Courts
Tomah woman found drunk in car faces 7th OWI charge
Police say she was drunk, again, while behind the wheel.
Cops in Tomah arrested a woman for her seventh OWI charge.
They say 73 year old Peggy Mattingly was spotted drinking a beer while driving in a parking lot of a fast food restaurant.
When police approached, she showed signs of being intoxicated, including being unable to count backwards or recite the alphabet.
Police also found an empty beer can in the car, and a breath test showed Mattingly to be over the legal limit.
She has six prior drunk driving convictions dating back to 1989.
Don
December 12, 2018 at 5:56 pm
I find it intersting that some callers continue to offer the solution of treatment over incarceration for repeat offenders in regard to criminal OWI offenses, criminal drug dealing offenses, and criminal justice reform.. Maybe I am misinterpreting their position, but some callers seem to imply that treatment is new and has not been implemented enough to have an impact. Nothing could be further from the truth. Alternative methods have been utilized for decades with Justice sanctions, deferral agreements, probation, ankle bracelets, IID, and the list goes on and on. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t. Regardless, the rule of law must prevail. We need to keep the treatment we have but we also need to stop decriminalizing our statutes. I think the balance is good but judges, justice sanctions, probation/parole, and prosecutors need to follow through and stop looking for the easy way out. If this means more staffing and bigger budgets then so be it. Government and society must draw a line in the sand. Some offenses, repeat or otherwise, must end with a prison sentence. The laws that protect us from behavior that threatens the life, liberty, or safety must not be forsaken. This prevents us from devolving into a shabby, lawless, 3rd world country. And as to privatization and prison expansion? Wisconsin has never had a privatized prison nor should it. Wisconsin has not built a new prison in decades and should not consider it unless warranted. But we should not look for ways to empty prisons. Strong laws and prisons help to curb behavior. Treatment helps to change behavior. We need all of it. The real issue is finding good people and sufficient funding to make it work and to have the backbone to not take the easy way out.