ShareThisBy JIM McKINNON
Monday, November 20, 2006
A Pennsylvania mother and father pleaded guilty to driving under the influence, after their 10-year-old son refused to ride with them and ran away on a highway.
Kenneth and Paula Sutton, both 40, of Monaca, Pa., entered their pleas Tuesday. Kenneth Sutton will pay a $300 fine and lose his driver's license for a year.
Paula Sutton also pleaded guilty to child endangerment. She will spend 90 days in jail and pay a $1,500 fine. She was awaiting placement in a probation program for a previous DUI charge at the time of the most recent incident.
According to police, the son, who has not been identified, got out of his father's car around 3:30 p.m. Oct. 14 on Route 60 in Center, Pa. The boy told state troopers he didn't want to ride in the car because his father had been to bars and then crashed into a guardrail as he tried to light a marijuana pipe.
Paula Sutton, in a car in front of them, tried to get her son to ride with her. But, police said, the boy refused because she also had been drinking.
State police said she failed two field sobriety tests. Her blood-alcohol level was recorded at 0.213, more than double the limit at which a motorist is considered impaired.
A passing motorist who saw the boy along the road alerted police.
When his son refused to ride with him, Kenneth Sutton went home.
"The kid was the only adult in that situation," Trooper Joshua Thomas, who made the arrests, said.
