The DC Department of Motor Vehicles’ problem with prosecuting drunk driving convictions could date back more than a decade, sister network News4 has found.
The bug allows people convicted of DUI to continue driving even though their licenses must be suspended or revoked.
The problem was discovered after a DC woman was charged with second-degree murder after a crash that killed three people on Rock Creek Parkway. She had five drunk driving convictions – three in DC – but she never had her driving privileges taken away, according to prosecutors and court records.
District officials blamed a processing error between the courts and the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV).
Mayor Muriel Bowser’s government launched a multi-agency investigation to find out how widespread the problem was.
A senior government official with knowledge of the investigation said the problem could date back to 2010.
“That has resulted in what is a significant number of people in the same position as Ms. (Nakita) Walker, which means they are on the road driving with convictions that have not been added to their record and their licenses have not been added. been suspended.” said Joseph Davis, who works at the DMV and is vice president of the union.
A DMV spokesperson said they suspended or revoked 112 licenses in fiscal year 2023, 474 in 2022 and 380 in 2021. “That sounds like a drop in the bucket,” Davis said. “I think there are many more. That number seems extremely low to me.”
Davis said that some drunk driving cases are not prosecuted until 10 years after the conviction.
“It happens regularly that people who have recently had their DUI will show up on their record and the DUI occurred 10 years or more ago,” Davis said based on his experience.
The DMV could not confirm how many of the license suspensions in the past three years were from District court or out-of-state convictions. They say the issue only affects DC drivers convicted of DUIs in the District, as it stems from automated communication between the DC Superior Court and the DMV. Communication between the states and the District is manual and is done by mail.
A senior Bowser administration official said it’s not common for a case to be prosecuted 10 years late, but they are currently reviewing a 2010 case that wasn’t enforced until after 2019. Two officials involved in this acknowledged that doing so many revocations years after the conviction would be difficult, and they may look at each one individually and review the person’s driving record since the conviction before doing so.
