Last Wednesday, Mark Benson appeared before Waukesha County Circuit Judge Lee Dreyfus and entered a plea of guilty to a charge of third offense drunk driving. In imposing sentence, Judge Dreyfus ordered Benson's driver's license revoked, ordered that he was not to drive a vehicle and sentenced him  to 75 days in jail with work release privileges.  However, Judge Dreyfus gave Benson until May 9 to report to jail.

     According to the criminal complaint, a mere two days after his sentencing, Benson ingested enough prescription medication to tranquillize a horse.  He then climbed behind the wheel of his Cadillac Escalade and headed for the local drug store for the purpose of picking up some Viagra and Cialais.  Obviously, Benson is a devotee of the concept of better living through chemistry.

     While heading to the pharmacy, Benson slammed into the rear of a Honda Accord driven by 39 year old Jennifer Bukosky.  Benson's vehicle was traveling at approximately 50 miles an hour and had not had any braking within at least eight seconds prior to the time of impact.  Not surprisingly, Benson failed a number of sobriety tests that were administered at the crash scene.

     Mrs. Bukosky died immediately.  Her 10 year old daughter Courtney, a passenger in the vehicle, died two days later as a result of injuries sustained in the crash.  Mrs. Bukosky was six months pregnant at the time of the collision and also lost the baby.

     Benson is now sitting in jail in lieu of $1 million bail.  If convicted of the various charges against him, he will probably spend most - if not all - of the rest of his life in prison.  This however is undoubtedly of small comfort to the surviving family members of Jennifer Bukosky and Courtney Bella - both of whom will never see the dawning of another day.

     There's no question that, if the allegations in the complaint are true, Mark Benson is the true villian of the piece.  Nevertheless, there remains a very real question as to why Benson was in a position to kill these people in the first place.?

     Without a doubt, Judge Dreyfus looks like a complete idiot in this matter.  If he had sent Benson to jail immediately without work release privileges, Benson would not have been driving to the drug store for his erectile dysfunction pills in the first place - and Jennifer and Courtney would still be alive.  By slapping Benson on the wrist, Dreyfus failed in the prime directive for judges in criminal cases - namely, he failed to protect society.

     Judge Dreyfus isn't the only one who looks bad here though.  According to court records, a short time before the sentencing, Benson had completed a treatment program for substance abuse.  In a letter to Dreyfus, the counseling center director saw Benson's "prognosis as favorable".  Boy, talk about missing the boat.

     The only reason that I'm inclined to cut Judge Dreyfus somewhat of a break in this case is that I don't believe too many judges in Wisconsin would have treated Benson more severely.  For whatever reason, drunk driving is not considered to be that big a deal in Wisconsin.  Operating a car after revocation is viewed as even less of a issue.

     Obviously, the imposition of a brief jail sentence (with work release) and the threat of a longer one was not sufficient to stop Mark Benson from driving while drugged.  To add some extra teeth to the law, my idea would be to allow authorities to forfeit vehicles driven by people after three convictions for either drunk driving or driving with a revoked license (if the license had been revoked for moving violations as opposed to failure to pay fines). 

     Vehicle forfeiture wouldn't stop everyone from continuing to drive - but it would provide a significant disincentive.  At the very least, it would make it more difficult for many revoked drivers to get access to a car.  That in and of itself would be something.

     How many more senseless deaths are going to have to occur before we get tough on people who continue to operate vehicles after they've lost their driving privileges?  Will we ever say "enough is enough"?  I don't know - but we can always hope.

     If a case like this causes us to rethink our approach to these type of cases, perhaps Jennifer and Courtney will not have died in vane.  We can always hope - but I won't hold my breath.