Before Jess Brown’s last DUI he was awaiting trial for his 19th. He had been mandated to Alcoholics Anonymous for many years by the court system. he holds the record for the most DUI’s in Ohio’s history. How many AA members got in the car with this guy while he was still drinking? He also had convictions for domestic violence. In Jail he is continuing attending Alcoholics Anonymous. I wonder if he was given an option, other than a program that did not work for him before.

‘Brown was attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings when they met, Ress said. The stress of caring for his mother and worrying about a heart defect drove him back to drinking, she said.

Ress knew Brown had a problem but was shocked to learn about the high number of drunken-driving convictions. She was even more alarmed by his mug shot plastered across the media. His wild hair and disheveled appearance made him look like Charles Manson.

“It was horrible what they said about him,” Ress said.

Last DUI

Brown had bounced in and out of treatment and Alcoholics Anonymous but never took it seriously.

He was blatant in his disregard for authority. In 2002, after his 17th conviction, he showed up drunk to a court-ordered alcohol and drug test in Akron.

His final drunken-driving arrest came on Nov. 22, 2006, in Barberton after he crashed a vehicle into the car a Norton woman was driving on Interstate 277. She was not seriously injured.

For many, the timing was appalling. Brown was waiting to be sentenced for his 19th offense and was out on bond. And there he was, driving drunk and crashing into another vehicle.

Brown had been held up as a poster child in Ohio for harsher sentencing for serial drunken drivers. The crash cemented his reputation.

Years earlier, Summit County Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh had used Brown — along with other repeat offenders — to lobby for tougher drunken-driving laws in Ohio. In 2004, the state responded, mandating prison time for chronic drunken drivers and allowing court officials to examine driving records going back 20 years.

Despite his lengthy record, Brown pleaded for leniency and court-imposed treatment instead of prison when he was sentenced in 2007.

Now-retired Common Pleas Judge Patricia Cosgrove ignored his request. She told Brown he had had plenty of opportunities for treatment after previous convictions and if he felt that strongly, he should have sought help on his own.

She imposed the harshest penalty she could, running the two drunken-driving and other traffic sentences consecutively for a longer prison term.

“Not only do you have the worst DUI record I’ve ever read, you apparently have the worst DUI record for anyone in the state of Ohio,” Cosgrove told Brown. “It’s only fair and fitting then that you receive the worst sentence.” ‘

http://www.ohio.com/news/local/reviled-alcoholic-seeks-to-rebound-1.252937