Analysis: 4th DWI shows obstacles to prosecutions

About 11 a.m. on a Thursday nearly two months ago, a 2004 Ford pickup suddenly veered off La. 70 near Lake End Parkway in Morgan City.
The pickup went 300 feet off the road, Morgan City police said later. The pickup hit a fence, and then struck a utility pole, a water line and electrical lines.
Police suspected that the driver was under the influence of either alcohol or drugs. A news release said they found what they suspected was Xanax, a prescription drug used to combat anxiety and depression, in the driver’s hand. He was taken to a hospital for treatment of minor injuries and for a blood test. No one else was hurt.
The date was May 5. The driver was Regis Southern, then 33, an Iberia Parish oilfield worker who lives on Huey P. Road. Southern, who had completed five years of probation for a third-offense DWI less than seven months before the Morgan City crash, was booked for possession of Xanax and drug paraphernalia, careless operation of a motor vehicle, and DWI – a fourth-offense DWI, his second felony arrest for impaired driving.
Southern’s case illustrates the hardships involved in prosecuting drivers accused of multiple DWIs. Court records hint at difficulties in record keeping, problems coping with a refusal to undergo blood or other tests, and statutory obstacles to dealing with multiple DWI cases as what they really are.
‘Unable to stand unassisted’
Southern’s previous DWI arrest came after a Dec. 12, 2008, crash involving three vehicles on westbound U.S. Route 90 near La. 88 in Iberia Parish. State police learned of the crash at 7:04 a.m.
Trooper 1st Class Bertrand L. Dabadie later filed an affidavit saying that he talked with Southern. He told the trooper that he hit a vehicle in the rear bumper, then lost control and sideswiped a car in the adjacent lane.
“The subject had slurred/incoherent speech and swaying/falling balance,” Dabadie wrote. “The subject also had bloodshot/glassy eyes and was unable to stand unassisted at the scene.”
Dabadie arrested Southern and took him to the Iberia Parish jail. There, Dabadie wrote, Southern performed badly on a standard field sobriety test. But a breath test also was administered, and it found no sign of alcohol.
Dabadie then asked Southern to submit to a urine test. This time, Southern refused, “stating he would not pass it because he takes pain medication and smoked marijuana this weekend,” the affidavit said.
So the trooper booked Southern into the Iberia jail on charges of careless operation, no driver’s license on his person and no seat belt. And, because a criminal history check showed six previous DWI arrests between April 2002 and June 2008, Southern was booked for a seventh-offense DWI.
At attempt to reach Southern for comment failed. Sixteenth Judicial District Attorney’s Office prosecutors who had been involved in the case declined to talk about it on the record.

Three, five
or seven?
The file on the third-offense DWI case indicates that in two earlier convictions, in April 2005 in Jefferson Davis Parish and in August 2006 in Cameron, Southern was arrested based on drinking alcohol. In the 2008 arrest in Iberia and in the Morgan City case, the court and police records point to drugs.
Dabadie’s affidavit contains the admission about taking pain medication and marijuana, and Southern was arrested on the Xanax and paraphernalia charges in Morgan City. The results of any tests administered after the Morgan City arrest haven’t been made public.
The most recent status update on Southern’s Facebook page is a link to a nola.com story about a relaxing of marijuana enforcement in New Orleans. The link is accompanied by a large photo of a marijuana cigarette being rolled.
The list of six previous DWI arrests in the affidavit may be unintentionally misleading. Sometimes the serving of papers in an existing case may show up as a separate arrest, according to one courthouse source familiar with drunken driving prosecutions.
In any case, a third-offense prosecution must, by law, be based on two previous convictions within 10 years.
The records in the third-offense DWI case are occasionally confusing. In a January 2009 motion to reduce his $150,000 bail, Southern’s offense is described as fifth-offense DWI. A later confinement order refers to a seventh-offense DWI again.
The bill of information from the 16th Judicial District Attorney’s Office, formally charging Southern in the Iberia case, finally settles on the third-offense DWI charge. It was based on the previous convictions in Jeff Davis and Cameron.
The bill of information also wrongly indicates that Southern had a blood alcohol content more than three times the presumptive legal limit. The mistake was cleared up when Southern entered a guilty plea in 2010.
Southern pleaded not guilty at his arraignment in January and was released Feb. 5, 2009, after signing a surety agreement that prohibited him from driving a motor vehicle and from possessing or using drugs.

Probation
Southern first applied for a public defender. But he eventually was represented by a private attorney. Southern was facing a felony charge with no test results to indicate that he was impaired. He faced from 45 days to five years in prison and a fine of up to $2,000.
In April 2010, Southern pleaded guilty as part of an agreement under which he received the five-year prison sentence, all but 45 days of which was suspended. He was given credit for time he’d already spent in jail and was placed on probation for five years.
In addition, Southern was required to pay thousands of dollars in court costs and other fees, including monthly supervision fee of $50. Southern was also, among other things, required to report each month to a probation officer; to apply himself to a job; to undergo medical, psychiatric and substance abuse evaluation and treatment; and to refrain from possessing guns or other dangerous weapons.

Arrested again
Southern’s next serious brush with the law came in March 2013. This time, the offense didn’t involve driving.
Southern was arrested and booked for threatening a woman described in court records as “a member of the same household” with a gun and with domestic abuse battery by strangulation. The 16th Judicial District Attorney’s Office said the case is on the court docket but without a court date.
Just more than two years later, in March 2015, the Division of Probation and Parole went to court to have Southern’s probation revoked, which would have sent him to prison to serve his five years. Probation and Parole Officer Grant Domingues pointed in a court motion to the domestic violence and assault charges from two years before.
Domingues also said Southern was more than $150 behind on his required $50 monthly payment and that Southern had failed to make his required monthly reports nine times.
There’s no indication in Southern’s file that the court acted specifically on the revocation motion. But in October 2015, four months after the five years of probation were up, District Judge Anthony Thibodeaux terminated Southern’s probation “unsatisfactorily.”
Southern was free to drive and to knock down a fence in Morgan City.

Third offense again
An oddity in the Southern case is that he may be prosecuted for third-offense DWI for a second time.
Valerie Cox, a victim’s advocate for Louisiana Mothers Against Drunk Driving, noted that a fourth-offense DWI conviction must be based on three convictions within the previous 10 years. The first of the two convictions on which his third-offense conviction was based occurred in 2005.
A fourth-offense DWI could bring a sentence of anywhere from 75 days to 30 years and a fine of $5,000, compared to 45 days, five years and $2,000 for a third-offense conviction.
“A judge will have all the necessary information,” Cox said. “If he’s found guilty, he’ll be looking at some jail time.
“At some point, they have to get the message. And he’s not getting it.”
A few days after the Morgan City crash, said police Capt. Teddy Liner, Southern was released after bail was set at $112,000. Southern’s arraignment on the 2016 charges is set for July 15.