Western North Carolina Community Action Site

Your CAS Leader is Ellen Pitt

Serving Haywood, Buncombe, and Henderson Counties.

For information or to volunteer, please call our new MADD line for Western NC CAS:  828-926-1151

ASHEVILLE - The Buncombe County District Attorneys Office has led the state over the past eight years in the number of people prosecuted for habitual driving while impaired, members of Mothers Against Drunk Driving said Tuesday.

A representative from MADD recognized District Attorney Ron Moore and Assistant District Attorney Chris Hess for their aggressive pursuit of drunken driving cases, presenting them with certificates of appreciation at a meeting in the Buncombe County Courthouse.

One of the things I saw early on as a DA was that we dealt with eight, 10 or 12 cases a year, on the average, where someone was killed by a drunk driver, and we absolutely have no tolerance for that‚ said Moore.

The Buncombe County District Attorneys Office convicted 155 people of habitual DWI between 1999 and 2007, outnumbering Mecklenburg County by 14 despite Mecklenburg having charged more than three times as many people with driving drunk, according to statistics compiled by the district attorneys office.

A person can be charged with habitual DWI if they have been convicted three times of DWI within 10 years. As a felony charge, it carries a 1-year minimum sentence.

Moore said securing habitual DWI charges requires effort on the part of the district attorneys office to research a persons background and determine if they have drunk driving charges in other states.

His office acquired a grant from the Governors Crime Commission that funds full-time staff to track down people who don't show up in court after being charged with driving drunk.

Moore said he also pushed for a law that recently passed requiring officers to photograph and fingerprint DWI suspects who don't have proper identification. He said many offenders provide a false name to officers after they've been caught drinking and driving.

Ellen Pitt, a victim advocate for MADD in Western North Carolina, said Moores office works with highway patrol officers and the community to make sure they are doing everything possible to stop drunken driving.

The question always comes up when something terrible happens and its a person who was a repeat offender or a failure to appear. How could they possibly be out on the highway? How could they possibly be doing these crimes? They should have been in jail, Pitt said.

He (Moore) really goes the extra mile to make sure they are not out there, she said.

On the Web: www.madd.org/NC

Western Region

Our mission is to stop drunk driving, support the victims of this violent crime, and to prevent underage drinking.

Your CAS Leader can always use your help with events and suggestions.  Please contact her with your ideas.