Arkansas Blog

This guy is on SUPERVISED probation...how can he get this many DWI's while on SUPERVISED probation and still be out on the street? And...he got 3 x 15 years for killing 3 people...out in 5? Unbelieveable!!!!

I guess that thar reader ain't from these parts. Nutt. Wally. White. Hawgs. If there is a way this DUI story can be connected to these things then we'll be happy to discuss. Tha conway man ain't ever been a head coach in these parts has he. Or knowed one. That'd work.

Shouldn't supervised probation include assurance the fellow is on antabuse (sp?) meds for the rest of his life...and shouldn't he be thrown back in jail if he is ever found behind the wheel of a car sober or not?

More info and a photo here -

http://www.headlightnews.com/

I can't imagine how the victim family must feel! To know that they lost loved ones due to this man's CHOICES and he is still on the road putting other innocent people at risk!!! He is playing Russian roulette with your family and mine and unfortunately there are many more like him on our streets! DWI crashes are 100% preventable by a CHOICE... We need to wake up and hold all DWI offenders accountable so our streets are a safer place for the law abiding citizens of our community! I have heard a lot about the interlock device that prevents drunk drivers from starting a car and I feel that the automobile manufactures need to step up and put them on all new cars. Not the thing you blow into but something that will detect through the touch or your eye movement. Until we can get technology up to speed, we MUST demand our JUDGES to sentence all offenders to an interlock device to protect the innocent lives on our streets. Contact your local judge and prosecutor and ask that they do this to make your community safer.

My heart is with the victim family and the other innocent people this offender continues to hurt with his choices... (His family)

So much for the effectiveness of dry counties.

The most recent arrest was in Plummerville which is in Conway County (wet), not in Faulkner County (dry or at least only damp).

Tragedy, grief, and outrage are the words that best apply to this miscarriage of justice serial. Seems there is a woman in the LR-Benton area who was recently thrown in the slammer for several years after her 10th or 12th DWI conviction. That was about eight or 10 offenses too late in my book. Mudd_Nutt is right: "DWI crashes are 100% preventable by a CHOICE."

Incidentally, if you manage to run over and kill a pedestrian, a cyclist, or some young mother pushing a baby carriage on the sidewalk because you got distracted while text-messaging on your cell phone, changing the radio station, or reaching for a baby bottle in the back seat, it's only a $100 fine at the most. "Honestly Officer, I didn't see him/her!"

Inattentive drivers kill more people than drunk drivers, by the way, and almost always get away with it. If they're drunk, it might jack up the fine a little bit.

>>>>Seems there is a woman in the LR-Benton area who was recently thrown in the slammer for several years after her 10th or 12th DWI conviction.<<<<

I'm not surprised.
In Saline county you can run over little boys getting off school buses while hopped up on "prescription" drugs and only have to go to jail once a year.

I'm confused how folks who get more then one DWI continue to get off with a slap and a wink in an area where so many folks see liquor as the devil's brew. It does not even seem to matter if you kill folks.
sheesh....

When I first moved to Arkansas in '79 I don't think gas stations could sell alcoholic beverages like they do today. Has anybody rethought the concept in recent years to see if that wasn't such a great idea, in view of problems with chronic DWI violators like this one?

Mystery Shopper,

Problem drinkers don't have any problem getting drunk in dry counties or on Sunday. They plan ahead. There is a lag between buying a 6 pack and finishing the last one. So the people near the gas station/convenience store could actually be safer than the people that are 30 minutes to an hour away.

Do you think if the guy had to make a separate stop to get booze he is safer to be around than one that could get gas and booze in one stop?

I am not trying to be a smart a$$ but your soundbite sized question above sounds like a Huckabee soundbite that as it is uttered sounds logical but with any analysis just disolves.

So to answer your question, in my opinion, selling beer at gas stations would not increase the danger.

That said though, that Som Btch needs to be put away, life in an institution is about the only way I could see protecting society from his choices.

This guy still has not paid the Hill family a dime after 19 years. They need to throw his ass in jail and keep him locked up until he sells every asset he has - especially his vehicle - and pay what he owes. Of course it should be a lot more. $16.000 for the deaths of a woman and two kids seems pretty small. I say add interest for the past 15 years!
This is a guy who does not learn from past mistakes. Maybe he is an alcoholic, fine. What he needs to do if he wants to drink to STAY HOME.

This guy still has not paid the Hill family a dime after 19 years. They need to throw his ass in jail and keep him locked up until he sells every asset he has - especially his vehicle - and pay what he owes. Of course it should be a lot more. $16.000 for the deaths of a woman and two kids seems pretty small. I say add interest for the past 15 years!
This is a guy who does not learn from past mistakes. Maybe he is an alcoholic, fine. What he needs to do if he wants to drink to STAY HOME.

Sorry for the double post.

This is a subject about which I constantly rant -- and not just DUI offenders, let's include just plain idiots on the road. I will be just as dead if I get killed by one of these jerks as if I was shot by some criminal with a gun. But while the gunman would get the attention of the police (and I completely agree with this), the killing with an automobile is treated like a minor ooopsie.

State troopers act as if it is beneath their dignity to get out on the road and enforce traffic laws. And since the jury hearing the case of the state trooper killed by a reckless truck driver could not manage to find the guy guilty of even one minor infraction, I don't totally blame them. I guess that "I have suffered so -- I haven't gotten a wink of sleep since I plowed the trooper down while reaching for a cigarette" defense is a sure-fire winner in whatever county that was.

There are probably plenty of laws applying to situations like this that, if enforced, would provide as adequate a remedy as is possible, considering the only really adequate remedy of restoring the lives of those killed is not possible. What we need is for police, prosecutors, judges and juries to do their jobs.

And now that I think about it, maybe a couple more laws would be in order. How about confiscating the vehicles of repeat DUI offenders as is done when drugs are being transported? And for people with six DUI offenses and no drivers license, let's leave out the car and just put a Denver boot right on his leg.

I must applaud Vegan on this one. Consistent application would work. Booze is THE GATEWAY drug and the most abused drug in America. It just happens to be the favorite drug that politicians use.

So many elegant and mournful posts on the tragedy this drunk has caused and keeps causing.

The solution must come from the state lege. Oh my god, here I go, "there ought to be a law." But if we can do mandatory sentencing to a 17 yr old for growing 3-4 pot plants why not to dangerous drunken drivers who actually harm others?

Where are you Mr. Speaker of the House? Senate Pro-Tem? Beebe?
.

Years ago I did some investigating on how the rich/powerful/connected drunk drivers were walking through the NLR legal system without so much as a scratch on their record. It amazed me that even after years of MADD educating/lobbying our roads were not any safer from rich drunks (poor drunks were rightfully going to jail if they get caught). One example (of many): Knowing when an officer was taking his/her vacation provided an easy out. (And, stay off the LR/NLR roads after dark when the legislature is in session...unless of course 'things' have changed ha.)

>>>The most recent arrest was in Plummerville which is in Conway County (wet), not in Faulkner County (dry or at least only damp). <<<

To be more correct, Plummerville is in a 'dry' towwnship in Conway County.