By Shereen Siewert
WAUSAU — A 45-year-old Wausau man convicted of his fifth drunken driving charge striking a woman twice with his driver’s side mirror will avoid a three-year prison sentence if he successfully completes three years probation.
Jerrod Laporte was sentenced Friday in Marathon County Circuit Court after pleading guilty to the felony drunken driving charge. Circuit Judge Greg Huber sentenced Laporte to three years in prison followed by three years probation, but imposed and stayed the sentence for a three-year probation term. That means Lapoerte can avoid prison time if he is follows the rules of his probation but can be sent to prison if he fails to do so.
According to the criminal complaint, police were called around 9:15 a.m. on March 31, 2018 to the Suds Your Duds laundromat on N. Sixth Street in Wausau after a woman reported she was loading her son into the back seat of her vehicle when the driver in the vehicle next to her backed up and hit her in the back with his mirror.
When the woman asked the driver what he was doing, he said he was simply trying to give her some room, court documents show. He then stepped on the gas, moving his vehicle back into the space and hitting the woman in the back a second time, according to the police report.
That’s when the driver, later identified as Laporte, backed out of his space completely and left the parking lot, police said. The niece of the woman who was struck took down the man’s license plate number, which led officers to the Laporte’s Chicago Avenue home, according to court documents.
When police arrived, they found Laporte lying on the couch drinking from a half-empty can of beer, court documents state. Laporte told officers he had just started drinking, but when he tried to rise from the couch, he swayed back and forth and nearly fell, police said.
Laporte’s prior OWI convictions were in 1993, 1996, and twice in 2008, court records show.
At sentencing, Judge Huber ]ordered Laporte to spend 12 months in the Marathon County Jail as part of the terms of his plea agreement, but stayed three months of that sentence for potential rule violations while imposing a fine of $2,452, according to court records. Laporte must also comply with alcohol treatment court rules and maintain absolute sobriety.
