A creative sentence for a fatal car accident is partially on hold. Aspen judge Erin Fernandez Ely had decided this spring to have Christine Tinner spend some of her community service doing something that would qualify restorative justice. There's a growing trend in Colorado to reintegrate perpetrators back into their communities and reduce the prison population. Ely decided Friday that Tinner should just volunteer at the Thrift Shop of Aspen for now, as the court and Pitkin County figure out how to define what Tinner should do to meet the restorative justice requirement.
Everyone will reconvene in August to nail that down. Tinner must do 360 hours community service, cannot drive for 2 years, and will be on probation for 5 years. Her sentence is for pleading guilty to two counts of careless driving causing injury or death. She says she fell asleep while driving last August, killing another driver and injuring the passenger in the other car.
Drivers with several DUI’s have garnered headlines in recent months, prompting the question, why can someone get caught for driving drunk multiple times, while Tinner is serving a tougher sentence for falling asleep at the wheel once. Tinner’s lawyer, Dan Shipp, is a prolific DUI attorney. He says it comes down to Colorado's requirements for punishing someone driving drunk. District Attorney Sherry Caloia agrees, explaining the laws this way: "There are those statutes which have mandatory sentencing. Such as for a DUI, if you’re over a 0.2 blood analysis, you are statutorily mandated to do 10 days. If it’s a 2nd DUI, it’s a 10 days sentence. If it’s a 3rd DUI, it’s a 60 day sentence.”
A judge can sentence more jail time, but it’s up to them. “Judges in the judicial districts and individual judges have their own sentencing scheme in their minds,” says Caloia. “And so whereas in one district you might get six months or a year in jail for a 5th or 6th DUI, in another you might get 60 days.”
Earlier this year, Judge Fernandez-Ely sentenced an Aspen woman to 90 days in jail for her fifth DUI. There were questions when the woman was caught less than two months later, driving after consuming alcohol.
“The statute on careless driving causing injury or death is a different animal,” continues Caloia. “It does allow for a year in jail, but again it’s going to be based on what each of the individual judges believe is appropriate.” She understands why people might be surprised by differences between the careless driving and DUI sentences. “I do think that our culture... wants DUIs to be harshly treated, because they are very serious crime…So yes, I can agree, that the minimums are probably not in line with what a lot of people feel is appropriate.”
DUI drivers will face stronger laws starting later this summer. Beginning in early August, drivers with a 4th DUI will get a felony conviction, which could mean longer jail sentences.
