A
austinvm
Guest
Good morning, A few months ago my ex wife who lives in New York and is licensed in New York received a DUI charge in Pennsylvania. She has 2 prior charges not in Pennsylvania that occured 7 - 8 years ago. She submitted to a blood test and the BAC was .29 ( I know, very high). She admitted she was drinking to the police officer and from what I have seen, has no way of getting out of it. She obtained a public defender and he told her that because she had no charge within the 7 year period that the penalty would be a misdemeanor, she would lose her driving priviledges in PA for 1 year, also probably 1 year in New York as well. According to the public defender and another attorney I spoke with, their is a mandatory 48 hour jail sentence for a first offence in PA. My question is this: She was shown a plea agreement by the Public Defender that said that the jail sentence would be 48 hours to 30 days. He said he talked with the District Attorney and because of her 2 priors and high blood content, the DA felt she should spend more time than 48 hours. Of course the judge will make the ruling and the public defender said he would fight for the minimum, but should she sign that document? My thought would be to tell the Public Defender to take the 48 hours - 30 days off and just put 48 hours, and offer a plea of guilty. If that is not agreeable, suggest that if this does not occur, she will plead not guilty. Another attorney said he had never heard of anyone getting a sentence longer than 48 hours in PA for a first offense reguardless of priors as long as they were outside of the 7 year period which hers were. Maybe I'm making too much of this, but it seems to me if the law is 48 hours, why sign a dicument consenting up to 30 days? I'm sure they don't want to go to trial on this and take up the courts time, so I would think the DA woiuld go along with this. Any thoughts would be very much appreciated. She is scheduled to plea in 10 days. Thank you in advance for your response. Regards, Vohn Austin