Fifth charge of DUI draws maximum sentence

Susan West was sentenced Monday to a year in jail for her newest drunken-driving conviction, but Judge Janet Garrow said that what she really wants is for West to recover from alcoholism.

"You're only 48 years old. There is still time to do this," said Garrow, a Bellevue District Court judge, as she ordered West to serve a year in jail and to pay a fine and other costs as part of the driving-under-the-influence sentence.

The sentence was the harshest possible for West under Washington state's DUI law, which makes the offense a misdemeanor punishable by a maximum of a year in jail and a $5,000 fine.

West pleaded guilty in 1997 to vehicular homicide after her car struck and killed pedestrian Mary Johnsen on the Sammamish Plateau.

West then had one of the highest blood-alcohol readings ever recorded in the state, 0.34 percent. She served six years in prison for Johnsen's death and was released three years ago.

She was arrested again in June when an officer pulled her vehicle over in the Newport Hills area of Bellevue. She refused a breath test, showed symptoms of being drunk and was found to have a suspended driver's license.

She pleaded guilty to the June DUI charge, her fifth, on Aug. 15 and the suspended-license charge was dropped.

Garrow said the sentence presented a difficult question about how the public welfare is best served. She said she wondered about West's judgment and ability to reform.

"Unfortunately, I think you'll have relapses along the way," the judge said.

Garrow said she was particularly troubled by West's decision to drive in June.

"I do appreciate the fact you've been candid," said the judge, explaining that West had told investigators she was driving because she went out to get cigarettes. "Yet you live so close, there was no absolute need to be behind the wheel. You made the decision to drive. I can't understand that you had to be behind the wheel."

After her release from prison, West moved to an apartment in Newport Hills a few blocks from the shopping-center parking lot where she was stopped by an officer.

Garrow also noted that West had "enough of your wits about you" to refuse to take a breath test, contradicting an argument that West was too drunk to know what she was doing.

"I certainly hope you get the assistance you need," the judge said.

West declined to address the judge, saying that her attorney had spoken for her.

The attorney, Cara Starr, said she is helping West arrange to be placed in an out-of-state treatment program after she has served her sentence. "She understands she needs to make changes," Starr said.

West could be released in as little as six months, with good behavior. She could legally get a driver's license in two years, Starr added, with the provision that she use an ignition-interlock device that measures whether a driver has been using alcohol and prevents a car from being started if alcohol is detected.

The judge also imposed a $5,000 fine, with $2,500 suspended, plus other costs and fees that brought the total to $4,795. West was allowed credit for 72 days time served.

A new law goes into effect in 2007 which allows for someone incurring five or more DUI convictions in 10 years to face having the fifth conviction treated as a felony, but West is not affected by that law, which becomes effective in July.

Peyton Whitely: 206-464-2259 or pwhitely@seattletimes.com