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Tribune executive editor pleads to reckless driving

By TIMES STAFF WRITER
Published October 19, 2006

TAMPA - Tampa Tribune executive editor Janet Weaver pleaded no contest to reckless driving Tuesday, five months after being arrested on charges of driving under the influence.

Weaver, 43, initially was accused of driving with a blood alcohol level of 0.081 to 0.085, just above the 0.08 minimum level at which a driver is presumed impaired.

But Weaver did well on a field sobriety test, Hillsborough prosecutor Pam Bondi said, and in such a case it is common for prosecutors to accept a plea to reckless driving.

Weaver was sentenced to 50 hours of community service, 16 of which must be performed with the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office. She also must pay a $500 fine and attend DUI school and a three-hour class for DUI defendants, presented by victims of drunken driving, Bondi said.

Immediately after her May 10 arrest, Weaver contacted Tribune editors to make her arrest public. She also attended a senior editors meeting and apologized for the incident, then left so they could discuss how to cover her arrest without her influence.

"The way my paper handled it, and the reader response, only confirmed my belief it is best to be transparent in dealing with our own mistakes," Weaver wrote in an e-mail to the St. Petersburg Times on Wednesday.

Weaver joined the Tribune in June 2004, first as managing editor. Before that, she was dean of faculty at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies, which owns the St. Petersburg Times. Weaver also was executive editor of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune.

[Last modified October 19, 2006, 00:23:01]