Press Releases
Nov 10, 2009 - 10th CONVICTION NETS 10-YEAR SENTENCE FOR INTOXICATED MOPED DRIVER
*** MEDIA ADVISORY***
November 10, 2009
10th CONVICTION NETS 10-YEAR SENTENCE
FOR INTOXICATED MOPED DRIVER
Media Contact: Curtis T. Hill, Jr. - 296-1888
On November 9, 2009, David D. Hauk, 46, of Goshen, was sentenced to ten (10) years in prison as a result of his tenth (10th) drunk driving conviction.
This past September, a jury found Hauk guilty of Operating While Intoxicated for what was originally believed to be the ninth time. In preparing for sentencing, prosecutors discovered another case, making this drunk driving conviction Hauk’s tenth.
Hauk, a Habitual Traffic Violator prohibited from driving a car, had been on his moped on Lincolnway East in Goshen when he was arrested. He had protested his innocence both at trial and at sentencing, maintaining that the officer testifying in Court hadn’t even stopped him, and that he “hadn’t had a drink in five years” – though he refused alcohol testing at the scene and had a prior conviction of Operating While Intoxicated from two and a half years before.
Hauk’s attorney requested that the Court place him on a Community Corrections Program, which would allow for the possibility of Work Release, Home Detention, or Daily Reporting, saying that Hauk had been “successful” when given those opportunities in the past. Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Graham Polando vehemently disagreed, saying that “success” would have meant Mr. Hauk ceased driving while intoxicated. Pointing out the prior opportunities Mr. Hauk had been given, Polando argued that, when it came to Mr. Hauk, Judge Charles Wicks was “out of carrots and out of sticks,” and argued that the only just option was prison.
Judge Wicks agreed, sentencing Hauk to the maximum of three (3) years in prison on the base offense of Operating While Intoxicated with a Prior within five years, a Class D Felony. Prosecutors had also sought to have Hauk sentenced as a Habitual Substance Offender, which allowed Judge Wicks to impose an additional seven (7) years to his sentence. In addition, Polando recommended that the approximately four (4) years Hauk had remaining on a previous conviction for Operating While Intoxicated – which he had been serving on probation – be served in prison, a recommendation Judge Wicks adopted.
Hauk’s attorney asked Judge Wicks to appoint him an Appellate lawyer at county expense, a request the Judge said he would address when Hauk files the required formal Notice of Appeal.
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