Former Neillsville Man Has Drunken Driving Charge Overturned
Friday, March 29th, 2013 -- 11:37 AM
-A former Neillsville man has had a drunken driving charged overturned.Back in 1996, Rex Potts, who now lives in Sparta, was convicted with a first offense OWI.
Now, a District 4 Court of Appeals has overturned that judgment because he was charged with a county civil offense instead of a state criminal statute. The man had two prior OWI convictions in Massachusetts in 1989 and 1993.
Jude Paul Higginbotham, who overturned the charge, wrote, ?Potts? prior convictions in Massachusetts should have been counted for purposes of determining the proper charge under which to prosecute Potts for OWI in Wisconsin for the 1996 offense and that the prior OWI convictions in Massachusetts prevented the circuit court here from trying Potts for first offense OWI under Clark County?s OWI ordinance.?
This appeal had come about after Potts? attorney had found out about the Massachusetts convictions as he was preparing to defend Potts in Monroe County on several other OWI charges.
Judge Higginbotham denied a request from Assistant District Attorney Richard Lewis to uphold the Clark County convictions, as Potts? didn?t disclose that he had prior convictions and the prosecution made an excellent effort to find out if he did.
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