EL PASO - Police say ten El Paso drivers arrested for DWI within the past month are repeat offenders. All of them have been arrested for driving drunk three or more times before. So, how can someone rack up multiple DWI's? We asked the District Attorney and reviewed the case history of each repeat offender to find out.
District Attorney Jamie Esparza says the percentage of repeat drunk drivers stays the same every year. In fact in the past five years, the percentage of three or more repeat offenders has hovered around eight percent.
"If you're getting three or more, you have a drinking problem. You are an alcoholic," Esparza said.
So, how is this happening? Is the DA's office being tough enough? After looking through the case history of repeat offenders, we noticed prosecutors have been asking judges to give jail time for serious offenders.
Are judges being tough enough? Let's look at Patricia Carrera's cases. The DA's office says she's been arrested for DWI six times in eight years. She's pled guilty three times, and in the last case the judge sentenced her to 300 days in jail and two years' probation.
The story is different though for George Ordonez. The DA's office says he's pled guilty to DWI three times since 1991, but he's never been given jail time, just probation.
"Frankly, probation is not a bad alternative knowing that the court can monitor them for a lengthy period of time," Esparza said.
The DA says probation from a judge might be tougher than a punishment handed down by a sympathetic jury.
"I don't have any quarrel with the way jurors handle these cases, but I always am concerned that a person will get on the jury and think, 'Well that could be me.' or, 'Gosh, last Friday I had a beer and went home,'" Esparza said.
Tonight it seems there's no one to blame for repeat drunk drivers staying on the road, except for drunk drivers themselves. Overall, Esparza says if Texans really want to get serous on drunk drivers they would make breath tests mandatory.
"Right now, you can refuse to take the breath test. I think refusal of the breath test should be a crime in and of itself," he said.
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