Man
sentenced for using fake ID to evade 5th DUI
By Greg Boyles
February 20, 2009 | LOGAN -
Kirk Patrick Mata-Vaquera, 32, was sentenced to nine
months in the Cache County Jail Tuesday morning in 1st
District Court. He pleaded guilty to forgery charges,
for presenting a false ID to a police officer in December
in hopes of avoiding his fifth DUI.
Judge Kevin Allen held out the possibility of early
release if Mata-Vaquera completes his GED and begins
attending AA meetings regularly.
"If you do these things I'll
consider letting you out after six months, but if you
don't, you'll stay in jail," Allen said.
Allen also said Mata-Vaquera must
pay over $2,200 in recoupment and fines.
The recommendation presented by the
state was to have Mata-Vaquera serve nine months in
the Cache County Jail; however, his attorney, Bryan
Galloway, asked the judge to reconsider.
"This recommendation is a little
higher than I expected," Galloway said. "I'm going to
ask that my client only have to serve 90 days of incarceration
with some work diversion."
While Judge Allen said he feels that
Mata-Vaquera is a decent man, the fact that he used
someone else's identity to avoid an additional DUI,
in addition to the amount of DUI's is in need of harsher
punishment.
"I think the recommendation
is too light," Allen said regarding the proposed 90
days in jail. "I see that you (Mata-Vaquera) have four
DUI's, and were intending to use the fake ID to avoid
a possible fifth DUI. This is very unnerving to me.
The possibility of tragedy a DUI brings into someone's
life, including your own, is very high, and I have no
tolerance for it."
Upon his arrest in December, Mata-Vaquera
was also suspected of possession of a forgery writing
device, a third-degree felony, false personal information
to a police officer, a class A misdemeanor, and driving
without a drivers license, a class C misdemeanor. All
of these charges were dismissed at Mata-Vaquera's first
hearing on Jan. 6.
This is not the first time Mata-Vaquera
has been in trouble for forgery and illegal involvement
with drugs or alcohol. In 2000 he was arrested for two
counts of distributing a controlled substance. He was
arrested again in 2001 for giving false personal information
to a police officer, interfering with an arrest, possession
of forged writing and intoxication. Then in 2004 Mata-Vaquera
was arrested for two DUI related counts.
NW
KS |
