New Program in Works for Young DUI Offenders
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An Orange County program under which teen-agers arrested for drunk driving are shown dead bodies in a morgue may spread to the Antelope Valley if Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich and some Valley officials and residents have their way.
The Los Angeles County pilot program would be modeled after the one in Orange County, said Bill Proffitt, a coroner’s investigator in the Antelope Valley. In that program, more than 400 teen-age offenders have watched doctors from the coroner’s office performing autopsies. Only one has been rearrested on drunk driving charges, he said.
“This is something that’s real. We’re going to show them real dead bodies,” Proffitt said.
The Board of Supervisors approved the pilot program earlier this month, but it cannot begin until funds are raised for a van to transport teen-agers to the morgue downtown, said Sherry Lasagna, a senior deputy in Antonovich’s Antelope Valley office.
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