Greene man ordered to be resentenced after 5th DUI posted Jan. 16
The state Superior Court ordered a Greene County Common Pleas Court judge to consider a county man’s four previous driving under the influence convictions when imposing the sentence for his fifth DUI. In December, Superior Court vacated a state prison sentence of six months to 231/2 months, which was based in part on three of a defendant’s four earlier DUI convictions, and ordered President Judge H. Terry Grimes to consider all four of the convictions when he re-sentences the man for his fifth DUI, according to court records.
The re-sentencing of the defendant, Don Robert Cook, 57, of Mather, has been scheduled for 9 a.m. Jan. 29.
Assistant District Attorney Gregory Simatic and defense attorney David Pollock appealed the sentence Grimes ordered for Cook in May 2007.
Simatic argued that points for all four prior DUI convictions should have been calculated into the sentence, but Pollock argued that only one should have been counted, according to court records.
State police in Waynesburg charged Cook with DUI and several summary charges in June 2006.
Police said his blood-alcohol content was .22 percent. Under state law, a blood-alcohol level of .08 or higher is grounds for a driving under the influence arrest.
It was Cook’s second DUI offense within the previous 10 years and fifth since 1990, according to court records, which show his previous DUI convictions occurred on May 3, 2001, March 26, 1992, May 17, 1991 and Nov. 29, 1990.
Cook was accepted into the accelerated rehabilitation disposition program in 1976 after pleading guilty to a DUI, according to court records.
However, state sentencing guidelines do not apply to ARD sentences, according to the higher court. Cook pleaded guilty to the 2006 DUI in April 2007.
Before Grimes imposed the sentence in May, Simatic argued that Cook’s four most recent DUI convictions should be calculated into his prior record score. Simatic contended Cook should have been given one point for each of the 1991, 1992 and 2001 DUI convictions and a fourth point for the 1990 conviction and another misdemeanor conviction for accidents involving damage to property in 2006.
Pollock contended the state’s driving under impairment statute prohibited all but the 2001 conviction from being calculated in the prior record score. He argued the score should have been one.
Grimes ruled that three of the four most recent convictions would be used to determine the prior record score and he set the score at three.
He sentenced Cook to six months to 231/2 months in prison for the DUI and a consecutive 90 days in prison for a summary charge of driving with a suspended license.
The Dec. 20 Superior Court order vacated the DUI sentence and remanded the case to Grimes for re-sentencing based on a prior record score of four.