drive, according to an affidavit.

The girl told police she “didn’t know how to drive and would have probably crashed,” a trooper wrote in the affidavit.

In the vehicle, police discovered a firearm, but Johnson did not have a permit to own one, police said.

Following his arraignment Wednesday before District Judge Jon E. Kemp on charges of driving under the influence of a intoxicants, recklessly endangering, endangering the welfare of children, corrupting the morals of minor, carrying a firearm without a license, disorderly conduct, careless driving and reckless driving, Johnson was released on $35,000 bail.