12/28/09 Bend
By Doug Johnson
Fifty-eight-year-old Lauren Wells appeared before a Deschutes County Judge Monday afternoon with a broken nose, and several bruises on her face, after she was released from the hospital and sent to jail for drunk driving. Wells fled from police at Eighth Street and Franklin Avenue to Reed Market Road and Paiute Drive, Friday afternoon. At one point driving down a dead end road blocked in by officers, she backed up over the hood of one of the patrol cars to turn around. Officers used spike strips on her truck. But Wells continued on to hit a vehicle containing three Bend residents who sustained minor injuries. Finally she was taken into custody at Reed Market Road and then taken to St. Charles Medical Center. No officers were hurt.
Monday Well's bail was set at one hundred thousand dollars. If she's released, she's ordered not to drink any alcohol, must wear an alcohol monitoring system, and is not allowed to drive. Monday's incident was not Well's first DUII arrest. Last April, she almost ran over an inmate work crew on Alfalfa Market Road. Wells has two convictions in Coos County one for Hit and Run in 2007, one for DUII in 2006. Back then, she enrolled in a diversion program, and received treatment. Treatment professionals say diversion programs might not work for repeat offenders who've had drinking problems for years.
"Someone will come in and if they've had a ten year alcohol issue, 20 year alcohol issue, three months does not necessarily get them where they need to be," says Sally Pfeifer with Pfeifer and Associates.
To combat repeat offenders, law makers have passed a new Oregon law. Starting in 2010, it will bring higher fines to DUII drivers based on how high their blood alcohol level is. However some treatment professionals, like Pfeifer, believe higher fines aren't the answer.
"Actually, that money should go towards further treatment, and they should possibly be in treatment longer, with a higher BAC level, and capable of driving a car at that level," Pfeifer says.
After three DUIIs, a person could lose their drivers license for life. The maximum penalty is 5 years in prison and a $100,000 fine.
Comments
Pfiefer
Sally Pfiefer and her associates are leaches. They will bill you for class even if your not enrolled then milk the state for money. She wont even answer the phone if you try to talk to her. Her statement " That money should go to further treatment" Simply means,, "That money could be going into my pocket" What a state subsidized racket !!
Stupid Lady
It is people like Lauren Wells that make it hard for people like me that have learned by their mistakes and have been sober for over five years. I just don't understand how she even got her license back after the second DUII. I know that what I have done in my past is wrong but feel that I should not be condemned by it. I feel that the people that have really taken their mistakes seriously and have changed their lives should be reevaluated and given another chance to prove they have changed. There are ways to do this.