A Snohomish County Superior Court judge has ruled that a nearly four-year sentence handed out to a Marysville man for drinking offenses and probation violations “does not shock the conscience.”
Superior Court Judge Thomas Wynne refused to overturn District Court Judge Jay Wisman’s decision to jail John A. Wahleithner for four months shy of four years. Wahleithner’s attorney said the extreme length of the term is unconstitutional.
The eight-page written ruling disappointed public defender Brice Howard.
“The decision is on fairly narrow legal grounds,” Howard said. “There’s no rational way to say Judge Wisman’s sentence is fair when you compare it to other District Court probation violations for similar circumstances.”
Deputy prosecutor Charles Blackman agreed it was a “strict sentence, but it was not an unconstitutional one.” Wynne gave a careful and thorough decision that followed the law, he said.
Wahleithner’s predicament stems from a series of drunken driving convictions starting in 1999 and repeated failure to complete alcohol treatment.
In a 2001 case, Wahleithner also was charged with possession of marijuana and a hit-and-run accident, as well as drunken driving.
Wisman gave him a deferred prosecution on the 2001 case on the condition that Wahleithner receive intensive substance-abuse treatment. The deferred sentence was revoked in 2003 because the defendant did not complete required treatment.
The District Court judge later found that Wahleithner had not made any attempt to complete treatment. In September 2004, Wisman imposed the full term on all his offenses, the 44-month term.
Howard argued the term was disproportionate to what other judges would have handed out, and compared Wisman’s sentences to those of other District Court judges. Wisman consistently turned out to be a tough sentencing judge, according to Howard’s research.
But Wynne ruled that’s no reason to overturn him.
“No court has merely analyzed sentencing trends and required a cookie-cutter result by all sentencing judges,” Wynne wrote.
“We’re not asking for a cookie-cutter result, but when the sentence is 30 to 90 days versus over 1,300 days, it’s just shocking that it’s going to be OK,” Howard said. “This is nowhere near being just a little outside the norm.”
Blackman acknowledged Wynne’s decision was not easy, “but it was the right one. You just can’t blow off treatment if you’ve been convicted” three times of drunken driving.
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