Washington Supreme Court in Olympia

Scott Winebrenner and Jesus Quezada were on deferred prosecutions in the City of Seattle for seperate DUI offenses.  Both committed and were sentenced on new DUI charges.  The Seattle Municipal Court judge revoked their deferred prosecutions and proceeded to sentencing. 

The Assistant City Attorney argued that the new DUIs should be considered “prior DUIs” for sentencing purposes on the old DUI, becaue the new charges occurred before the date of sentencing on the older charges.  As such, the City argued the defendant’s should be subject to the mandatory minimums for a 2nd DUI on the older charges.  However, if correct, this could potentially set up a situation were an individual is sentenced twice for a second offense. 

The issue for the Washington Supreme Court to decide was whether “prior offense” applies only to offenses that occurred before the current offense or whether “prior offense” includes all offenses the defendant has committed before sentencing. The Court ruled that the offense date is the relevant inquiry. A “prior” DUI is one that occurred prior to the date of the new offense.

To view entire opinion see: http://www.courts.wa.gov/opinions/pdf/812799.opn.pdf