Repeat DUI offender gets 13 months

"You're done drinking and driving," District Judge Stewart Stadler told a man who has been arrested for DUI eight or nine times.

The Daily Inter Lake

"You're done drinking and driving," District Judge Stewart Stadler told a man who has been arrested for DUI eight or nine times.

Stadler on Thursday sentenced Gerald Foster, 49, of Hungry Horse, to the maximum allowable sentence for a felony DUI: a 13-month sentence from the Department of Corrections, including placement in a treatment program.

Treatment usually lasts for three to six months and then the defendant remains on probation.

"The frustration our office and the courts and the community have felt regarding DUIs needs to be addressed by the Legislature," he said.

Whether a driver is convicted of a first felony DUI or the 15th, the penalty is the same 13 months, Guzynski said.

DUI crimes become felonies when a driver racks up his or her fourth DUI charge.

Foster was arrested on Jan. 15, 2003, near Columbia Falls. A sheriff's deputy stopped him and he refused to take a sobriety test.

He has not had a felony or DUI conviction in the past five years, Guzynski said. Stadler said Foster has been arrested eight or nine times and has been through alcohol treatment before.

The judge did have one more serious option he presented to Foster:

Another violation could result in a designation as a persistent felony offender. Under Montana law, that can add up to 100 years to a defendant's sentence.

Besides the 13-month sentence, Foster will be on probation for three years.