An accident that took place on a recent Monday night in Colorado resulted in a man’s arrest for DUI. The alleged DUI accident happened at about 10 p.m. Reportedly, the DUI charge is the man’s ninth.
The 54-year-old man has apparently been convicted eight other times on offenses related to DUI. He was convicted of driving while intoxicated in 1983 and of driving under the influence in the years 1990, 1991, 1993 and 1995. He also was convicted of DUI in 1999.
Further, the man was convicted of driving while ability impaired in 2005 and driving under the influence in 2009. According to police, multiple individuals have been charged with felony DUI and taken into custody since the state of Colorado’s brand new felony DUI legislation went into effect. The law provides that a fourth conviction on DUI may result in a sentence of as many as six years in prison, along with a $500,000 fine. Before the law was enacted, repeat drunken driving offenders were charged only with misdemeanors.
The man has the right to defend against the Colorado DUI charges at trial, or he may instead seek to take advantage of a plea deal with prosecutors, if available. A plea agreement offers the advantage of potentially leading to a lighter sentence than what might have resulted if a trial resulted in a formal finding of guilt. The fact that the man has been previously convicted of similar offenses is not evidence of his guilt with respect to the new accusations. Because of the potentially severe consequences that a conviction could bring, however, a thorough review of all of the evidence that the prosecution plans to offer in support of the charges may be the chief focus of the accused person’s criminal defense team as preparations are made to respond in a manner that is designed to achieve the best result attainable under the circumstances.
Source: fox21news.com, “Man in Colorado Springs arrested for 9th DUI“, Angela Case, Sept. 8, 2015