State v. Charles L. Neill, IV, petition for review granted 6/11/19; 2018AP75; case activity (including briefs)
This is a review of a published court of appeals decision. Here’s the issue, as stated in our prior post:
Neill pleaded to an OWI-3rd, which has a minimum fine of $600. Wis. Stat. § 346.65(2)(am)3. His plea came with two statutory enhancers: the one for having a BAC over .25 (Wis. Stat. § 346.65(2)(g)3.), and the one for having a child in a car (§ 346.65(2)(f)2.). The former quadruples the minimum fine, and the latter doubles it. So, what’s the minimum fine?
The court of appeals concluded that the multipliers multiply each other, meaning that the minimum is octupled to $4,800. As both we and Judge Kessler, in dissent, noted, this reading depended on ignoring a key phrase in the statute. We’ll see if SCOW can make more sense of things.
