Wisconsin Lawmakers Push to Make Fourth OWI Offense a Felony

We hear the stories all-too-often about people who drink, get behind the wheel of their car and then, tragically, cause a serious accident or even a fatality in the blink of an eye. Sometimes, when that accident involves a celebrity, it makes an even bigger pubic impact. 

Such was the case recently when Milwaukee radio personality Steve “Homer” True was driving through the intersection of Fond du Lac Avenue and Hampton Avenue at 10 o’clock in the morning when suddenly his car was T-boned by another car driven by a man police say was intoxicated. Thankfully for True, he was not injured as badly as the initial reports suggested but the accident served as yet another reminder of how dangerous and foolish it is to drink and drive. The accident also sparked more discussion about making the penalties for drunken driving much tougher in our state.

We’ve seen the writing on the wall over the past few years with a number of changes in Wisconsin with respect to drunk driving. The most recent, in 2010, had the most impact with respect to a fourth OWI offense.  The law currently states that a fourth offense is not a felony unless the OWI third offense conviction occurred within five years of the new allegation. A pair of bills passed by the state Assembly would change that.

Among the changes being proposed in the new Assembly bills is removing the five-year look back period in which a fourth arrest would be treated as a misdemeanor. Under the bill, all fourth offenses would be treated as felonies subject to a minimum fine of $600 and between six months and six years in jail.  I can tell you that most judges have seen this coming and I remember one judge in particular always, while admonishing defendants in court, warning them that fourth offenses will, in the very near future, become felonies.  We now find ourselves with a legislative proposal that does just that.

The Assembly bills would also eliminate a provision in state law that allows a second-offense drunken driving conviction to also be treated as a municipal violation if the driver’s first violation happened more than 10 years before. All second offenses would be misdemeanors subject to a fine of $350 and five days in jail.

Without question, there is a public perception that there is a need to toughen up the penalties for drunken driving. The argument has been made that there are also some other tools that might be of assistance such as Alcohol Treatment Court which we have in Waukesha County. The court provides services to repeat intoxicated drivers by teaching skills that will help them live a pro-social life and improve their chances of staying sober. The offender must be convicted of his or her third intoxicated driving offense to take part in the program which takes a year to 18 months to complete.  The program uses SCRAM (Secure Continuous Remote Alcohol Monitoring) to monitor alcohol consumption 24 hours a day.

While there are people who would agree that this program is appropriate for a second or even a third offense, by the time you get to a fourth offense public patience is gone. There’s the belief that a fourth time offender has had more than enough opportunity to clean up his or act and it’s time for much tougher penalties. Though I can certainly understand this sentiment, at the same time, I’ve seen Alcohol Treatment Court work.  It’s not for everybody but this program has produced some excellent results.

Bottom line?  I think making a fourth drunken driving offense a felony will eventually become the law in Wisconsin and the penalties for drinking and then getting behind the wheel are only going to get tougher.  Personally, in conjunction with these tougher penalties, I’d like to see a bigger investment in the Alcohol Treatment Court because it gets to the root of the problem of drinking and then making the poor decision to drive.

About Attorney Mark Powers
Attorney Mark Powers is a partner at the criminal defense law firm of Huppertz & Powers, S.C. in Waukesha. Previously, Powers served as an Assistant District Attorney with the Waukesha County District Attorney's office and is currently serving as a municipal judge in North Prairie. He focuses in the area of criminal defense, and has handled many cases involving operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated, domestic disputes, and drug offenses.

Powers attended Valparaiso University School of Law, where he received his Juris Doctorate. Prior to law school, Mark attended the University of Wisconsin, Lacrosse where he received his bachelor of science in Political Science.

For more information, please call 262.549.5979 or visit www.waukeshacriminalattorneys.com.