O'Flaherty Aims to Keep OUI Punishment Sharp

According to Massachusetts law, a driver convicted with drunk driving five times loses his license for life—and Charlestown State Rep. Eugene O’Flaherty would like it to stay that way.

The standard recently shifted as a result of a Supreme Judicial Court ruling that said that a “continuance without finding” doesn’t count as a conviction. That’s how courts record the verdict for most first time offenders who attend an educational program in lieu of the prescribed one-year suspension.

According to the Boston Herald, the ruling “could mean more than 30,000 court cases since 2008 would no longer be considered a ‘first offense’ for license suspension purposes by the Registry of Motor Vehicles.”

But O’Flaherty, in cooperation with Attorney General Martha Coakley and State Sen. Katherine Clark (D-Melrose), are working to amend the state’s law to continue counting those cases toward increasingly-harsh license suspensions.

The trio want to change the definition of “conviction” to include anyone who admits that their case includes sufficient facts to find them guilty.

Clark attached her amendment to the Senate budget last week, according to the Herald, while O’Flaherty told the Herald that he planned to introduce the measure to his colleagues the house.