The Van Buren police said the mail vehicle was recovered by the US Postal Service following the DWI arrest.

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Representative Dan Greenberg, from Little Rock, said his legislation stems from a woman found guilty of her tenth DWI in Arkansas and sentenced to a minimum 20 months in jail, yet she was released before serving twelve months. Greenberg said that someone with ten DWI arrests “should be serving some serious time”.

According to Arkansas DWI law, a fourth offense and every subsequent offense for driving while intoxicated is a felony. Department of Corrections regulations classify Felony DWI as a non-violent offense, thus making offenders eligible for early release under Arkansas Emergency Powers Act. That Act was passed in response to chronic over crowding of Arkansas jails, and it was expanded in 2003 allowing non-violent criminals who have served at least six months of their sentence to be eligible for parole when there is a backlog of more than 500 state prisoners.

Greenberg stated that denying early release to felony DWI offenders would not create over-crowding because there are very few multiple DWI offenders. He went on to say that motorists with four or more Arkansas DWI arrests pose a danger to the general public. According to state police records, 46% of all traffic fatalities in Arkansas last year involved alcohol or drugs.

Other legislators propose increasing the penalties for AK DWI to require offenders to serve their sentence before being eligible for early release under the Emergency Powers Act. Greenberg said keeping felony DWI convicts in jail is only a short-term solution. He says Arkansas will only become safer after increasing jail capacity.

In addition, repeat DWI offenders must install an ignition interlock device in their vehicle. Such a device requires the driver to breathe into a tube and if alcohol over a set blood-alcohol limit is detected, the car cannot be started.

Senate Bill 930 was signed at the Greene County Courthouse in Springfield, Arkansas Thursday morning.

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Fields was sentenced to six years in jail in 2003 after being found guilty of a fourth-offense DWI in Arkansas. He began the clemency application process and was waiting for a parole date when Gov. Huckabee commuted his sentence, making Fields immediately eligible for release. Citing jail overcrowding, the long-time Republican Party donor was freed despite having served only one year of his sentence.

A director for Mothers Against Drunk Driving stated that Fields is “a menace among us”, adding that she opposed Mike Huckabee’s clemency action in 2004. Fields was also charged with drunk driving and refusal to submit to a breath-test in April 2006. He plead guilty in that case and was fined and ordered to pay court costs.

Fields, from Van Buren, Arkansas, was charged with DWI again on February 1, 2008 after Fort Smith police spotted him weaving in and out of his lane. Fields admitted to having consumed four beers at a nightclub. With the guilty plea to his most recent drinking and driving offense, Fields was sentenced to 14 days in the Sebastian County Detention Center and he faces a parole revocation hearing.

The guilty plea to driving while intoxicated was entered the same day Mike Huckabee was seeking votes as a Republican presidential candidate in the Super Tuesday primaries.

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A veteran police officer was involved, and the police department issued a statement saying, “officers are trained to know the difference between a person who is sick and one who is drunk and if they’re sick an officer would have called the paramedics”. A spokesperson went on to say that “once you arrest someone, they can’t be unarrested”. During booking at the Dale County Jail, however, officers noted something was wrong with Bludsworth and sought treatment for him.

The police then dropped the charge of drunk driving in Arkansas though Bludsworth still had to post a $1,000 bond and he will have to make a court appearance. Bludsworth registered blood alcohol content of 0.00 during a breath test.

No disciplinary action is pending against the arresting officer.