Bizarre, Criminal law

Can You Guess What This Person Was Charged With?

13232435_gWell the question is what Clinton Todd Sproles, 54, was charged with 22 prior times . . .

You guessed it, DUI. This was his 23 DUI after his arrest in Butte, Montana.  We have previously discussed such serial DUI defendants.

In the world’s greatest understatement, Butte Sheriff Ed Lester observed “It doesn’t look like he’s getting any kind of a message to stop his behavior, that’s the concerning part. Anytime you’re racking up DUIs, that’s an amazing pace for anybody to set, so it’s deeply concerning that he’d be out driving with potentially 22 DUIs.”

His last felony DUI in Gallatin County was in 2008 and he was sentenced to 240 months in the Montana State Prison.  Some of his prior convictions were in Oklahoma.  Under 61-8-714, DUI arrests become felonies after the fourth conviction.

The question is how to handle people like Sproles who clearly have a dependency problem and yet are clearly putting others are serious risk.

What do you think?

46 thoughts on “Can You Guess What This Person Was Charged With?”

  1. He should long since have had his license to drive a car revoked for life and served severe prison time. Montana law’s an ass, especially in the hands of Montana’s judiciary.

    1. “Could’ve sentenced him to 10.512.000 minutes, just to make it a little clearer….. *g”

      Well of course that is much clearer. But it still leaves the question of why he was out and driving drunk after serving less than 4.7E6 minutes?

      What is society coming to if corrections personnel cannot count to 10 or 20 million to keep people safe?

  3. Can’t vehicles be impounded if one continues to drive after revocation?

  4. Squeeky, be extraordinarily careful what you wish for. Concentration Camps, like Civil Wars, have a way of developing a life of their own.

    Someone – who will NOT be you – will decide whether or not YOU are one of those “losers” or “f*ckups”. Today, maybe you’re not. But tomorrow, who knows? Don’t give anyone that power over you.

    I most surely, will NOT step willingly into a cattle car. And, I might not be around to blow up the tracks when they force you onto one.

    1. True. Things can get out of hand, but IMHO things are already out of hand. It is 2017, and in America, a first world nation, people in NYC for egs., have to get up and go to work, and come home to homeless druggies and trash pooping and tinkling in the streets and door stoops. And sleeping in the streets and cubby holes. If such a large portion of these people weren’t such losers and trash, then they could be helped very cheaply and easily to live in decent conditions. And I would be all for it.

      But, if you put a bunch of them in one spot, then the lousy 50% or so make it impossible for the other 50% or so to live decently. That is what happens to the low income housing projects. Sooo, there has to be some force used to keep the lot of them off drugs, and working at something to the best of their ability, which ability will probably increase a lot once they are off the sauce and the drugs.

      If these bums were living in SCOTUS’s neighborhoods, and crapping on their porches, then I bet the whole “derelict’s rights” issue would get some immediate revision. But, out of sight, out of mind.

      One problem is, that nobody expects the poor to do anything for us, and that is ridiculous.

      Squeeky Fromm
      Girl Reporter

      1. “One problem is, that nobody expects the poor to do anything for us, and that is ridiculous.”

        How true, how true. A bunch of ingrates. They have no appreciation at all for the 50% of makers letting them lay around all day being poor and homeless.

        Well, that kind of generosity has to end – off to the camps with them.

        The camps ought to be equipped with exercise stationary bicycles hooked up to electric generators so the inmates can generate electricity to earn food credits.

        1. Well, I wouldn’t go that far, but how about if you are poor, and need help from the gov’t, you:

          1. Stop taking illegal drugs;
          2. Stop drinking alcohol, particularly to excess;
          3. Quit having illegitimate kids, or even in-wedlock kids until either you, or you and your spouse can pay for them;
          4. Quit committing crimes, small and large;
          5. If you have children, make them behave and go to school;
          6. Take advantage of educational and employment benefits offered you;
          7. Be as thrifty as you reasonably can, and don’t waste money on HBO, Showtime, etc, hair weaves, tats, piercing, fast food unless cheap stuff like MacD’s;
          8. Try to eat healthy, and keep yourself and your surroundings clean;
          9. Be a decent person and try to get along with other people, including cops.

          Now, is that asking too much of poor people??? All of that is free, and easily doable.

