New Address for Drunk Driver

Gus Philpott
Woodstock Advocate
August 17, 2008

Elias Sanchez, 42, of Carpentersville will have a new address for the next ten years, thanks to a judge with guts in Kane County. Sanchez was sentenced to ten years in the state pen following his eighth arrest for DUI.

According to the Northwest Herald on August 16, Sanchez was found passed out in his idling car on December 18 (gee, "only" eight months ago), and holding a bottle of rum between his knees. He was a "guest" at the Kane County Jail since, and he'll get credit for his 242 days there.

Should he get that credit? It's a common practice, but he was considered "not guilty" until his conviction, which might have been a month or two ago. Maybe he should get "credit" only from the date of his conviction?

What's wrong with our "system" that it allows a person out on the roads after six convictions and one term of supervision for DUI?

I was reminded of the drunk driver I heard about in New Mexico in 1989. He had been arrested about sixteen times and kept getting handled with kid gloves. All that changed late one afternoon, after he had been in afternoon court on a DUI charge. Four hours after being let go one more time, he ran into the judge who had released him earlier that afternoon.

Not just "ran into" (as in "encountered") him. He ran into him with his car and was drunk (again). That time he got put away. Even in New Mexico you'd better not be drunk and run into the judge who just let you go.