6 DUIs & 1 killing

Soory I haven't been around in awhile, but I am back with new news relating to DUI in the washington and oregon territories. This weeks little ditty comes from king county journal:

Appearing weary and disheveled, Susan Lynn West sat before a judge in King County District Court in Bellevue on Monday to answer to charges of driving while intoxicated for the sixth time.

After a week in rehab, The 48-year-old Bellevue woman trembled and had difficulty walking. Bellevue police officers led her to and from the court room in nylon shackles that secured her wrists to her waist.

West, who previously was convicted of driving drunk in a hit-and-run crash that killed a Sammamish Plateau woman in 1997, chose not to enter a plea at her arraignment Monday for charges of drunken driving and driving with a suspended license in the third degree.

As state law requires, Judge Janet Garrow entered a plea of not guilty on West's behalf. The law states that defendants charged with driving under the influence are not required to enter a plea until they have had a chance to consult with a lawyer.

After the hearing, West was returned to the King County Jail in Seattle, where she remained Monday night in lieu of $150,000 bail.

West has not retained a defense attorney. She was appointed a public defender for Monday's hearing.

She was arrested for drunken driving shortly after midnight on June 18, approximately six months after she was released from probation for the drunken crash that killed Mary Johnsen, a 38-year-old mother of two who was walking off the roadway when she was struck in July 1997.

In West's most recent arrest, charging papers say, a Bellevue police officer noticed a broken license-plate light on her black 1998 Buick as it was driving through the parking lot of a Newport Hills shopping center. The officer ran the plate number and discovered the car's owner had a suspended license and no car insurance.

The officer stopping West reported that he immediately smelled alcohol on her breath. When he asked if she had been drinking, she leaned against the car and said no. When he asked if she would mind performing a sobriety test, she protested, saying she didn't have her contact lenses.

After failing the test, the charges state, West refused to submit to a breath test. She was then taken into custody and hospitalized for alcohol-dependency treatment.

Charging papers say West also was on antidepressants at the time of her arrest.

In court Monday, Judge Garrow advised West to retain an attorney or apply for a public defender. When asked about her assets, West told the judge that she has approximately $160,000 in stock and bonds, which might make it difficult for her to obtain court-appointed counsel.

West attracted widespread attention after her 1997 conviction for vehicular homicide. In that incident, court records state, her blood-alcohol level was 0.34, more than three times the legal limit. West pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide, reckless endangerment, reckless driving and felony hit-and-run.

She served six years of a nine-year sentence, was released from prison in 2003 and got off probation in January of this year.

Prior to the fatal accident, West was arrested for drunken driving in Pullman in 1978, in Seattle in 1985, in Marysville in 1989 and in Fall City in 1991. Two of the cases were deferred, and one was dismissed.

Because she'd been arrested four times for drunken driving prior to the fatal accident, her case spurred several new state laws in 1998 designed to crack down on drunken drivers.

Earlier this year, the Legislature passed a law making it a felony to have a fifth DUI conviction in 10 years or a DUI conviction after a prior vehicular homicide conviction.

But since that law becomes effective in July 2007, it doesn't apply to West. Her latest charge is a gross misdemeanor offense, not a felony, and carries a maximum penalty of one year in jail and a $5,000 fine, according to Bellevue City Attorney Lori Riordan. Driving with a suspended license in the third degree carries a penalty of up to 90 days in jail and a $1,000 fine.

West is due back in court for a pretrial hearing in two weeks.

Ignition Interlock

An ignition interlock device is a breath alcohol analyzer connected to the ignition of a car. A vehicle equipped with an ignition interlock device cannot be driven unless the driver passes the unit's breath alcohol tests.

Most of these devices work in the following manner:

• When the key is turned a voice prompts the driver to prepare to give a breath test.
• The driver has over 60 seconds to provide a deep lung breath sample--at a pressure rate of 1.5 liters of air given over six seconds--providing the unit with a sample of alveolar air from the bottom of the lungs.
• Testing the sample takes 25 seconds.
• After test completion, a voice either prompts the driver to start the car or lets him/her know it will not start.
• To discourage someone else from providing the original breath sample (a violation of the law when using Model DM-904, the model used when an ignition interlock system is mandated by the court), two "random rolling retests" are given within 20 minutes of starting.
• If a retest is failed a voice instructs the driver to pull over and shut off the car. If this instruction is ignored the horn sounds and the lights blink until the car is shut off.
• The unit's computer records all test and pertinent driving data. This is downloadable and printable. In the case of mandatory use, this data can only be accessed by court officials. Any attempt at tampering with the unit registers in this data log.