Man Gets 10th DUI
Unbelievably, a Wisconsin man is facing his tenth drunken driving charge, a shocking number that is hard to process. The first question from all of us at Service King Oak Cliff in Dallas, TX is why is this guy still driving?
Douglas Kluth, 66 years old of Green Bay, WI was arrested recently in Oconto County. Authorities allege that Kluth had an open beer on the center console of his vehicle. Officials say the State Patrol was helping with a traffic jam when Kluth parked his car and approached a trooper when the trooper saw the beer sitting on the console. He was charged with operating while intoxicated, making it potentially his tenth DUI. WLUK-TV reported that his bond was set at $25,000 cash, and if convicted, Kluth could spend up to 15 years in prison.
Wisconsin is the only state in the U.S. that treats a first-time drunken driving offense as a civil violation, instead of a crime. But new Democratic Governor Tony Evers has said that he's open to criminalizing first offenses. But what should happen to someone who gets a tenth DUI?
Mark Allen Warner of River Falls, WI currently holds an unbroken record for the greatest number of DUIs within the state. He received up to a grand total of 15 drunk driving convictions before he turned 40, most of which took place in the 1990s.
Warner was well-known to the police in River Falls and often pulled him over as often as every other month, but he managed to avoid major jail time and any type of alcohol treatment due to the much weaker drunk driving laws and associated penalties in Wisconsin 20 years ago.
Before 1999, Wisconsin’s drunk driving laws categorized all repeat DUI offenses as misdemeanors, as long as no one was either killed or seriously injured. So even after more than a dozen DUIs, a judge could only sentence Warner to a maximum of one full year in jail.
In 1999, Wisconsin changed the laws and made a fifth DUI offense a felony. By 2000, Warner had also picked up a couple more DUI offenses in Idaho and another one in Arizona. He returned to Wisconsin and—amazingly—was again busted for drunk driving. But this time, Warner's 13th DUII offense in Wisconsin (15th overall) was charged with a felony. He was ultimately sentenced to three years in prison (including participation in an alcohol treatment program) followed by 4.5 years of supervision.
In 2017, a new state DUI law took effect, making a fourth DUI offense in Wisconsin an automatic felony charge. Since then, Wisconsin’s new tougher drunk driving laws bring harsher penalties for most multiple DUI offenders.
What will happen to Douglas Kluth when he has to go in front of a judge after his tenth DUI? For one, he should not drive a car anytime again soon, because obviously, he represents a danger to the residents of Green Bay, WI. For people who get more than one DUI, the penalties should be harsher and hopefully stories like these will help to make that happen.
Service King Oak Cliff in Dallas, TX 75224
Sources: CNN and Fox News
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