Law Yanks Habitual Drunks Out of the Driver’s Seat

Deputies were watching the young man as he strolled out of the courtroom.

He walked to his black 1990 GMC pickup truck, hopped inside, started it up and began to drive away. The deputies swooped in, arrested him and carted him off to Orange County Jail.

“This man was in court appearing on a third drunk-driving charge,” South County Municipal Judge Pamela Iles said. “I had just suspended his license and released him on the condition he did not drive. He said, ‘That’s OK, I’m not driving.’ He is in jail today.”

Not only was he in jail, he was in danger of never seeing his truck again. Under a new state law that took effect in January, third-time drunk drivers may have their vehicles confiscated and sold, or destroyed as additional punishment. The money from a sale goes to alcohol treatment programs for adolescents.

It is part of a new, tougher approach toward repeat drunk drivers. Iles said: “This is what we will do to people who won’t pay attention to court orders. These people have paid over $2,000 in fines, have been to jail and they’re still drinking and driving.”

The law that took effect in January applies to third-time and subsequent drunk-driving offenses and to all felony drunk-driving violations--offenses during which someone is injured.

Iles has warned that she plans to use the new authority and to encourage other judges to follow suit. So far, she has had two vehicles, including the pickup, impounded in the South County Courthouse parking lot.

“Third-time drunk drivers lose their licenses for three years,” Iles said. “It’s revoked, period. They cannot drive. They have no license, none. So these people don’t need a car, right?”

The law is aimed at drunk drivers who, through having gone through the court system at least twice, have not changed their attitudes, Iles said.

According to Orange County Deputy Dist. Atty. Edward J. Merrilees, about 18,000 people were convicted of drunk driving last year, about 1,500 of them third-time offenders.

Iles said she has “had six- and seven-time offenders in my court.”

The new law, which amended California Vehicle Code Section 23198, was introduced by state Sen. John Seymour (R-Anaheim), chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Substance Abuse.

“The bill,” Seymour said, “was a result of trying to make it very clear that for those who are going to violate our laws, it will now cost them more than it has in the past. The bottom line is, it’s going to get tougher.”

Nowadays in court, first-time offenders are fined a total of $1,065, sent to an alcohol education program for up to nine months and either sent to jail for two days or put on driving restrictions for 90 days.

The fine remains the same for subsequent offenses, but treatment, jail time and driving restrictions increase.

Second-time offenders must spend a year in an alcoholism treatment program, two days in jail and, for one year, may drive only between home and work.

Third-time offenders get a minimum 120-day jail sentence and lose their licenses for three years.

And now they may lose their vehicles as well. The law gives judges discretion to order confiscations, Seymour said.

“If, for instance, the car is the only vehicle in the family, that is taken into consideration,” Seymour said.