Woman who rammed into playground had a valid driver's license, despite a troubling history of DUIs

The alleged drunk driver who crashed through a fence and nearly hit three children at Horine Park on June 11 still had a valid license, despite a long history of drinking and driving, according to Flathead County Court documents.

Debbie Rae Paszek fled the park but was arrested shortly thereafter when she crashed her SUV again, this time on South Hilltop Road. She is charged with criminal endangerment and felony DUI, but her history of drunk driving stretches back more than a decade.

Paszek’s first DUI arrest came in her home state of Nevada in 2005, but she made headlines in the Flathead Valley in 2006 when she severely injured herself and two 3-year-old children in a collision with a logging truck while driving drunk west of Kalispell.

According to an article in the Daily Inter Lake from Feb. 2, 2006, a sport utility vehicle driven by Paszek collided with an unloaded logging truck at the intersection of West Springcreek Road and Meadow Hills Drive. The story noted that Paszek was northbound in the wrong lane as the truck crested a hill, saw Paszek’s vehicle and tried to stop. Paszek, who was not wearing a seat belt, suffered serious wounds, including chest injuries and a broken leg. Two 3-year-old girls with her reportedly shared one seat belt and were also hurt.

Paszek was originally charged with two counts of negligent vehicular assault, criminal endangerment and DUI for the 2006 incident, but in a plea deal, plead guilty to only one charge of vehicular assault and DUI. In March 2007 she was sentenced to a 10-year suspended sentence with the Montana Department of Corrections for the vehicular assault and a 1-year suspended sentence in the Flathead County Jail for the DUI.

Less than three months later, in June 2007, the state filed to revoke the suspended sentences after she “violated the conditions of her suspended sentence in a number of respects.” According to court documents, Paszek violated the conditions of her probation by attempting to deceive her supervising officer, consuming intoxicants and also failed to submit to alcohol testing.

Paszek was allowed to attend the Montana Chemical Dependency Center and her sentence was kept the same at a hearing on Oct. 11, 2007.

Less than two weeks later, Paszek was again arrested for DUI, her fourth.

The state again filed to revoke her suspended sentence, and this time Paszek was sentenced to the Montana Department of Corrections for 10 years, with five suspended and to the county jail for a concurrent six months, also suspended.

Paszek was back in court in 2015, when she again was charged with DUI in May. Paszek once again plead guilty and was sentenced to a five-year concurrent sentence with the one she was already serving for violating her probation and an addition 13 months for the new DUI with an additional three years suspended.

She was eventually released, only to allegedly drive drunk again.

Paszek will be arraigned for her most recent offenses in Flathead County District Court July 11.