Keith Peltier got his first DWI conviction in 1986. His ninth was just this week.
I can’t give Keith Peltier another chance to kill someone,” said Brazoria County District Attorney Jeri Yenne.
How many stories have we read where someone was killed by a repeat drunken driver? This time Brazoria County took initiative and probably saved someone’s life (or Mr. Peltier’s own life down the road). Perhaps he just didn’t have the benefit of Harris County District Attorney Pat Lykos’ idea of pre-trial diversion to forgive first-time offenders who go to rehab.
In response, Mr. Peltier’s attorney released this statement:
His attorney says the sentence was too severe. Attorney Jon Jaworski says the prosecution of his client this time was payback for another case where Peltier was acquitted. In this case, Jaworski says also says, “I don’t think he was intoxicated by alcohol.”
He tells us he thinks his apparent intoxication was, in reality, a “diabetic reaction.
It’s a good thing that the jury didn’t buy this; had he truly been having a diabetic condition he should have taken the Intoxilyzer test. As far as retaliation for a case in which he was acquitted, this means he was arrested more than nine times for DWI. I bet he has driven drunk around a hundred times and just didn’t get caught. It’s been a long time but, if I remember the class correctly, most drunk drivers arrested have driven drunk an average of eight times without being stopped by police.
