Posted on 12/02/2003 8:26:29 PM PST by Between the Lines
ANDERSON, Ind. -- A 74-year-old Anderson man who's been arrested at least 400 times for drunken driving was sentenced Monday to 17 years in prison for his latest drunken driving conviction. Virldeen Redmon was arrested in July for driving even though his license had been suspended for life. His latest conviction was on charges of driving while intoxicated, endangering a person and driving while suspended.
Police have been arresting Redmon since 1947, including three times since June. He's had his driver's license suspended for life five times. In 1996, a judge sentenced Redmon to 9-1/2 years in prison. That sentence was reduced in 2001 and he was released after a doctor testified that Redmon suffers from health problems.
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From: http://www.theheraldbulletin.com/story.asp?id=521
Often-arrested Redmond gets long sentence BY KEN de la BASTIDE, Staff Reporter
Once again, Virldeen Redmon, 74, appeared in Madison
Superior Court 3 on Monday dressed in a green and white jail uniform and pushing the now familiar oxygen tank in front of him with tubing extending to his nose.
His attire will soon reflect a long stay in prison. Although Redmon requested an eight-year prison sentence, Judge Thomas Newman Jr. gave Redmon the maximum sentence of 17 years for another alcohol- related arrest.
Redmon, 1411 Home Ave., Anderson, has been arrested more than 200 times over 30 years for alcohol-related offenses.
At times Redmon's speech was inaudible as he addressed the judge and answered questions posed by his attorney, Sharon Clark, and Prosecutor Rodney Cummings.
Redmon pleaded guilty in November to charges of driving after a lifetime forfeiture of his license and operating a vehicle while intoxicated. He was arrested on July 3 outside the Three Pigs Restaurant and Lounge after an Anderson police officer observed him driving.
Newman said Redmon has been given plenty of leniency by the courts and his actions held the judicial system up to ridicule. Newman cited the fact that Redmon had requested a hardship license just before his July arrest.
Newman sentenced Redmon to one year for driving with a lifetime forfeiture of his driver's license and 16 years for driving while intoxicated.
"It's the maximum sentence," Clark told Redmon, who showed no emotion.
Redmon had asked Newman to sentence him to eight years in prison.
"That would let me out in four years," Redmon said, "if I live that long."
When asked about his health, Redmon said it "was all the way down."
"Judge Newman is a pretty nice man," Redmon said. "I did a lot of work for Judge Newman. I knew his whole family."
Once again, family members promised that Redmon wouldn't drive again if released. Redmon's daughter, Julie Bond, asked Newman to let her father live with her.
"He would have no car, keys or nothing," she said.
Twice before, Bond and Redmon assured Circuit Court Judge Fredrick Spencer that he wouldn't have access to a car. Spencer released Redmon early in 2001 when a doctor testified that he was in poor health.
Redmon's son, Ivy Lee, asked Newman to release his father into his sister's care.
"He's my father and I love him. I don't feel he is being done right," Ivy Lee Redmon said.
Cummings said he has known Redmon for 32 years and that probation office records show he has 237 alcohol- related arrests in Madison County.
"When you see him in court, he is a nice guy, a respectful man," Cummings said. "When he drinks he is a different person. It is only a miracle someone hasn't died when he gets behind the wheel of a car.
"He (Redmon) fooled Judge Spencer to let him out of jail," said Cummings. "It is sad for us to send a 74- year-old man to prison. But I'd rather have him in prison than have to tell the parent of a child that died why we didn't do our job. My job is to send Redmon to jail for as long as possible."
Bad liver, you think?
In this family insanity is genetic.
Yeah, no kidding... Stupid father, stupid son...
Virldeen, what a name. Is that comparable to naming a boy Sue?
That is 237 times in Madison County alone! The rest are from other parts of the state.
Anderson, has been arrested more than 200 times over 30 years
So is it 200 or 400 times?
...while carrying the now-familiar gin tank behind him, with tubing extending to the intravenous needle inserted in his elbow...
This guy had been arrested time and time again for DWI in his small town.
He promised the judge again and again that he would not drive any more.
After a short period of time he would get caught DWI, spend his 30 days in the slammer and get released to his family.
He was quaintly referred to as "the town drunk" and allowed to skate time and time again. Until one 11AM day when he was absolutely shitfaced, crossed the center line and and slammed head-on at 70mph into my friend's 23 year-old daughter.
With his extensive and documented history he got a whole eighteen months in prison (he was in poor health, you know).
This man belongs in a hospital not a prison.
The law has made a mockery of itself twice over in this instance.
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