{"id":4000,"date":"2010-05-27T11:19:53","date_gmt":"2010-05-27T11:19:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dwiresourcecenter.wordpress.com\/?p=14"},"modified":"2015-08-19T19:00:00","modified_gmt":"2015-08-19T19:00:00","slug":"17th-dwi-offender-are-you-kidding-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dwiresourcecenter.org\/index.php\/2010\/05\/27\/17th-dwi-offender-are-you-kidding-me\/","title":{"rendered":"The 5th, 8th 16th , 17th, DWI offender \u2013 are you kidding me?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By\u00a0Linda Atkinson<br \/>\n<em>Executive Director<br \/>\nDWI\u00a0Resource Center<br \/>\nlatkinson@dwirc.org<\/em><\/p>\n<p>In New Mexico we continue to see offenders with multiple and multiple DWI arrests and convictions still out there on the roads, getting arrested (again) or worse they have killed innocent people.<\/p>\n<p>How does it happen?<\/p>\n<p>What we know from the research, in order to reduce DWI death and injury is a four \u2013pronged approach (and it works to reduce recidivism):<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Detect      and Arrest<\/li>\n<li>Fully      Prosecute<\/li>\n<li>Sentence      to meaningful sanctions<\/li>\n<li>Follow-through      to make sure the offenders COMPLETE their sentence.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>According to the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.santafenewmexican.com\/Local%20News\/DWI-arrest-is-No--16-for-S-F--man\" target=\"_blank\">Santa Fe New Mexican<\/a> on May 25, 2010, Daniel Lefebre was arrested for his 16<sup>th<\/sup> DWI. I reviewed Lefebre\u2019s record and found he has actually been arrested 19 times.\u00a0 What most concerns me is there are many more offenders out there just like Lefebre.<\/p>\n<p>Regarding that research-based approach, unfortunately, New Mexico falls short in all four areas. The efforts of law enforcement can seem almost gallant as they arrest these offenders only to have a revolving door criminal justice system let them go. Unfortunately, we have a domineering defense bar in this state, many prosecutors who are too green to know how to fully prosecute or just too overwhelmed make the sweet deals to move a DWI case through. There are more judges than not who accept the sweet deals and most courts don\u2019t have the resources to ensure sentences are carried through. I have been in a courtroom where the prosecutor did not even know what the sanctions were for a DWI first-time offender (and he had offered the plea deal) nor did the judge who was accepting the plea agreement.<\/p>\n<p>If you step into a courtroom and spend some time observing the \u201csystem\u201d it doesn\u2019t take long to figure it out on your own how someone can rack up these numerous offenses.<\/p>\n<p>In the last few years the movement to have ignition interlocks in these offenders vehicles sends a very wrong message \u2013 we want you to drive!\u00a0 And it is exactly the wrong message to send to our multiple offenders.\u00a0 <em>I don\u2019t want them anywhere near a vehicle!<\/em><\/p>\n<p>So in review \u2013 some of New Mexico shortfalls when it comes to stopping a multiple offender;<\/p>\n<p><strong>1.\u00a0 Lack of full prosecution<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>2.\u00a0 Lack of meaningful sanctions<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>3.\u00a0 Rehabilitative far more common than punitive sanctions<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Other related issues to discuss in upcoming articles:<\/p>\n<p>Courts of no record \u2013 Municipal and Magistrate<\/p>\n<p>Non-attorney judges<\/p>\n<p>Leveling the playing field \u2013 what\u2019s in a plea deal<\/p>\n<p>Purchasing a vehicle without a valid drivers license<\/p>\n<p>Very little oversight of the ignition interlock providers<\/p>\n<p>Follow the money<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you step into a courtroom and spend some time observing the \u201csystem\u201d it doesn\u2019t take long to figure it out on your own how someone can rack up these numerous offenses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archived-blogs","category-repeat-dwi-offenders"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwiresourcecenter.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwiresourcecenter.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwiresourcecenter.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwiresourcecenter.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwiresourcecenter.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4000"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dwiresourcecenter.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4000\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4015,"href":"https:\/\/dwiresourcecenter.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4000\/revisions\/4015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwiresourcecenter.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwiresourcecenter.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwiresourcecenter.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}