Driver who hit girls has history of DUI

A Santa Rosa man arrested in a suspected drunken driving crash that seriously injured two teen-aged sisters waiting at a bus stop has a lengthy criminal record in Sonoma County marked with drugs, alcohol and three drunken driving convictions.

Mike Tweedie, who turned 35 on Christmas day, remained in Sonoma County Jail on $30,000 bail. He was due to be arraigned in court Tuesday on felony charges connected to the Saturday crash on Yulupa Avenue.

The Ford Ranger pickup driven by Tweedie flipped multiple times and struck two teenage girls waiting at a bus stop with their father. The driver fled the scene and Tweedie was arrested later that day at a nearby apartment.

The Saturday incident is just the latest accusation of impaired driving facing Tweedie. He was convicted of DUI – and completed drunken drivers’ school – three times in Sonoma County, according to court records.

He also apparently has been treated in residential rehabilitation facilities at least twice, in Glen Ellen and Eureka.

Case after case during the past 12 years, Tweedie was given probation, minimal jail time and the opportunity for drug and alcohol treatment. None of his prior convictions apparently involved injuries.

Tweedie’s first conviction, in 1995 for being drunk in public at age 22, may have foreshadowed his arrest eight months later on a misdemeanor DUI charge.

In that case, he was sentenced to three years’ probation and ordered to attend the First Time Drunk Drivers Program administered by the county. He completed the course, court records show, but violated the terms of his probation and was ordered in August 1997 to serve 30 days in jail.

In 1999, he was convicted again of misdemeanor DUI, the typical charge when a driver has a blood-alcohol level above the legal limit of 0.08 percent and no one is injured.

Tweedie pleaded no contest and admitted having one prior DUI conviction.

While he was in treatment, his attorney entered a no contest plea for him and he was sentenced to 30 days in jail – which he’d already served as the case progressed – three years’ probation and DUI school for the second time. He was also ordered to pay about $1,500 in drunken driving-related fines and had his driver’s license restricted for 18 months.

But in August of 2000, he was arrested for violating his probation when he failed to complete DUI school. He enrolled and completed the course a year later, court records show.

The next few years, Tweedie was in and out of the Hall of Justice numerous times for cases including drug and weapons convictions and two arrests for being drunk in public.

He was denied participation in the county’s drug court, meant to keep nonviolent drug offenders out of prison and get them medical help. Instead, he was sentenced to a year in jail in connection with two cases, court records show. Inmates can serve half their sentence with good-behavior credits. It wasn’t clear from records available Monday how many days Tweedie served.

In July 2004, Tweedie pleaded guilty to his third DUI, another misdemeanor. Court records show that even though this was his third DUI conviction, only two were counted as part of his record.

Until recently, a previous DUI would drop off a person’s criminal record as a prior after seven years. Tweedie’s first arrest was in 1996, eight years before.

Now, prior convictions remain for 10 years. They can add time to any jail or prison sentence.

On his third conviction, Tweedie was referred to the “multiple offenders drunk driving program” for repeat offenders and ordered to have an Interlock ignition device installed on his vehicle for the next 18 months. He was also put on five years’ probation and ordered to serve a month in jail.

A month later, in August 2004, he was charged with his first felony, a drug charge. He agreed to plead guilty and prosecutors recommended no prison time to the judge. Tweedie was given probation again and eight months in jail, to be released when space in a drug treatment facility opened.

In February 2005, court minutes show the judge admonished him about his continued failures: “Court advises defendant that he absolutely must complete drug treatment.”

In April 2005, court records show he was released to a parent who was to take him to a residential alcohol treatment facility in Eureka.

On May 9, 2006, a judge granted Tweedie’s request to have the Interlock device removed. The device is similar to a breathalyzer that is installed in a vehicle’s dashboard. A driver must breathe into the device with little or no alcohol in their system before the vehicle will start.

Just three weeks earlier, Tweedie had enrolled in the multiple-offender DUI school. But by January 2007, according to court records, he hadn’t completed the course, a warrant was issued for his arrest and his probation revoked.

After his arrest two months later, his probation was reinstated and his license restricted for another 18 months.

Court records show he completed his third DUI course in April 2008.

Federal public records also show Tweedie filed for bankruptcy in September. He listed just over $10,000 in credit card debt and claimed he only had $10 cash to his name.

He said he was unmarried, unemployed, had no income since 2007 and had about $425 in monthly expenses, including $75 a month in insurance on his 2000 Ford Ranger pickup.

The girls were struck by a Ford pickup, police said.