Boy, 12, faces drunken driving charge after crash
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[May 20, 2008]
HARTMAN, Ark. (AP) -- An Arkansas preteen faces a drunken driving charge after he and a friend drank his parents' beer, "got liquored up" and crashed his stepfather's pickup truck, the Johnson County sheriff said.
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Sheriff Jimmy Dorney said the 12-year-old boy and his 10-year-old friend drove off in the truck May 4 to find a girl they met at a rodeo. The boys made it about 10 miles before the 12-year-old lost control of the truck.
Dorney said the truck hit and jumped over a guardrail, sending it careening 50 feet down a steep hill into a forest.
Clark James, 46, who lives down the road from the crash site, said he answered the boys' banging at his front door with shotgun in hand about 2:30 a.m.
"I opened the door and the first thing (the 12-year-old) said to me was,
'I'm drunk and I had a wreck,'" James said. "I looked at him and I thought
'You're kind of young to be out drinking. And you sure shouldn't be driving.'"
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Neither boy was seriously injured in the crash.
County prosecutor Bruce Wilson said that he will charge the 12-year-old boy with drunken driving and several other misdemeanor charges in district and juvenile court in Johnson County.
Wilson said the 12-year-old could face a variety of sanctions ranging from probation, to court-mandated community service and alcohol rehabilitation, to commitment to the state Department of Human Services Division of Youth Services.
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![Building Supplies](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2008/May/20/images/ads/current/budget-building-supplies-lda-051408.png) Teresa Belew, executive director of the Arkansas chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, said the 12-year-old is the youngest person she's heard of facing a drunken-driving charge in the state.
James bets that both Johnson County boys are grounded for life.
"If not, then they should be," he said.
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Information from: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette,
http://www.arkansasonline.com/
[Associated
Press; By SANDY COHEN]
Copyright 2008 The Associated
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