Chronic DUI offender pleads guilty

Randy Turner, 47, pleaded guilty Tuesday to felony DUI - somewhere between his ninth and 17th DUI, depending on whom you ask.

Turner was last arrested on Aug. 28, 2003.

In that incident, a witness reported that a vehicle leaving the Deerlick Saloon struck a parked vehicle and nearly hit another.

Police reports say that on U.S. 2 the vehicle forced others off the road. Near Berne Park, sheriff's deputy Bob Provo found the vehicle going west in the eastbound lane. He prepared to stop it, but by then, the driver had put the vehicle in a ditch.

The driver was Turner.

His blood-alcohol level was .228, more than three times the legal limit.

He admitted Tuesday that he was driving while intoxicated.

It was the latest in a long list of drunken-driving events for Turner which have frustrated prosecutors and judges.

The maximum sentence for felony DUI (the fourth or more in five years) is 13 months.

County Attorney Ed Corrigan, though, plans to ask for a 20-year sentence with half of that suspended. He can do that if Turner is designated a persistent felony offender.

That designation, although rarely used, carries an additional prison term of up to 100 years.

On Tuesday, Corrigan wondered about solutions for someone like Turner. Chronic DUI offenders can't be locked up forever, he said, but it's also not safe to turn them loose.

Twenty years ago, on April 6, 1984, Turner struck and nearly killed 21-year old Shari Hart (now Brusse). She survived, although she says, "I am in pain all day, all night. It's part of my life." Surgeries continue even now, and because of her injuries, she couldn't have children.

At the time, Turner could only be charged with a misdemeanor.

Before Brusse had gotten far into her painful recovery, Turner was back on the road. Sentenced in July 1985, he was charged with DUI again before the end of the year and got a deferred prosecution.

Brusse says she believes her wreck with Turner was his ninth DUI, although it was the second on record. Only DUIs within a five-year period can be counted toward a felony DUI and those accumulated as a juvenile didn't count.

At least two prior DUIs as an adult were wiped from Turner's record because of the five-year rule when he was charged with the accident with Brusse.

On the record, according to court files, are Turner's DUIs in 1975, 1976, 1984, 1988, 1989, 1994, 1995, and 1996 in Montana and Wyoming. Those don't include charges dismissed in plea agreements, such as one in 1990.

Turner has been through treatment and promised sobriety in court before.

Now he's been in jail since his arrest 15 months ago, scheduled on and off for trial.

In April, he wrote the judge, saying he was sober for three years before this arrest. With a wife and son, he hoped to be released on his recognizance or house arrest. It didn't happen.

On Dec. 22, District Judge Ted Lympus will sentence Turner, as he did once 20 years ago. This time, the sentence might be different.

Reporter Chery Sabol may be reached at 758-4441 or by e-mail at csabol@dailyinterlake.com