Man Gets 1-Year Jail Sentence After His 14th DUI Conviction

In a case that prosecutors say cries out for a stiffer penalty, a Long Beach man was sentenced Friday to one year in County Jail after he was convicted for the 14th time of driving while under the influence of alcohol.

Philip John Webster, 44, was taken into custody immediately after he was sentenced by Long Beach Superior Court Judge Brad Andrews. Webster was convicted after a three-day trial during which jurors heard police say the carpenter and admitted drinker, whose driver’s license had been suspended since 1995, was found passed out behind the wheel of his car Oct. 8, 1999.

The auto’s engine was running, the lights were on and Webster was secured in the driver’s seat by seat belts, Long Beach police officers said. His blood-alcohol level at the time was 0.18%--more than twice the state’s permissible limit of 0.08%, according to authorities.

Prosecutors said they wanted to charge Webster with a felony. A conviction on such a charge would have made him eligible for a longer sentence in state prison. But despite his numerous arrests, Webster did not qualify for a felony prosecution.

Prosecutors were hampered in the quest for more punishment because Webster had only one DUI misdemeanor conviction in the last seven years. State laws require two convictions in the seven-year period to proceed with a felony prosecution. He served a year in County Jail for a case in 1995.

In the latest case, Webster received the maximum penalty for a misdemeanor--a year in County Jail and a $1,000 fine.

“People who repeatedly drink and drive are a menace and threat to all of us,” said Long Beach City Prosecutor Tom Reeves. “People like Webster have proved that they will continue to drink and drive until they kill themselves or someone else.”

Deputy City Prosecutor Doug Haubert, who tried the case, said: “People with 20 years in our office have never seen somebody with 14 convictions.”

One lawmaker, Democratic state Sen. Betty Karnette of Long Beach, said she would work to close the loopholes.

Long Beach lawyer Richard Poland, who defended Webster in the latest case, did not deny his client’s drinking problems but disputed officers’ inference that Webster had been driving when found in his car near Newport Avenue and 7th Street. Poland said that because Webster had a suspended license, he hired two women to drive him to a bar, and that they later left him in anger because he was drunk. Another woman then agreed to drive him to an ATM near Newport and 7th, the lawyer said.

“She also got fed up with Webster, told him to sleep it off and left him there,” Poland said. “I have a reasonable doubt that he was driving the car.”

Poland accused prosecutors of grandstanding by trying to turn the legal action against Webster into a felony case.