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Fifth DUI earns man a prison term

The circuit judge sentences him to 15 years in prison for the death of the cyclist he struck.

By COLLEEN JENKINS
Published April 1, 2005

NEW PORT RICHEY - Saying Roger Lynn Allen's history of alcohol abuse had gone on too long, Circuit Judge Stanley Mills sentenced the Brooksville man to 15 years in prison Thursday for killing another man while driving drunk.

"If you push the odds on this kind of thing hard enough and long enough," Mills said, "it's going to happen."

In February, a jury found Allen, 53, guilty of DUI manslaughter and leaving the scene of an accident involving death. They heard from prosecutors how Allen spent most of March 6, 2003, drinking beer. How his blood-alcohol level was more than two times the limit at which Florida considers a driver to be impaired when his pickup fatally struck Roger Crandall on Aripeka Road.

They didn't hear that this was Allen's fifth DUI.

Such details typically are the stuff of sentencings, not trials. And Mills didn't like what he learned about Allen's past.

Allen was convicted twice for DUI in the 1970s, according to assistant state attorney Tom Koskinas. Another two DUI convictions came in 1994 and 1997. One occurred in Georgia.

Mills said he believed assistant public defender Willie Pura's account of Allen as a good man who loved his grandkids and felt sorry for the hurt he caused Crandall's family. But the judge wasn't pleased with Allen's seeming apathy toward doing something about his documented trouble with alcohol.

"Is Mr. Allen the worst person I've ever seen doing this? Not hardly," Mills said. "But he got four warnings that this was going to happen.

"We've got to take some responsibility for our own actions."

Crandall was riding an adult tricycle when he was hit; he died of his injuries four days later. Allen's blood-alcohol level registered at 0.185 and 0.189 a couple hours after the accident. Florida law says 0.08 percent is the level at which a person is presumed unable to safely drive.

"Not a day goes by that I don't think of Roger Crandall," Allen said softly. "It was a terrible accident."

As part of his sentence, Mills also ordered Allen to serve five years' probation. He won't be allowed to consume alcohol during that time.

He will permanently lose his driver's license, Mills said. That occurs automatically when a person is found guilty of DUI manslaughter.

But it might be surprising to some that he possessed a license after four DUIs.

Court records show a Pasco judge took Allen's license for six months after his 1994 DUI conviction. It was unclear Thursday what happened in his other cases.

Assistant state attorney Mary Handsel said the Florida Department of Motor Vehicles makes the final call on license issues. Statutes allow a license to be permanently revoked after four DUI convictions, she said, but the department also takes into account whether the offenses occurred in Florida and how recently.

No one from the Department of Motor Vehicles could be reached for comment Thursday evening.

[Last modified April 1, 2005, 00:36:19]