Mother spared jail for DWI with 4 kids

CHEEKTOWAGA, N.Y. (WIVB) - A mother, caught driving drunk while she had four children in the car, won't spend a day behind bars.

This was the first WNY case under Leandra's Law, which makes it a felony to drive drunk when children are in the car. Jolie Norse of Utica was pulled over in Cheektowaga, after consuming twice the legal limit of alcohol, but the court showed her mercy.

On Christmas night, Jolie Norse got a call that her father was on his last breaths. She put her three adopted children and one foster child in the car, all were under the age of six, and started out from Utica, heading east towards Rochester. She had been heavily drinking that night and overshot her exit on the Thruway by about an hour, ending up at the Depew Exit, where she was pulled over and arrested. Under Leandra's Law, she could have been sentenced up to four years in prison for driving drunk with children in the car.

Prosecutor Keller Omel said, "When a person gets into a car when they're intoxicated, they're endangering lives, including their own and including other people. When they're putting their children in that car, those children don't have a choice whether or not to be there."

Jolie Norse said, "I'm just very, very sorry for what happened that night."

Judge Penny Wolfgang heard Jolie Norse's apology followed by her attorney's plea for mercy, saying her felony conviction already has had consequences for a mother who had no previous criminal record.

Norse's Attorney, Ray Sciarrino, said, "Her punishment is way beyond what the court can give her. She has lost an opportunity to adopt a fourth child."

State Supreme Court Justice Hon. Penny Wolfgang said, "This Christmas day, when you received this call about your father, and just impulsively left and took the children with you, it was obviously the wrong thing to do if you had been drinking, but we certainly are going to give you another chance to prove it was an isolated incident in your life."

Norse was sentenced to five years probation and fined a thousand dollars. Her license was revoked.

Norse said, "I'm just very sorry for everything that happened that night and the way that everything turned out. It was just a bad night and that's all."