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Summary: An Indiana lawyer who was suspended after her second DUI arrest was arrested again for driving while intoxicated.
Julia Compton was an attorney in Franklin, Indiana before she had her license suspended. Compton is now facing over ten years in prison after being arrested for drunk driving a third time.
Compton’s latest arrest was on December 29, 2016, in Johnson County. Video footage of her March 29, 2012 arrest in Fortville is available which Call 6 obtained. In it, they describe that police received reports of a drunk driver, when the arresting officer saw the car, it was driving down the shoulder of the road. The footage shows Compton denying having drunk anything while stumbling out of the car. She fails the field sobriety test and the breath test so officers move to arrest her. She resists so an officer has to threaten to tase her to get the handcuffs on her.
At the Fortville police station, Compton tries to use her position as an attorney to get out of trouble, threatening to call the judge. She was still a licensed attorney at the time of this arrest. Compton started off saying, “I’m an attorney, please don’t do this. I will do whatever you want me to do.” Eventually, the blood alcohol test came back, showing a .23, almost three times the legal limit.
Compton was arrested again a few months after the March incident in June. Then prosecutors filed seven criminal charges against her including operating while intoxicated with prior operating while intoxicated within five years, operating while intoxicated with a BAC of .15 percent or higher, driving while suspended with a prior, and resisting law enforcement.
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The Indiana Supreme Court Disciplinary Commission suspended her license in 2013 for six months for having multiple alcohol related arrests within three and a half months. She was also ordered to serve two years of probation with monitoring from the judges and lawyers assistance program.
By November 2013, Compton was back at work working for the Marion County’s juvenile court as the Best Practices Director. She handled court cases for abused and neglected children. She resigned in October 2016 and was arrested two months later for drunk driving.
She has been charged as a habitual vehicular substance offender. Other charges filed against her include operating a vehicle while intoxicated with a prior conviction, which is a felony, and operating a vehicle while intoxicated endangering a person. Her driver’s license has finally been suspended as well due to the reporting and investigating by Call 6. Johnson County deputy prosecutor Rob Seet mentioned that her license should have been suspended automatically when she refused to take a test. It is unknown why this did not happen after her third arrest.
Seet said, “We have every intention of arguing that she spend some time in prison. We have every intention of proving her guilty.” Mothers Against Drunk Driving supports the prosecutor, pushing for a prison sentence.
Lael Hill, Indiana spokesperson for Mothers Against Drunk Driving, said, “Based on her history and her convictions of drinking and driving, I am concerned she’s going to hurt herself or somebody else, I want to keep this community safe.” They do not want her driving with other Hoosiers on the road. Hill added, “We think the community is in danger and we think she should absolutely have an ignition interlock on her vehicle to prove she’s sober before she starts her vehicle to keep the public safe.”
Compton’s attorney said she is staying at the Amethyst House in Bloomington, a residential facility for those with addictions. It is not an inpatient facility so she is free to go during the day but must be back by curfew.
She pleaded guilty to her two previous incidents but was allowed to receive an alternate sentencing for the felony charge to allow it to be a misdemeanor. She has no felony conviction on her record.
Do you think Compton should spend some time in prison? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below.
To learn more about lawyers with drunk driving arrests, read these articles:
- Hollywood City Attorney Caught Driving While Drunk
- New York Judge Arrested for Driving to Work Drunk
- Lawyer Who Killed Jogger Had Brain Tumors; Possibly Sober During Accident
Photo: flickr.com
