C-Falls man's DUI No. 4 charge dropped to No. 3

A 45-year-old Columbia Falls man who pleaded guilty to DUI No. 3 was sentenced July 18 to one year in the county detention center with all but 30 days suspended and credit for time served.

Following a plea agreement, Flathead County District Court Judge Robert Allison also ordered Rodney Hoerner to pay a $1,000 fine, get a chemical dependency evaluation within 30 days and follow all recommendations. If he successfully completes the evaluation and treatment, Allison agreed to let Hoerner have a probationary driver’s license.

According to court records, Hoerner’s arrest following a two-vehicle collision in Kalispell on Oct. 2, 2012, is actually his fourth DUI arrest. His three earlier DUI convictions came on Nov. 9, 1992, Sept. 25, 2008 and Jan. 31, 2011. But instead of being sentenced for felony DUI No. 4, Hoerner was sentenced to a misdemeanor DUI No. 3.

This is the second time Hoerner obtained a plea agreement that reduced a felony charge to a misdemeanor. His second conviction for DUI came out of a plea agreement after he was arrested on Dec. 29, 2007 and initially charged with felony criminal endangerment.

The 2007 arrest came after the vehicle Hoerner was driving eastbound on U.S. 2 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 to help said Hoerner yelled at them to help push his vehicle out of the ditch. When they said they wanted to call for help, he allegedly got angry at them, put his distraught 14-year-old daughter behind the wheel and began pushing the vehicle by himself.

Following a Sept. 25, 2005, plea agreement, District Court Judge Katherine Curtis dismissed the felony criminal endangerment count and sentenced Hoerner on the DUI charge to six months with all but five days suspended. She also ordered Hoerner to complete after-care alcohol treatment at Sundown Ranch.