A Texas man arrested on suspicion of first-offense drunken driving posted a $200 bond and walked out of a Nebraska jail without facing a judge. It wasn’t his first DUI arrest, or second, or even his third. It was 44-year-old Robert Hood’s fourth DUI arrest in three states in less than two weeks.

Such an event is not surprising, said law enforcement officials in Vicksburg and Warren County.

‘When we arrest somebody we automatically run their history and if it says they don’t have a record, then that’s what we have to go by.’

Martin Pace

Warren County Sheriff

The Associated Press wrote the story of Hood, a Caldwell, Texas, resident also known as Earl Hood. He was charged as a first-time offender under Nebraska law and allowed to pay 10 percent of the $2,000 bond because officials had no inkling of the pending DUIs.

That’s because the FBI-run national computer system used by states shows only those people who have been fingerprinted when arrested. And the arrests of some suspects, such as Hood, can go undetected if they are not fingerprinted or if the information is delayed getting into the system.

In Hood’s case, the system did not show his recent DUI arrests — one in Wyoming, two in South Dakota.

That lack of information is allowing repeat DUI offenders across the country to post low bonds and go on their way, and it is something that Warren County Sheriff Martin Pace said can happen easily.

“In Mississippi we enter everything into the system, misdemeanors and felonies both,” said Pace. “Not all states do that; some jurisdictions don’t enter misdemeanors. If somebody gets a DUI conviction in New Jersey and then another in Tennessee and then gets one here, we may not ever know about their prior convictions. If they’re not entered into the system then we’ll never know.”

In Mississippi, the first and second DUI convictions are misdemeanors, considered a lesser offense, and the third is a felony. No matter where the first and second convictions were, in Mississippi the third is supposed to be a felony, Pace said. But unless suspects volunteer the information, which few do, it’s possible they can pay dozens of first-offense fines.

“When we arrest somebody we automatically run their history and if it says they don’t have a record, then that’s what we have to go by,” said Pace. “We do run driving records, but we run them for the state the license is issued in. We’d like to keep this from happening in Mississippi, but it’s just impossible to know.”

Mark Culbertson, chief of Patrol Division of the Vicksburg Police Department, said the problem is not limited to DUIs, but all progressive charges such as assault and shoplifting that transfer from misdemeanors to felonies after several convictions.

“Each state has different statutory requirements to increase the penalty to a felony,” said Culbertson.

The loophole is also alarming court officials, the AP reported.

“If judges are made aware of other pending charges, it could justify a higher bond to (ensure) the person appears in court,” said Sarpy County Judge Todd Hutton, who sits on the bench in suburban Omaha. “The judges make their decisions based on the information they are provided.”

Hutton said if prosecutors know a defendant has pending charges, it could justify a higher bond.

In Nebraska, people charged with a first-offense DUI do not have to have a formal hearing, but can instead pay bond according to a schedule, said Deputy Otoe County Attorney Tim Noerrlinger.

But the FBI is hoping a new national system, still in the pilot stage, will alert authorities when a defendant has multiple DUI offenses pending in other states.

The National Data Exchange or N-DEx for short, is designed to link local, state and federal records, said Tom Bush, assistant director of the FBI’s criminal justice information services.

Records say Hood was arrested on July 4 in Mitchell, S.D., when an officer found him passed out in his car. A test showed Hood tested 0.260 percent — more than three times the legal limit.

He was released on 10 percent of a $5,000 bail, a Davison County Circuit Court clerk said. Hood’s second DUI arrest occurred three days later in Deadwood, S.D., a town in northwest South Dakota. Chief Kelly Fuller said Hood’s blood-alcohol content was 0.184 percent.

At the time, Hood’s arrest in Mitchell did not show up in state records, so he was charged with a first-offense DUI and released on another $500 bond.

The next day, Hood was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving in Platte County, Wyo., and charged with first-offense DUI. A test showed his blood-alcohol content was 0.160 percent, a Platte County circuit court official said.

On July 10, Hood was found guilty of a first offense DUI in Wyoming and sentenced to six months unsupervised probation, credited for two days he spent in jail and paid a $580 fine.

Hood was then arrested on suspicion of drunken driving on July 13 in Otoe County, Neb., about 50 miles south of Omaha. He was released after posting $200 bond.

Simara Reynolds, executive director of the Nebraska chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, said Hood’s case was chilling.

“It is frightening to see someone charged so frequently in such a short period of time,” she said.

Authorities are now looking for Hood after he failed to appear to multiple court dates. Warrants have been issued for his arrest.

Offenders with multiple DUI arrests are more common than most people think, said Laura Dean-Mooney, national president of MADD. She calls the current system a “catch and release” program.

More than 2.8 million people on the road today have three or more DUI convictions, she said.

“Hard-core drunk drivers are clearly more dangerous,” said Kevin Quinlan, chief of safety advocacy division at the National Transportation Safety Board in Washington, D.C.

Hard-core drunken drivers as defined by National Transportation Safety Board are those with a prior drunken-driving arrest or conviction within the past 10 years or offenders with a blood-alcohol content of 0.150 percent or greater.

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Contact Megan Holland at mholland@vicksburgpost.com.