Court told ‘games’ played with DUI charges

Tuesday, Oct. 12, 1999 | 10:46 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- A deputy district attorney from Clark County says people charged with drunken driving should not be allowed to have the charge dropped in exchange for pleading guilty to lesser traffic offenses.

"We can't allow defendants to play games like this," Deputy District Attorney Bruce Nelson told the Nevada Supreme Court Monday.

But defense lawyer John Watkins told the court that the game can be played only because prosecutors pile on charges after a person is arrested for drunken driving. Six of his clients, he said, have gone into court and pleaded guilty to the lesser counts, such as speeding or running a red light. And judges then dismissed the drunken driving charges, he said.

The court is expected to rule on the arguments by the end of the year.

Justice Cliff Young, who presided over the three-judge panel, expressed doubts about Watkins' argument that additional charges allow an escape valve for drunken driving suspects.

"That doesn't totally make much sense," Young said.

Watkins argued that prosecutors took a single offense and "chopped it" into multiple charges in an effort to get the suspect to plead guilty. He said he asked the prosecutors to stop that practice and cautioned them he would get his clients out of the drunken driving charge by pleading guilty to the lesser charge.

Nelson told the justices the Legislature never intended to give "carte blanche" to drunken drivers to violate every traffic law and escape with a plea to only one offense. The DUI and traffic laws are in different sections of the statutes and the punishments can be imposed cumulatively, he said.

He gave the example of an assailant who robs a person and then kills the victim. The suspect can be convicted of both crimes, Nelson said.

"If he commits he commits multiple offenses, he should face greater punishment," he said. No state has ruled that DUI and traffic offenses can't be prosecuted at the same time, he added.