Shock tactics used as drink driver is sentenced in high school courtroom

MARLENE CHAVEZ stood before a hushed courtroom and publicly acknowledged the consequences of her second drunken-driving offence.

Among the spectators were hundreds of teenagers who hung on her every word.

“I lost a lot of things,” said Chavez, 43. “I left my vehicle in the impound so that I don’t do drinking and driving after that. And I lost my house. I lost my kids to their father so that they can go stay with him because I had nowhere to go.”

Chavez had already pleaded guilty. Now a judge gave her four days in jail and a $500 fine.

But her sentence came with an additional indignity: it happened in a high school auditorium, where 400 students stared as she lifted one leg, then the other, to let jailers shackle her feet. Guards also wrapped a chain around her waist and handcuffed her.

When the hearing ended she was escorted out of Belen High School, about 30 miles south of Albuquerque, New Mexico, and locked up.

Magistrate Daniel Hawkes brought his courtroom to the school in the hope that the proceedings would show students the dangers of alcohol, especially in the weeks leading up to the prom and graduation.

Hawkes, whose programme is unique in the state, also sentenced two people at the school last year.

Ed Chavez, chief justice of the high court, said he would like to see the programme go statewide.

When the hearing began, 18-year-old Angel Mendez didn’t realise the seriousness of the proceedings. After watching Chavez and four other repeat offenders get sentenced, he changed his view.

“I thought it was pretty shocking just to see them like that. I didn’t think they would have them in shackles,” he said.

Elizabeth Sluder, 17, was initially sceptical, too, thinking the hearing was overly staged. But she also changed her mind by the end.

“Here, it’s actually being brought to us. It does happen, there are consequences.”