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When Brian Mansfield asked to have his driver’s license reinstated so he could drive to and from work, the Allen County sheriff at that time sent a letter to a judge urging him not to let Mansfield get behind the wheel again.
“He has demonstrated that he is a substantial risk to the public at large and I see no reason to modify the terms of his suspension,” Sheriff Jim Herman said in a two-sentence letter dated Sept. 29, 1999.
After Mansfield’s appeal went through the civil process, a judge in March 2000 reduced his felony conviction to a misdemeanor and dropped his lifetime suspension to 10 years, allowing him to drive again.
Prosecutors on Wednesday formally charged Mansfield, 52, of Monroeville, with aggravated battery, two counts each of operating a vehicle while intoxicated and criminal recklessness. He is accused of running a stop sign with a blood-alcohol level of 0.37 percent, almost five times the legal limit of 0.08 percent, and slamming into a sport utility vehicle carrying 45-year-old Jacqueline K. Yenser and her teenage daughter.
The Nov. 24 crash at Indiana 101 and Dawkins Road in east Allen County killed Yenser and sent her daughter to a hospital in serious condition, police said.
When police told Mansfield that Yenser had died in the crash, he responded by saying, “No way, I killed someone?”
He then said he couldn’t remember the crash and declined to talk to investigators, court documents said.
Mansfield was convicted twice of drunken driving – in 1986 and 1987.
When he was convicted of being a habitual traffic violator in 1989, his license was suspended for life.
He petitioned to have the suspension lifted in 1999. After 10 years without a license, not being able to drive to and from his job as a journeyman carpenter was an “undue hardship,” he argued in court filings.
Herman could not be reached for comment Wednesday. Sheriff Ken Fries said petitions such as Mansfield’s are rare. He said he can’t recall one request to have a driver’s license reinstated in the three years he has been sheriff.
Despite Herman’s letter, then-Circuit Court Judge Thomas Ryan approved Mansfield’s request in November 1999 and gave him permission to drive only to and from work.
After he issued the order, however, Ryan withdrew it in December 1999, saying his court had no jurisdiction in the matter because the lifetime suspension was the result of a felony habitual traffic violator charge.
In March 2000, Superior Court Judge Fran Gull reduced the felony charge to a misdemeanor, paving the way for Mansfield to get his license back.
Rebecca S. Greenof The Journal Gazette contributed to this story.
