WICHITA, Feb. 20 – Ever since Sedgwick County District
Judge Eric Yost started his rotation through traffic court,
he’s been making headlines. First he exercised a
little used option to send first-time DUI offenders to jail, now
he’s hit a repeat offender with a modern day version
of the Scarlet Letter by making him publicly identify himself every time
he gets behind the wheel .
Curtis Mollinelli, 36, was sentenced Friday afternoon for his fifth
DUI in the last five years and his eighth DUI conviction in his 20 years
of driving. Yost sentenced Mollenelli to jail time, fined him, ordered
him into alcohol treatment and gave him a window sticker identifying him
as a DUI offender. Mollenelli will have to display the sticker in any car
he drives for the two years he’s on probation. The
sticker comes off easily so Mollenelli can move it with him from car to
car, and so anyone else who drives Mollenelli’s car
won’t be branded as a DUI offender.
Mary Ann Khoury, who runs the DUI Victim Center in Wichita, says the
sentence is about safety and education. “I think the
community wants to know who the drunk drivers are on our
roads.â€
Mollenelli agrees he should pay for what he’s done,
and calls his sentence “fair.†He says he
hopes it will help other people learn from his mistakes. Yost
wouldn’t comment on the sentence, but from the bench
he said Mollenelli would benefit from a daily reminder of his probation.
If Mollenelli doesn’t use the sticker when driving,
his probation will be revoked and he’ll serve a year
behind bars.
