DUI Prosecutor Pleads To Own Drunk Driving Charge

[matcom]

<snip>

TAMPA, Fla. -- A Pinellas County prosecutor known for being tough on drunk drivers will serve probation and lecture school children on the dangers of drinking and driving to settle her own DUI case.

Lydia Dempsey Wardell was arrested in November after she drove the wrong way on a street and was involved in a minor accident. Her two young sons were in the car with her, and police measured her blood alcohol at nearly three times the legal limit for drunk driving.

Wardell was sentenced Wednesday after a plea agreement which reduced the drunk driving and culpable negligence charges against her to misdemeanors. Wardell will serve 18 months probation, and complete other tasks such as spending time on a sheriff's road crew picking up trash and at least 10 hours of speaking to children. Officials said her punishment is similar to those imposed on other first-time DUI offenders.

"My conduct that afternoon was selfish, and has impacted many," Wardell, 37, told Judge Thomas P. Barber.

Wardell told the judge that after he arrest, she immediately checked herself in to a residential treatment program "so I could examine what was going on in my life that would lead me to exercise such horrible judgment."

Wardell was demoted after her arrest, and has been suspended from her job for 30 days without pay, said Bruce Bartlett, chief assistant for State Attorney Bernie McCabe. She was reassigned to a division that handles consumer fraud cases.

http://www.wftv.com/irresistible/4160007/detail.html

[rocktivity]

1. Shouldn't THREE times the legal limit amount to DWI

which is a more serious charge? I didn't know you could cop a plea before you are even charged!

:headbang:
rocknation

[madinmaryland]

2. Typical Prosecutor. . .

(or should i say persecutor). Remember the laws do not apply to them.

Sounds like repub values in action again.