Vt. man who served 20 years for drunken driving death charged with DUI a month after release
By APMonday, May 17, 2010
Repeat DUI offender held without bail in Vermont
ST. ALBANS, Vt. — A 54-year-old Vermont man who spent nearly 20 years in prison for a fatal drunken driving crash is being held without bail on a DUI charge just one month after he was released.
A judge said Monday that Douglas Gardner, of Enosburg, is a threat to public safety and can’t be let out of jail.
Vermont State Police say Gardner drove a car down an embankment Saturday in Highgate, near the Canadian border. He’d been released from prison April 14 after being convicted in a 1990 crash that killed Billy LaBier III.
He faces charges including drunken driving and aggravated operation of a motor vehicle without the owner’s consent.
LaBier’s mother, Pat LaBier, says Gardener’s arrest is “reliving 20 years ago all over again.”
