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Theresa Stanley
& David Brown
On March 3, 2001, our 22 year old daughter Theresa Marie Stanley and her boyfriend David Brown of Wauconda, Illinois were helping a friend move to Wisconsin. They were struck and killed by a drunk driver who was driving the wrong way on a four-lane divided highway near Wausau, Wisconsin. The drunk driver was also killed in the collision. His blood alcohol level was .312, over three times the legal limit of .1 percent.

The drunk driver’s court record showed 14 citations for various offenses in the last nine years. Between June of 1998 and October of 1999 he received 8 citations. He was arrested twice for drunk driving, twice for driving on a suspended or revoked license and once for a hit and run accident during that 16 month time period. His license was revoked for one year in April of 2000 and he was placed on one year of probation because of the October 1999 hit and run accident. His license was reinstated by Court order two months later. In September of 2000, he violated the no-drug, no-alcohol conditions of his probation. Instead of revoking his license and placing him in custody for probation violation, he was placed on a home sobriety tester for three months and allowed to keep his driver’s license. At the time of the accident, which occurred within the original one-year revocation period, he was again drunk and driving on a valid driver’s license.

The tavern owner that served him enough alcohol to raise his blood alcohol to .312 and then allowed him to drive away in his truck and kill two people cannot be prosecuted because Wisconsin currently has no dram shop laws holding them responsible for the behavior of their patrons. If the tavern owner could be located, under current law he could receive a maximum fine of $500.


WHO TO WRITE TO AND SUGGESTED REQUESTS

WISCONSIN STATE LEGISLATORS
  • Please lower the legal alcohol limit to .08 and impose stiffer penalties on repeat drunk drivers
  • Please pass dram shop laws to hold those who serve intoxicated people accountable for their actions
  • Please require the installation of immobilization devices in vehicles of convicted drunk drivers to insure that they stay off the roads

COURT OFFICIALS
  • Please take drunk driving more seriously and impose stiffer penalties
  • Please do not show leniency to repeat offenders at the expense of innocent lives

MEDIA

  • State the facts surrounding the accident and ask the public to write their legislators to change the laws regarding drunk driving and serving alcohol to intoxicated people