Missouri State Highway Patrol and local police to crack down on drunk driving in Pulaski County

Waynesville, MO

Two more law enforcement agencies announced Wednesday that they will be cracking down on drunk drivers in Pulaski County, in addition to the previously announced activities of the Saint Robert Police Department.

Lt. Gary Brankel and Assistant Chief Clarence Liberty of the Waynesville Police Department announced that their officers will be targeting impaired drivers from Aug. 21 to Sept. 7 as part of the “You Drink and Drive, You Lose” statewide campaign, which increases efforts to reduce deaths and serious injuries caused by impaired drivers.

“Driving while intoxicated is one of the most common violent crimes, randomly killing or injuring someone in Missouri every 1.7 hours,” said Police Chief Robert Carter in a prepared statement. “These tragedies are preventable when drivers make a simple, smart choice not to drink and drive.”

Capt. Lee Ann H. Kenley, the commanding officer of Troop I of the Missouri State Highway Patrol, also announced Wednesday that during August, her troopers in Pulaski and Phelps counties will be conducting a sobriety checkpoint in Phelps County and a Pulaski County saturation patrol looking for those who are driving while intoxicated and those who have hazardous moving vehicle violations.

“The checkpoint is designed to check every driver to ensure they are sober; the driving while intoxicated saturation is a mobile operation in which troopers saturate a specific area in an effort to arrest alcohol or drug-impaired drivers,” Kenley said in a prepared statement. “The hazardous moving vehicle operation targets those individuals who are operating their vehicle in a hazardous manner, and thus, more likely to be involved in an accident.”

Those who see a violation of law or an emergency situation on the roadways may call the state patrol’s emergency hotline at (800) 525-5555 or dial *55 on their cell phones.

The previously reported St. Robert enforcement activities include sobriety checkpoints using police officer and firefighter overtime, as well as other activities that haven’t been specified in detail.

Consequences of drunk driving, according to a Waynesville Police Department release, include:

• Those who cause a fatal crash while intoxicated can be charged with involuntary manslaughter, a felony carrying a maximum penalty of seven years in prison and a $5,000 fine.

• Even a first-offense conviction carries a maximum penalty of six months in jail and a $500 fine, along with a 90-day driver’s license suspension.

• A second-offense conviction carries a maximum penalty of one year in jail and a $1,000 fine, as well as a yearlong driver’s license suspension.

• Those who drink and drive while under age 21 can be charged with being a minor in possession of alcohol, resulting in a first-offense suspension of their driver’s license for 90 days in additon to any other suspension resulting from “point” assessment on an alcohol conviction.

• Those convicted of driving while intoxicated will have difficulty finding an insurance company willing to insure them, and their rates will be significantly higher.

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Missouri State Highway Patrol, St. Robert, and Waynesville join forces for holiday weekend drunk driving crackdown

Pulaski County, MO

Local law enforcement personnel want to make sure that those who want to drink this weekend in Pulaski County don’t get behind the wheel of a car.

Representatives of three different police agencies have announced in recent weeks that they’ll be conducting drunk driving patrols over the Independence Day weekend. At Thursday afternoon’s meeting of the Waynesville Police and Emergency Services Committee, Police Chief Bob Carter said his agency, the St. Robert Police Department, and the Missouri State Highway Patrol will all be conducting drunk driving enforcement activities in their jurisdictions, staggered at different times during the weekend beginning Friday.

“We wish everybody a good holiday, but at the same time we are going to do a DWI saturation patrol that we signed up for with the state,” Carter said. “Don’t quote me on the times, but I know ours are offset so we can assist each other if need be.”

St. Robert police issued a press release in mid-June indicating that they’ll be participating in the statewide effort as well.

“It’s never worth the risk to drive while under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Drivers could lose their license, pay large fines, or worse of all, cause a tragic loss of life,” said St. Robert Police Chief Curtis Curenton in a prepared statement.

According to Curenton’s press release, in the year 2007, a total of 243 people died in more than 7,780 alcohol-related traffic crashes. That’s an average of one death or injury every 1.7 hours.

Earlier in the month, Capt. Lee Ann H. Kenley, the Rolla-based Troop I commander for the Missouri State Highway Patrol, said that a DWI saturation patrol will be conducted in Pulaski County. That operation took place on June 13, with five troopers assigned who stopped 48 different vehicles, resulting in two citations for drunk driving, 12 for speeding, three for hazardous moving violations, two for driver’s license violations, and four misdemeanor drug violations, in addition to 50 warnings.

