CENTRAL FLORIDA — Police stop suspected drunk drivers, but state hearing officers have the power to let them keep driving on our streets. They aren't judges or lawyers and don't need high school diplomas, but they decide whether DUI suspects should keep their licenses.
State troopers say a drunk driver killed Jason Russo in April. Russo's parents blame the state Department of Motor Vehicles.
"The laws are not working well enough to protect you or someone else's child," said Jill Gelber, Russo's mother.
A judge sent the driver who hit Russo to jail last year for driving drunk, but the DMV would not suspend his license.
"He was able to go the DMV and have a hearing with somebody, who is neither a lawyer, a judge or has no criminal law degree, hand him back his license and put him back on the street," Gelber said.
DUI suspects have two proceedings: one before a judge for criminal charges and the second in front of a DMV officer to determine whether they lose their licenses. So, DMV officers, with limited qualifications, decide whether DUI suspects get to keep driving.
Those DMV officers make around $25,000 a year, according to job postings. They don't need legal backgrounds and don't even need high school diplomas.
WFTV researched backgrounds of current officers, and found a supervisor who worked as a cosmetologist and receptionist before joining the DMV. Another officer had worked as a clerk and vacation planner; several others were driver's license examiners who got promoted.
"You have lay people trying to interpret case law and legal issues and they are just legally ignorant. They can't do that and they are not capable of doing that," attorney Stewart Hyman said.
Attorneys said they are too easily persuaded to put dangerous drivers back on the streets.
"They don't follow what the courts do," Hyman said.
Russo's parents are pressing state lawmakers for change.
"Disband the DMV hearings, period, and only let the court system deal with it," Gelber said.
So far, state lawmakers have taken no action.
The DMV stands by its officers decisions and offers an appeals process. Officers do suspend licenses in DUI cases around 70-percent of the time. The driver who hit Russo had his license restored because a DMV officer said police didn't have probable cause to stop him.