          Squeeky Fromm
          Girl Reporter

  5. This is why America needs Concentration Camps. We need someplace to stick the perpetual losers, addicts, and general overall f*ckups of society. At the camp, they could be forced to do some kind of useful labor, like growing veggies, recycling garbage, tending stray cats and dogs. Part of their “pay” would go to upkeep, and they could keep a portion to buy personal items, like TVs, radios, computers, books, tin foil, etc. You could even build it to where they each have their own little “tiny house”, say 12×24 and a small yard. All behind a barbed wire fence. And, NO BOOZE and NO DRUGS.

    There could be a weekly visiting day, and of course, no “ovens.” But people who can not handle freedom, and pose a risk to others need to be segregated from society at large. We used to stick them in mental hospitals, but courts decided that these losers needed to run free among us.

    Squeeky Fromm
    Girl Reporter

    1. ” All behind a barbed wire fence. And, NO BOOZE and NO DRUGS”

      If you are going to go to the trouble of locking them away from the rest of us, so they cannot do any harm, why not allow them to buy the booze and drugs out of their work credits?

      That way they will want to stay in not break out.

      2. No. I’m not. I am a realist. There is a big problem with losers, and screw-ups, and trash, and the problem will not cure itself. I suspect if you came home to find a druggie crapping in your back yard, and needles all over the yard, and around your offspring, assuming you have any, then I suspect that you would rapidly become a realist, too.

        Squeeky Fromm
        Girl Reporter

  6. “The question is how to handle people like Sproles who clearly have a dependency problem and yet are clearly putting others are serious risk.”

    You revoke their license, and if they drive drunk without a license they go to jail. I think that’s the only way to protect the public from an addict who will not stop driving drunk.

    A drunk driver is like an unguided missile, on the road with all of us, families, kids, grandmothers, work commuters…I have a photo on my wall of a teenager who died 2 weeks before his 18th birthday from a drunk driver. He was a golden child, one of those people whom everybody loved and was drawn to, very kind hearted. He’s gone forever and had no future, no wife, no kids, no grandkids…all because of a hideously selfish drunk driver who had killed his own girlfriend driving drunk the year before. The family never got over his loss, and will never get over it. It’s like an amputation that has scarred, but it is still gone.

    There are alcoholics, and there are alcoholic drunk drivers. The latter is a public menace incapable and unwilling to call a cab, let alone dry up. Their decision processing center is completely offline. They make decisions that make absolutely no sense. Like the frog and the scorpion, you have to anticipate someone’s character flaws will influence their decisions, even when it is self destructive and defies logic.

    1. Hope that you’re willing to tell that little nugget of wisdom to the family members of his victims. Not potential victims–there’s no question about it–victims. He WILL injure, maim or kill someone, or, some individuals, unless he is off the road. It’s a given. The only mystery is why it hasn’t happened up until now. Are you willing to be so flippant with someone, doomed to a life of misery as a paraplegic, because some judge decided to ignore this idiot’s behavior and continue to give him chances? Are you willing to say that granting one more chance, at this stage of the game, was no biggie to the family members of someone he killed on the road?

      1. I’m sure slohrss29 was being sarcastic about the absurd number of times this guy has been allowed to repeat his offense and still walk free.

        Clearly, either the law has a significant hole, or the law is not being applied in MT.

  9. If the decision regarding this booze hound’s fate includes allowing him to freely walk the streets with the rest of us, wouldn’t something as simple as requiring that an ignition interlock device be installed, on any vehicles registered to him, go a long way in preventing this waste of oxygen from ever getting behind the wheel of a deadly weapon and driving intoxicated? If that hasn’t happened up until now, my only question is, WHY? Obviously, after that number of arrests, he doesn’t get the severity or magnitude of his continued crimes and, if I were a betting man, he never will. There’s a disconnect. Not to make fun of his appearance, but he doesn’t appear to be working with a full deck. He looks, shall I day, OFF. While prison seems like the wrong place for such a doofus, sometimes prison is the only way to guarantee that a moron like this, hell-bent on continuing to driver drunk, doesn’t take out a family of five on the highway. It’s a serious public safety issue. He is a constant and persistent threat to the lives of others in the community. The court–whichever one he appears before–should also demand that this individual wear a device, around his ankle, which detects and alerts authorities as to the presence of alcohol in his system. It’s only by the grace of God that he has, somehow, managed to avoid killing others on the road. A miracle.

    2. Bam Bam – great point. Why didn’t he have an ignition breathalyzer yet? Or did he but he was borrowing cars? And Holy Cats, why not call a dang Uber???

