ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Four people are recovering after a crash early Wednesday morning in south Orange County. Florida Highway Patrol troopers said the driver was drunk.
Channel 9's Field Sutton learned that the driver had a previous DUI charge that was settled with no punishment, in exchange for a promise to behave.
Eric Hutnick, 27, signed a pretrial diversion contract two months ago.
Records show Hutnick was caught drinking and driving with an open bottle of beer. Hutnick agreed not to commit any crimes for 15 months and signed a pledge not to drink and drive. He also had his driver's license suspended for a year.
"We must remember that no screening process is 100 percent perfect," WFTV legal analyst Belvin Perry said.
Perry estimates that one of every 10 people on pretrial diversion ends up committing another crime.
"There were no red flags in the gentleman's record that would indicate that he would be a repeat offender," Perry said.
Perry, former chief judge for Florida's Ninth Judicial Circuit, said no one will ever be able to predict human behavior perfectly.
He said he believes pretrial diversion is still the best alternative to throwing every single violator in jail.
"You would probably need to quadruple the current jail, costing millions, if not hundreds of millions of dollars," Perry said.
Perry said if Hutnick is found guilty of DUI, there will be no leniency.
"I would not want to be appearing before a judge, having blown my opportunity at pretrial diversion," Perry said.
WFTV
