Judge Gives Ex-Ram 2 Years in Prison for Drunk Driving

A judge sentenced former Los Angeles Rams lineman Doug France on Friday to two years in prison for driving drunk last year in San Juan Capistrano, nearly a decade after he caused a fatal crash while intoxicated.

France, dressed in a blue pinstriped suit, was led out of the courtroom in handcuffs while the daughters of the woman who was killed in the 1990 collision watched through tears from the courtroom.

A California Highway Patrol officer arrested France in September after the former football player’s sport-utility vehicle hit a car on the San Diego Freeway. A test later revealed France had a blood-alcohol level of 0.15%, nearly twice California’s legal limit of 0.08%.

The arrest came more than nine years after France lost control of his BMW while driving drunk in Laguna Hills and crashed into a car driven by Maria Contreras, who was killed. A year later, France pleaded guilty to vehicular manslaughter and was sentenced to five years of probation and one year of house arrest.

Contreras’ daughters, Grasie and Angie, huddled during Friday’s proceedings. Watching France taken into custody was an emotional moment, Grasie Contreras said.

“I thought back to my mother right away,” she said. “This should have taken place years ago.”

France, 47, pleaded guilty June 6 to felony drunk driving, accepting the two-year prison sentence as part of that plea.

Reidel Post, executive director of the Orange County chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, attended Friday’s sentencing hearing and consoled the Contreras sisters outside the courtroom.

“Had he received a stiffer sentence the first time, he might not have re-offended,” Post said. “He would have had a chance to learn his lesson. It’s a good thing no one was hurt this time.”