The Iowa Supreme Court has told a district court to re-sentence a man who pleaded guilty to drunken driving, but used some wording in his confession to effectively deny he’d been drunk. On January 31st of 2005, David Jensen drank three double-scotches in a bar in Solon in less than an hour. Cops got a call a short time later that someone was driving erratically and "doing donuts."
A short while later, a Johnson County Sheriff’s deputy found Jensen walking along the road. His car was in the ditch. An hour and a half later, Jensen took a breath test which indicated his blood alcohol level at .170, twice the legal limit. Jensen pleaded guilty, but he asked for what’s called a "deferred judgment" — which means he was denying he’d been legally drunk that night.
Prosecutors then asked the district court judge to toss Jensen’s guilty plea out, but the judge okayed it. The Iowa Supreme Court justices said they "find no merit" in Jensen’s argument and they sent the two-year-old case back to the district court so Jensen can be re-sentenced.