Charge reduced for man's fifth DUI

A 46-year-old Columbia Falls man who has been charged with DUI five times since 1992 was sentenced to felony DUI on Nov. 6.

Flathead County District Court Judge David Ortley sentenced Rodney Hoerner to 13 months with the Department of Corrections for residential in-patient alcohol treatment followed by three years with the DOC, suspended and consecutive, with recommendation for placement in the state’s WATCH program.

According to court records, Rodney Hoerner was stopped by Kalispell police on Jan. 19 around 2:15 p.m. following a report of a green Jeep Cherokee traveling recklessly on U.S. 2.

Hoerner allegedly failed field sobriety tests and blew a 0.21 blood alcohol content — more than double the legal limit. Records showed he had been convicted of DUI on Nov. 9, 1992, Sept. 25, 2008, Jan. 31, 2011 and July 18, 2013.

Last year, facing a fourth DUI charge, Hoerner pleaded guilty instead to DUI No. 3. Following a plea agreement, Flathead County District Court Judge Robert Allison sentenced Hoerner to one year in the county detention center with all but 30 days suspended and credit for time served.

That marked the second time Hoerner obtained a plea agreement that reduced a felony charge to a misdemeanor. His second DUI conviction came out of a plea agreement that amended an initial charge of felony criminal endangerment.

In that case, Hoerner was arrested on Dec. 29, 2007, after his vehicle left U.S. 2 and went into a ditch near Kila. His blood alcohol content following that accident was 0.295 — more than three times the legal limit.

Two women who stopped at the scene said Hoerner yelled at them to help push his vehicle out of the ditch. When they said they wanted to call for assistance, he allegedly got angry at them, put his distraught 14-year-old daughter behind the wheel and began pushing the vehicle by himself.