{"id":9830,"date":"2014-01-09T15:46:20","date_gmt":"2014-01-09T20:46:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/?p=9830"},"modified":"2014-01-09T15:46:20","modified_gmt":"2014-01-09T20:46:20","slug":"11-time-drunk-driver-gets-maximum-sentence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/?p=9830","title":{"rendered":"11-time drunk-driver gets maximum sentence"},"content":{"rendered":"

Judge agrees with prosecutor that public needs to be protected<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

By Kathleen Brady Shea<\/span><\/strong>, Managing Editor, The Times<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\"Unknown\"<\/a>In the Chester County annals of gambling, a 51-year-old Devon man specialized in Russian roulette, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n

In arguing for a maximum drunken-driving sentence, Deputy District Attorney Carlos Barraza said Douglas C. Gibboney had been putting county citizens at risk for more than a quarter-century. Every time Gibboney got behind the wheel intoxicated \u201che was gambling that this would not be the time that there would be a bullet in the chamber, putting all other drivers in danger,\u201d Barraza wrote in a sentencing memorandum.<\/p>\n

Gibboney stood before Chester County Court Judge Phyllis R. Streitel on Thursday, Jan. 9, for sentencing after pleading guilty to his 11th<\/sup> DUI and his 13th<\/sup> conviction for driving with a DUI-related license suspension. His first conviction occurred in 1987, when he entered the county\u2019s Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition (ARD) program, court records said.<\/p>\n

Since then, court records show a string of DUI convictions stretching from Tredyffrin to North Coventry to Sadsbury Townships. Streitel said she was particularly troubled by Gibboney\u2019s 10-page record of driving infractions. Besides ignoring his license suspensions, Gibboney racked up citations for speeding, blowing red lights, failing to yield, and improper turns, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cCriminally, your record is horrible; you have completely not gotten the message,\u201d Streitel said, imposing a combined maximum penalty of five to 10 years for both offenses plus a mandatory $5,000 fine.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019ve never had anyone in here who\u2019s on their 11th<\/sup> DUI.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barraza had recommended the five- to 10-year sentence. He said Gibboney\u2019s latest offense occurred the day he had agreed to turn himself in at Chester County Prison to begin a three- to 10-year sentence for his 10th<\/sup> DUI. Barraza said Chester County Court Senior Judge Ronald C. Nagle had generously given Gibboney a delayed report date, apparently after hearing that Gibboney had experienced the back-to-back deaths of his parents followed by two bosses within the previous month.<\/p>\n

Gibboney responded to that \u201cgift\u201d by driving on U.S. 30 in Sadsbury Township on Feb. 15 with a blood-alcohol level of 0.172, more than twice the legal limit, Barrazza said.<\/p>\n

Assistant Public Defender Kelly Ann Thompson suggested that while she understood that Gibboney had earned a sentence in the aggravated range, she felt that 21 months for drunken driving and 19 months for driving with a DUI-related license suspension would be sufficient, explaining that Gibboney was taking steps to address his chronic abuse problem.<\/p>\n

Speaking in his own behalf, Gibboney, who served in the Air Force from 1984 to 1987, said he was attempting to figure out the root of the problem through a prison program.\u00a0 He said he worked for a paving company since 1994 after losing his commercial driver\u2019s license \u2013 and the job that required it.\u00a0 \u201cI know my history looks real bad because it is,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Gibboney told the judge that he had already succeeded in quitting smoking, which demonstrates that he can change his behavior.\u00a0\u00a0 He said the day he was stopped in Sadsbury, he was going to visit his estranged adult son.<\/p>\n

Streitel said she saw \u201ca glimmer of hope\u201d that Gibboney could turn his life around, but in the meantime, the public needs to be protected. The judge said she couldn\u2019t rely on the fact that Gibboney\u2019s license is suspended until he\u2019s 80 because he has routinely ignored the prohibition against his driving.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve just been an abject failure in curbing your criminal behavior,\u201d the judge said, adding that Gibboney showed he \u201cdid not care about the law or about the risk of killing or maiming an innocent person.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Judge agrees with prosecutor that public needs to be protected By Kathleen Brady Shea, Managing Editor, The Times In the Chester County annals of gambling, a 51-year-old Devon man specialized in Russian roulette, prosecutors said. In arguing for a maximum drunken-driving sentence, Deputy District Attorney Carlos Barraza said Douglas C. Gibboney had been putting county […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":9831,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[1477,3446,3444,3445,870],"class_list":["post-9830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-featured","tag-chester-county-court-judge-phyllis-r-streitel","tag-chester-county-court-senior-judge-ronald-c-nagle","tag-deputy-district-attorney-carlos-barraza","tag-douglas-c-gibboney","tag-sadsbury-township"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9830"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9830\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9832,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9830\/revisions\/9832"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}