DEPARTMENT OF MOTOR VEHICLES (guide)

The Nevada DMV will start charging a fee for motorists applying for their instructional permit or driving license.

Credit: Marinij.com - When a Novato man with at least a dozen DUI and speeding convictions was charged with killing a girl on his motorcycle last week, residents throughout Marin wondered the same thing: Why was he still allowed to drive?Answer: There was no law stopping him.

“There is no such thing as permanent (license) revocation,” said Jan Mendoza, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Motor Vehicles. “The longest you have it revoked is five years.”

Despite a long history of drunken and dangerous driving, Edward Schaefer was a duly licensed California motorist when he allegedly plowed his motorcycle into a Novato girl and her father May 27 on San Marin Drive.

Melody Osheroff, 9, was killed; Aaron Osheroff, 41, lost one leg and could lose the other; and Schaefer, 43, had an alleged blood-alcohol level of twice the legal limit for driving.

Although Schaefer’s criminal case is still in its early stages, the incident has already raised questions about the state of DUI laws in California.

“If you check the Department of Motor Vehicle records, he is listed as a valid driver,” said District Attorney Ed Berberian. “Whether he should have a license is a different issue, and, obviously, based on his record, no, he should not be licensed to drive.”

Prosecutors are still reviewing Schaefer’s legal history and prison terms - and many of the old records are difficult to track down - but the initial indications are that Schaefer’s prior DUIs were spaced out just enough to keep him

licensed under the contemporary laws, Berberian said.- On Oct. 11, 1990, Schaefer was convicted of two related DUI counts in Marin, receiving six months in jail on one count and 30 days concurrent in the other, according to the district attorney’s office. In addition to five years of probation and other terms, Schaefer had his license suspended for four years.

Court records indicate Schaefer had three DUIs on his record even before 1990, although one was purged, possibly because Schaefer was a juvenile at the time, Berberian said.

- On Aug. 13, 1991, Schaefer was convicted of another DUI in Marin. Prosecutors are still looking for the court file to determine whether his license was suspended again and what his sentence was.

- On Nov. 6, 1995, Schaefer received another DUI conviction in Marin. He was sentenced to 120 days in jail and had his license suspended another three years.

- On March 14, 2000, Schaefer was charged in another DUI case, this time in Sonoma County. Prosecutors elected to plead the case down to a so-called “wet reckless” charge, or reckless driving while intoxicated.

Spencer Brady, a leading prosecutor in Sonoma County, said the misdemeanor case file has been purged per office policy, so he could not comment on the reasoning behind the plea arrangement. But as a general rule, he said, prosecutors offer a “wet reckless” plea when there are “problems with proof,” such as proving the suspect was actually the driver of the vehicle.

Nonetheless, Schaefer still received a 30-day jail sentence, which Brady said is more than the typical wet reckless case. Brady also said a wet reckless plea counts as a prior DUI conviction in future drunken driving cases.

- On Sept. 27, 2003, Schaefer was arrested on DUI allegations in Reno, Nev., after a police officer watched him make an improper left turn on a 2003 Harley-Davidson.

“He made a very wide turn and drove up onto the sidewalk,” said Reno police spokesman Steve Frady.

Schaefer had bloodshot eyes, slurry speech and a half-consumed bottle of Smirnoff vodka in his right-front pocket. A breath test administered at the scene showed a blood-alcohol level of .215 percent, or nearly three times the legal limit, Frady said.

Schaefer, who was released from jail the next day, was convicted of DUI on Jan. 14, 2004, according to court records. Frady said the DUI was listed as a first-time offense in Nevada.

Despite that conviction, Schaefer’s license was renewed in California in February 2007. It was not due to expire until March 2012.

Mendoza, the DMV spokeswoman, said Nevada reports DUI convictions into a national database, and California considers those convictions when reviewing license applications.

But the point is moot in Schaefer’s case, because Nevada did not start reporting to the national database until 2005 - 11 months after Schaefer’s DUI conviction in Reno.

“The Nevada conviction is not showing on his California driving record because it was 2004,” Mendoza said.

As for Schaefer’s other California DUIs, the state purges convictions from a driver’s record after 10 years. So Schaefer’s convictions in 1990, 1991 and 1995 would have had no bearing on his license renewal in 2007.

“It’s like your credit report,” Mendoza said. “It gets cleared.”

Under current law, a first-time DUI conviction brings a four-month license suspension, a second conviction within 10 years means a one-year suspension, and additional convictions in the 10-year window result in suspensions of three to five years, Mendoza said.

Repeat offenders also have to use, for certain periods, ignition locking devices that test the driver’s breath for alcohol. But the devices can easily be defeated by having someone else blow into them.

Assemblyman Jared Huffman, who has a 9-year-old daughter, said he was “horrified” by the Melody Osheroff case and will look at legislative options.

“This story motivates me and my staff to redouble our efforts and to look into whether there are changes in the law that can better address the problem of getting these serial DUI offenders off the road,” said Huffman, D-San Rafael.

Huffman’s legislative director, Lawrence Cooper, noted certain obstacles to tougher DUI laws, however.

One hurdle is that the budget crisis has many legislators looking to reduce prison overcrowding, not increase it, so longer prison sentences are a difficult sell in Sacramento.

Another problem is that adding costly fees, fines and rehabilitation demands to DUI sentences only encourages offenders to drive without licenses, Cooper said. He said the DMV told him only 18 percent of repeat offenders complete expensive court-ordered rehabilitation programs.

“Giving someone a lifetime ban - the reality is, they’re going to drive anyway,” Cooper said. “And then they’re driving uninsured.”

In any case, Schaefer’s criminal history suggests a contempt for more than just DUI laws.

Court records show 18 criminal cases since 1984 in Marin County alone, including resisting arrest, theft, vandalism, battery and providing false information to police.

He also received four speeding tickets between November 2007 and January 2009, but they were not enough accumulated points for a license suspension, the DMV said.

“Additionally, Schaefer has a history of failing to appear in court for appearances on criminal charges,” Novato police Officer Nicholas Frey said in a bail affidavit filed last week.

Schaefer was also sentenced to a four-year prison term in February 2005 for felony domestic violence. He was released on March 21, 2008, said Araceli Guerrero, a spokeswoman for the state prisons department.

Guerrero did not know why Schaefer was released before the four years were up, but defendants routinely receive credit for work time, good behavior and the time they spent in county jail while the case was being adjudicated.

Schaefer’s long criminal history - punctuated by his extended middle finger in court Tuesday - suggests that a suspended driver’s license would probably not have deterred him from getting on his motorcycle the night Melody Osheroff and her father were struck, Berberian said.

“Someone with this type of attitude toward driving and the inability to control his alcohol consumption, the fact of a piece of paper would probably not have stopped him from driving,” he said.

Schaefer could face 17 years to life in prison if convicted of second-degree murder and other counts in the Osheroff case. He plans to plead not guilty at his next hearing on June 19, Deputy Public Defender Michael Schroettner said.