Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Repeat Offender

There's been a lot of talk lately about making a first offense drunk driving a crime. Personal opinion: Oh yeah! Perhaps if someone is caught early enough, they can actually be helped before they kill someone. Perhaps mandatory AA for an extended period of time would be appropriate, along with working in the morgue as community service, to see what happens to victims of drunk drivers? Recently, I shared the story of a man who had been convicted of his TENTH drunk driving offense. Now, there's one who has been arrested for the 7th time: Man charged with seventh drunken driving offense
A 31-year-old Campbellsport man has been charged with his seventh drunken driving offense following his arrest Sunday in Fond du Lac. Fond du Lac police pulled Jarod M. Jacak over at 1:31 p.m. on Johnson and Main streets for operating a vehicle after revocation, according to a Fond du Lac Police Department report. Police arrested Jacak after they noticed he had bloodshot eyes and slurred speech. They noticed an odor of intoxicants and found a bag of marijuana in Jacak's vehicle, according to the report. Jacak was being held at the Fond du Lac County Jail Monday afternoon on a $3,000 cash bail. Fond du Lac County Circuit Court Judge Steven Weinke ordered Jacak on Monday to maintain absolute sobriety and not to enter any bars or taverns. A preliminary hearing is set for 1:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 31, before Weinke. If convicted, Jacak faces up to six years in prison, $10,000 in fines and a three-year license revocation for the drunken driving offense. In June 2003, Jacak was sentenced to one year in prison, five years of extended supervision and a 32-month license revocation for his fifth and sixth operating while intoxicated offenses, according to court documents. The two drunken driving incidents happened within a week-and-a-half of each other in March 2003. Also in March 2003, Jacak was sentenced to 75 days in jail and a 24-month license revocation for his fourth operating while intoxicated, which occurred in November 2002.
Does anyone else see a pattern here? What the article doesn't say is what this clown's punishment for the first through the fourth offenses. Setting a $3000 bond doesn't seem like much of an incentive to stay sober, does it.