“(I) would like to remind motorists that in the past, approximately 25 percent of all fatality traffic crashes on Missouri’s highways were alcohol-related,” Kenley said in her prepared statement urging Missourians to “be responsible and to realize that alcohol and vehicles are a deadly mix.”

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Wrong-way fatality motorist was repeat DWI offender, police say

Saint Robert, MO

The man who police say killed Coach Don Nelson in a Thursday night wrong-way crash was driving drunk at nearly three times the legal alcohol limit and also had three previous drunk driving convictions, according to documents filed Monday in Pulaski County Circuit Court.

George H. Widener, 64, of Jerome, faces a charge of first-degree involuntary manslaughter in connection with Nelson’s June 4 death. According to the results of a blood alcohol test, Widener had a blood alcohol content of 0.214 percent; Missouri’s legal limit for driving is 0.08 percent.

The charge faced by Widener is a Class B felony which carries a penalty of 5 to 15 years in prison. His blood alcohol level would only have had to be 0.18 percent to qualify for the charge.

Widener’s bond has been set at $250,000 cash-only and he remains in the Pulaski County Jail.

The police report filed by Sgt. Butch Hohman, traffic sergeant for the St. Robert Police Department, indicated that Widener had been driving a 2006 Chevrolet Avalanche eastbound in the westbound lane of Old Route 66 at 10:05 p.m. Thursday when he rounded a curve and met a 2009 Harley Davidson motorcycle ridden by Nelson which was rounding the same curve in the passing lane. The two vehicles hit head-on.

Hohman arrested Widener at the crash scene after “smelling the odor of intoxicants coming from his breath,” according to his report.

Widener has previous alcohol-related driving offenses in 1983, 1993, and 1999, according to Hohman’s report.

Prosecutors filed charges shortly before the funeral for Nelson, who was a longtime Waynesville High School coach and radio announcer. According to obituary information provided by Waynesville Memorial Chapel, the funeral will be at 2 p.m. Wednesday, June 10, at the Parker Fine Arts Building of Waynesville Middle School, with burial following at Waynesville Memorial Park Cemetery.

Visitation will be 4 p.m. Tuesday with Masonic rites by Richland Masonic Lodge No. 385 at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the funeral home.

According to obituary information, survivors include Nelson’s parents, Faye Howard and Leon Nelson, both of Waynesville; his children, Kenneth Nelson of Waynesville and Stacey Cruz and her husband, Sgt. Amos Cruz of San Clemente, Calif.; four siblings, Gene Nelson and his wife Mary of Kansas City, Kan., Cheryl Nelson and Tom Brougham of Kansas City, Kan., Jerry Nelson and his wife Barbara of Waynesville, and Yvonna Bays and her husband Dennis of Waynesville; one grandson, Jaden Cruz; six nephews and four nieces; as well as aunts, uncles, cousins and special friends Marv and Terri Leuten of Laquey.

A memorial scholarship fund has been established in Nelson’s name; donations may be left at the funeral home or with a family member.

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Springfield officer faces DWI, weapons charges in Pulaski County

Waynesville, MO

A Springfield police officer is charged with driving while intoxicated and leaving the scene of an accident in Pulaski County after a state trooper stopped him last month. The prosecutor formally charged Joseph Motte of Waynesville on Wednesday with DWI and two counts of careless and imprudent driving (all three are misdemeanors), and leaving the scene of an accident and two counts of possession of a firearm while intoxicated (all three of these are felonies).

Troopers said Motte did not stop his car after it struck an 18-wheeler as he entered I-44 late on Sept. 23. After traveling seven miles, Motte's car went off the road and struck a cable barrier.

Troopers said emergency workers found a whiskey flask and beer cans in the car. They also said he denied that he’d been in an accident after he was extricated from his car.

The Springfield Police Department started an internal affairs investigation after Officer Motte was cited on Sept. 23. After he was charged, Motte was put on paid administrative leave. Police Chief Lynn Rowe says he may be able to make a decision on Motte's future with the department next week. He said Motte would lose his state peace officer’s certificate if he’s convicted of a felony.

If convicted of the felonies, Motte could get up to four years in state prison and/or a fine up to $5,000 on each charge. For the misdemeanors, Motte could get up to six months in a county jail and/or up to a $500 fine for the DWI charge, and up to one year in a jail and/or up to a $1,000 fine for the C&I charges. Most people convicted of a first-time DWI don’t get the maximum penalty.

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