DUI bill clarifies the use of 'pleas in abeyance'

Is it a free ride for DUI offenders or a tool to entice drunken drivers to correct destructive behavior?

Discussion about the harm or merit of the so-called "plea in abeyance" continued Thursday as a legislative committee voted to support a new bill that clarifies the practice as an option for sentencing Utah's 14,000 drunken drivers each year.

Sen. Carlene Walker, R-Salt Lake City, has been fighting for tough and workable DUI legislation for four years, and discussion over SB20 has been one of her biggest battles.

"I really am passionate about this," she told colleagues on the Senate Transportation Interim Committee. "We're taking baby steps every year on DUI."

The bill provides numerous safeguards so a person with a DUI conviction that is dismissed because of a plea in abeyance can't slip through the cracks if he reoffends later.

As a matter of public policy, the "plea in abeyance" is a sticky subject that has generated a lot of feedback to Paul Boyden, who represents the state's prosecutors. Prosecutors, DUI activists, court officials, local governments, treatment providers and others have a stake in the issue.

"This has not been an easy bill," said Anna Kay Waddoups, chairwoman of a state subcommittee on DUI issues.

In a situation where a plea in abeyance is offered, an offender's guilty plea is in "abeyance" until the offender completes a series of court-ordered requirements. A drunken driving charge can essentially be dismissed in exchange for completing a supervised treatment programs designed to change a person's behavior.

Most of these stipulations require an offender to pay for the program, submit to frequent monitoring and blood tests and attend counseling. They are practiced regularly in DUI courts in Taylorsville, Holladay and Davis County.

And new research shows these programs work. Waddoups, the wife of Sen. Majority Leader Mike Waddoups, R-Taylorsville, she was hit by a drunken driver herself three years ago.

Many agree DUI treatment and drug courts seem to be working, but there are mixed sentiments about whether a plea in abeyance is necessary to entice offenders into the programs. "The issue is should we give DUI offenders a free pass so to speak," Boyden said last week.

An effort to get the issue on the table last year failed when prosecutors couldn't agree on specifics.