Man gets 11th DUI

A 55-year-old Kalispell man has been given a five-year suspended sentence for his 11th conviction for driving under the influence.

Kenneth Melby also faces several years behind bars on federal charges.

According to Flathead District Judge Katherine Curtis, the conviction marked Melby’s 11th DUI, his fourth felony DUI and his fifth felony. Melby currently is serving time on a prior conviction in the Montana State Prison.

The sentence was only for five years because that is the limit for a DUI conviction. It was suspended because Melby is facing revocation of his probation on a federal DUI case that could land him in jail for another four or five years.

Curtis said that although Melby had gone through both intensive inpatient and intensive outpatient alcohol treatment in the past, she had no doubt “he has not figured out a way to use those tools.”

“I don’t know that any further treatment will do him any good,” she said.

Melby was arrested on the most recent charge on Aug. 22, 2011, when a Montana Highway Patrol trooper responded to a crash where Melby had failed to make a turn on his motorcycle and drove off the road.

Melby failed a breath test at the scene and refused another breath test at the Flathead County Detention Center.