Wyoming's alcohol culture

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

By Bill Sniffin

It has been an interesting week to watch what drunks are doing, what sentences people are getting for providing liquor to minors and how some folks are fighting against the issuance of liquor licenses here in Wyoming.

Drunk driving is a scourge that continues to bedevil the people of Wyoming. Of all the horrible stories connected with this crime, a recent one pretty much tops the list.
There’s a guy in Casper who is in a heap of trouble for reportedly committing one of the most gruesome alcohol-related crimes in memory.

Former Fremont County resident Doug Downs was arrested for drunk driving, booked and released on bail on Dec. 30. He reportedly got drunk again and at the urging of his buddies borrowed a Chevy Tahoe to take them home. He then reportedly ran over a poor guy named Jeffrey Irene, 40, and dragged him for over a mile, scraping away much of his skin. When bystanders finally rescued the poor guy, he was so torn up his interior organs were visible.

Mr. Downs is free on $50,000 bail while the victim is fighting for his life in a Casper hospital. The victim is a professional golfer and construction worker.
This story has gotten more than 100 reader comments in local newspapers as people express their outrage. More importantly, it points out the ever-lingering dangers of drunk driving.

In Casper, some big discussions are occurring over questions of jurisdiction, and this may lead the legislature to figure these out. Mr. Downs was reportedly first arrested by the Highway Patrol and was bonded out of the jail, which is run by the Sheriffs Department.

Meanwhile members of the Casper Police Department, who are incredibly aggressive when it comes to dealing with drunk drivers, have been getting an inadvertent black eye for something they had nothing to do with. Chief Tom Pagel said his crew arrested 580 drunk drivers last year, an impossibly high number.

Also this past week in Casper, a woman was sentenced to six months in jail for providing liquor to youths, which resulted in a fatal car wreck.

Carlene Spenneberg admitted to providing a gallon of vodka to Ryan Barry, 17, and a 15-year-old girl, who, I assume, was her daughter. Mr. Barry was killed in a subsequent crash on July 4, 2007, that was blamed on alcohol impairment. The victim, who was the driver, had an alcohol blood content of .30, more than three times what is considered intoxicated.

Mrs. Spenneberg’s plaintive plea to the judge was to no avail. She said she has to live with the fact that “the only boy her daughter loved is dead because of me.” Those are powerful words.

First Lady Nancy Freudenthal has led the crusade against underage drinking. She has always said that one of the leading suppliers to young drinkers is their parents, who provide alcohol intentionally or unintentionally, by keeping it in the refrigerator or in the unlocked family liquor cabinet.

And finally, here in Lander last Tuesday night, the local city council endured a barrage of 50 citizens upset about renewing a liquor license for a new Maverik convenience store.
Person after person testified to Mayor Mick Wolfe and his fellow council members about the problems with alcohol and why this liquor license should be denied.

Loud applause erupted after each speaker and you could see the councilmen and women wincing as they looked out at the huge crowd (by Lander standards) seemingly urging them to deny the license. The license was approved 4-1.

The arguments were compelling but the facts are that Maverik had invested over 1 million dollars in the project and will open in eight weeks.

The regional manager of the Maverik also spoke and asked the Council “just give us a chance.” He said they run a tight ship. My advice to him is to make darn sure he does run a tight ship or that crowd and a few hundred others will be back clamoring for a revocation of their license.

And isn’t it odd? Here in Wyoming, we have witnessed an “alcohol culture” for more than a century. I will never forget driving to Casper with a friend in 1971 and seeing a cooler of beer on the front seat and being told that Casper was a “one six-pack trip,” going and returning.

It is time for the people of Wyoming to learn from their mistakes and the mistakes of others.
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Wyoming's alcohol culture | Planet JH News Article: Right Wing Local

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