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Drunken mother drove with 5 kids
Sandra Donat had been arrested three times already for drunken driving, so she knew that she would need someone sober to blow into the ignition-lock device on her van before it would start.
She chose her 12-year-old son.
Then Donat piled him and four of her other children - all younger than 10 years old at the time - into the vehicle at 2:30 a.m. on Feb. 20, 2003, and took off for Taco Bell with a beer in hand.
Police arrested her after the van drifted out of its lane, and found that she had a blood-alcohol concentration of 0.22, more than twice the state's legal limit at the time.
Donat said she had left a friend's house in Wausau, but police never determined where she was coming from. The officer who followed the van into the restaurant's parking lot on Grand Avenue in Schofield could see that at least one of the children was not wearing a seat belt.
"The nature of this crime is grotesque," Assistant District Attorney Kurt Klomberg said while arguing for a prison sentence at a hearing on Thursday in Marathon County court. "Those lives could have ended because their mother, the person they trusted the most, had the munchies."
Reserve Judge Conrad Richards agreed. He sentenced Donat, 38, of Birnamwood to the maximum sentence of four and a half years in prison, along with another year and a half of extended supervision for three counts of fourth-offense driving while intoxicated - prosecutors can add additional charges of drunken driving for each child who is in the vehicle.
Both the prosecutor and the judge said that other than cases involving a fatal crash, it was the most serious drunken-driving incident that has crossed their desks.
Donat pleaded guilty last year to the charges of drunken driving and tampering with an ignition-lock device that stemmed from her arrest. Other counts were dismissed as part of the plea agreement, including the charge of driving with an open container of alcohol. Her drivers license was revoked for six years, and she also must pay a $6,000 fine.
Donat's attorney, Gene Linehan, argued that she should be sentenced to jail time with work-release privileges and the possibility of going to prison if she did not follow the court's conditions.
"The real victims in this case are the children," Linehan said.
It would be more of a deterrent for others in the community to see her enter the jail each day and serve her time, Linehan said. It would also give Donat the best chance for rehabilitation, he said, and allow her to have limited visits with her children, who no longer live with her. Charges of child neglect are pending against her in Shawano County.
Richards took a 15-minute recess before returning the courtroom with his ruling.
"This is such a flagrant drunken-driving case," he said. "I find it astounding ... the way she manipulated the children.
"This is the time for you to turn your life around," Richards told Donat. "I'm so concerned about these children that you put in danger."
Source: Wausau Daily Herald
She chose her 12-year-old son.
Then Donat piled him and four of her other children - all younger than 10 years old at the time - into the vehicle at 2:30 a.m. on Feb. 20, 2003, and took off for Taco Bell with a beer in hand.
Police arrested her after the van drifted out of its lane, and found that she had a blood-alcohol concentration of 0.22, more than twice the state's legal limit at the time.
Donat said she had left a friend's house in Wausau, but police never determined where she was coming from. The officer who followed the van into the restaurant's parking lot on Grand Avenue in Schofield could see that at least one of the children was not wearing a seat belt.
"The nature of this crime is grotesque," Assistant District Attorney Kurt Klomberg said while arguing for a prison sentence at a hearing on Thursday in Marathon County court. "Those lives could have ended because their mother, the person they trusted the most, had the munchies."
Reserve Judge Conrad Richards agreed. He sentenced Donat, 38, of Birnamwood to the maximum sentence of four and a half years in prison, along with another year and a half of extended supervision for three counts of fourth-offense driving while intoxicated - prosecutors can add additional charges of drunken driving for each child who is in the vehicle.
Both the prosecutor and the judge said that other than cases involving a fatal crash, it was the most serious drunken-driving incident that has crossed their desks.
Donat pleaded guilty last year to the charges of drunken driving and tampering with an ignition-lock device that stemmed from her arrest. Other counts were dismissed as part of the plea agreement, including the charge of driving with an open container of alcohol. Her drivers license was revoked for six years, and she also must pay a $6,000 fine.
Donat's attorney, Gene Linehan, argued that she should be sentenced to jail time with work-release privileges and the possibility of going to prison if she did not follow the court's conditions.
"The real victims in this case are the children," Linehan said.
It would be more of a deterrent for others in the community to see her enter the jail each day and serve her time, Linehan said. It would also give Donat the best chance for rehabilitation, he said, and allow her to have limited visits with her children, who no longer live with her. Charges of child neglect are pending against her in Shawano County.
Richards took a 15-minute recess before returning the courtroom with his ruling.
"This is such a flagrant drunken-driving case," he said. "I find it astounding ... the way she manipulated the children.
"This is the time for you to turn your life around," Richards told Donat. "I'm so concerned about these children that you put in danger."
Source: Wausau Daily Herald
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