Truesee's Daily Wonder

FAIRBANKS — A Fairbanks woman who let her 7-year-old son drive while she was passed out drunk in the passenger seat has been sentenced to six months in jail with all but 20 days suspended.

A judge ordered Karen Koch, 37, to report to jail by Oct. 1. She will be on probation for three years and have to attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings three times per week for the next six months.

“While life as a single mother is hard, turning to alcohol and making stupid decisions puts the public at risk, puts you at risk and puts your child at risk,” District Court Judge Raymond Funk told Koch.

Koch pleaded guilty to one count of reckless endangerment in exchange for prosecutors dropping the other charge of allowing an unauthorized person to drive. Sentencing was up to the judge at Wednesday morning’s hearing.

A neighbor at the Lakeview Terrace mobile home park called troopers in May after seeing a young boy driving a silver Mazda Protege with a passed out adult passenger.

The neighbor told troopers that the young driver came within a few feet of striking her parked vehicle.

Troopers were able to trace the plates to Koch’s nearby home and arrived just as the boy was exiting the driver’s seat.

Koch, who had leaned back in the front passenger’s seat, woke up a few minutes later and identified the child as her son.

She told the trooper that she let her son drive the car from a nearby stop sign and did not see what the problem was, according to court records.

Koch, who has three previous convictions for drunken driving, did not make a statement during the hearing.

Funk compared the punishment to what a defendant would usually receive for a second DUI conviction. Because two of her convictions are more than 10 years old, if Koch had been charged with drunken driving, it would have been considered a second offense.

Koch’s public defender, Katie Kelliher, contended that Koch was sober as she let the boy drive home, and as the boy was listening to radio in the car, Koch went inside and had two drinks, which is when troopers arrived.

“Ms. Koch has realized she made a mistake,” Kelliher said. “She misunderstood what she could and couldn’t do with allowing her child to drive. ... Alcohol was not a factor in her decision making until after the incident.”

However, Funk said that regardless of whether Koch was sober, it was a poor decision to let such a young child drive.

“I’m worried that if anything I’m being too lenient,” he said. “I want you to understand that it’s appalling to let a 7-year-old drive, and to say you didn’t see the problem is just horrific.”

Koch’s sentence is slightly longer than that of a Fairbanks man who in August 2007 was convicted of letting his 11-year-old son get behind the wheel because he was too drunk to drive. In that case, the man was sentenced to more than three months in jail with all but 15 days suspended.