Police caught him drunk driving five times! And you would think this man wouldn't be able to get back behind the wheel.
But ABC2 News Investigator Joce Sterman shows us how he's beaten the system in the past and why thousands just like him are on the road every day in Maryland.He was driving more than 100 miles per hour, swerving back and forth. That's how Christopher Kendall caught police attention in August.
But this Cecil County man caught our attention when cops told us this drunk driving arrest was his fifth.
The maximum punishment for your first DUI in Maryland is one year in jail. But court records show Kendall has never served anything close to that, getting just 21 days total so far.
We pulled his cases to find out why and found in the five times he's been arrested and charged with drunk driving since 2001, Kendall's consistently gotten deals.
He has pleaded guilty to lesser charges like driving while impaired or reckless driving, charges that come with smaller penalties. Former Baltimore prosecutor Page Croyder has a reason. She says, "The system doesn't look at them as criminals."
And Croyder would know. As a career prosecutor, she spent more than 20 years in Maryland courtrooms and now blogs about the legal system.
While she wasn’t involved in any of Kendall’s cases, she says in her experience, pleas in DUI cases are typical because many times it all comes down to a few simple breaths.
Croyder tells ABC2, "The lesser plea when you're talking about drunk driving mostly occurs because the person refuses the breathalyzer test. There's a big reward. Everybody in Maryland better refuse the breathalyzer test because the benefits outweigh the disadvantages."
Croyder believes the system has a lot of flaws and a mindset that needs to be changed because people who are repeatedly caught drinking and driving can get back behind the wheel over and over again.
