MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Melandus Penson may be the poster case for a legal system that gives drunk drivers plenty of chances, and he used his.
WREG has video of Penson driving through a police DUI checkpoint in 2013.
Officers were hot on his trail.
When they arrested Penson, they charged him DUI First Offense.
Turns out Penson was well-known to officers in the Tri-County area.
He had already pleaded guilty to DUI in 2008 and 2013 for cases in Union County.
So why didn’t the arresting officers know that?
Southaven’s Deputy Police Chief Steve Pirtle said officers may not have as much information as you think when they pull over a DUI suspect.
“If we stop you and you have been arrested in another state or city, we may not know that until the paperwork has hit the state for them to enter it into your drivers history,” said Pirtle.
When officers looked up Penson’s drivers license, in a perfect world they would have seen his multiple DUI convictions and given him a stiffer charge and longer jail time.
However, prosecutors said tons of paperwork delays the process, but this delay was five years.
Such a long delay has forced many people to question the process.
“It’s not done electronically. That may be a process we need to look at in the future. They can look at it in the future and the only way to do it is just to go back and check,” said Marshall County Prosecutor Shirley Byers.
We were told first time DUI arrests that are misdemeanors don’t always show up on driver’s record if they weren’t convicted.
So people could get multiple first offenses, like Melandus Penson, and never a felony.
We are still waiting to hear from the state on whether Penson’s DUI history was properly put into the national database.