He's not an Illinois DUI lawyer, but personal injury attorney Timothy Winfield probably knew enough about drunk-driving laws to expect a harsher sentence this time. He was sentenced to 30 days in jail and must wear an alcohol-monitoring ankle bracelet after his fifth DUI arrest, as reported by the American Bar Association Journal.
While this was only his second actual conviction for a DUI, the first was in 1991, the November 2005 accident resulted in the serious injuries of another motorist and could have led to a much stiffer sentence.
He ran a red light while over the legal limit and hit a Dodge Caravan, propelling it 100 feet, resulting in the driver's broken pelvis. The 18-year-old driver also suffered a severed tendon in her hand, bruised kidneys and shards of glass embedded in her face, according to the Chicago Daily Herald.
She also had burns on her neck caused by her seat belt, which likely was better than if she had not been wearing a seat belt at all.
Timothy Winfield apologized to the victim and her family in exchange for prosecutor's promise not to seek more than a three-year jail sentence. He could have been sentenced to as much as 12 years in the big house.
In addition to the 30-day jail sentence and the requirement of wearing a SCRAM alcohol-monitoring ankle bracelet (made famous by Lindsay Lohan, as this blog has reported); he will serve another four months in DuPage County's work-release program, serve 30 months of probation, perform 150 hours of community service and continue a counseling program.
Calling his record of multiple DUI arrests "a road map to disaster," prosecutor Michael O'Donnell argued for the stiffer but still lenient three-year jail term:
"The system failed in this case. Mr. Winfield should not have been legally behind the wheel in 2005. A split second either way and we could be talking about something far more serious."
Related Resources:
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DUI - Sentencing (FindLaw)
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Call a Chicago DUI Lawyer (FindLaw)
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Ankle Monitors for Some DUI Offenders (FindLaw's KnowledgeBase)
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