  10. Maybe confiscate his car. If he gets another, take that too. Is he independently wealthy? This guy needs an intervention.

  13. Well I suppose he’d go back and serve the rest of his sentence….hard to believe a drink would be worth another 10+ years back in prison….

  14. Clearly you have an alcoholic who is not coming to grips with his crime. On the other hand, there is almost nothing to do in Butte except drink.

    1. Or hunt, fish, boat, ski, dogsled, toboggan, snowmobile, hike, mountain climb, yodel, take photos, paint, write, binge watch Outlander, take a survivalist camping course, regular camping, RV (but not on mountain roads. My God, RV’s on twisting mountain roads…), ride horses, drive horses, team penning, cattle ranching, fix fences, rope, go antiquing…

      If he’s just bored I would be happy to make a list for him to do that will make him so tired he won’t have any energy left to go anywhere, let alone to a bar.

      1. Karen – have you ever been to Butte (a.k.a. the armpit of Montana).

        1. Paul S., I would guess that she has not. I have. I’m with you on this one.

        2. No, just Missoula and the surrounding area. Loved it. Surely it cannot be that bad?

          1. Yes, it surely can. It’s a blue collar mining town where the mine closed down decades ago, and little has grown up to replace it.

          2. Karen – Butte was the wealthiest hill in the world (copper) with hundreds of mines running through it. The copper ore was shipped next door to Anaconda, where they used a process of smelting it which would make the EPA cry. They would lay out a timber, a layer of copper ore, a layer of timer, a layer of ore, etc. Then they would set it afire. The byproduct of this process is arsenic, which entered the air other both Anaconda and Butte, then fell to the ground and killed anything that lived. When I was there in 1961, there was nothing green living in the city. And last I heard, if you wanted something to grow, you needed to import both the dirt and the plants.

            On top of that, the mines run underneath Butte and the streets periodically fall into the mines.

              1. Porkchop – talked to friends from Montana last week and they have children (adult) living in Butte. Supposedly, they are working on cleaning up the Berkeley Pit with some Superfund monies. I was there in 2000 and it was a fenced off mess. I did hear they are still working a few of the mines. BTW, they closed down the Brothel Museum. 😉

                1. First, they closed down the brothels, then they closed down the Brothel Museum. What’s next?

                  Actually, a college fraternity brother of mine (a mining engineer) is (or was) part of the current mining operations. Apparently, thar’s still gold in them thar hills.

                  1. Porkchop – I suppose the Butte School of Mines is still active.

            2. Oh, that’s too bad. I have heard of some very serious effects of many different types of mines that you wouldn’t expect to find in otherwise lovely areas. I hope Butte recovers.

      1. Woosty – the Berkeley Pit is a cesspool of poison. It is like seeing a disaster in motion. They are clearing it up with SuperFunds.

    3. On the other hand, there is almost nothing to do in Butte except drink.

      1. Personal income per capita in Silver Bow County is about 8% below national means (and about 15% higher than is typical of counties completely outside metropolitan commuter belts). That’s adequate.

      2. About 72% of personal income in that county consists of earnings. That’s higher than national means (wherein the share attributable to earnings is around 63%). If there’s nothing to do, why are they earning at rates exceeding national means?

      3. Regarding earnings, about 17% is attributable to extractive industries, about 3.5% to construction, about 4% to manufacturing, about 3% to wholesale trade, about 6.5% to retail trade; about 2% to finance and insurance, about 4.5% to real estate, about 4.5% to miscellaneous professional services, about 16% to health care and social assistance, about 3% to accommodation and food service, about 16% to government services, and about 20% undifferentiated. Apparently, they do things there other than drink.

      4. The ratio of private-sector employment to the population over the age of 15 is 0.49, just a shade lower than the national mean.

      1. dds – when you are finished with work, what is there to do. For instance, I have two 20 screen multi-plexes within 5 miles of me and a live theatre within 8. I have over 40 places to eat within 10 miles. What is there to do in Butte? Butte is a dying community.

  15. “His last felony DUI in Gallatin County was in 2008 and he was sentenced to 240 months in the Montana State Prison. … The question is how to handle people like Sproles who clearly have a dependency problem and yet are clearly putting others are serious risk. ”

    So, are these dog months, or what? Maybe, the question is how to find prisons that can count to 240.

    1. LOL! BFM. I had similar thought and then wondered why they specified 240 months over simply saying 20 years. I’ve really never understood sentencing guidelines but maybe this implies he’s eligible for parole far sooner than usual.

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