MINNEAPOLIS, Nov. 5 (UPI) -- A Minnesota man who continued to drink and drive 20 years after his driver's license was suspended was sentenced to five years and three months in prison.
Raymond J. Sherman, 42, has had 23 alcohol-related driving offenses since 1981 and has served a 16-month sentence for drunken driving when he was arrested again in June.
Minnesota toughened penalties for drunken driving in 2002, making four driving while intoxicated convictions in 10 years a felony. Previously DWI was a misdemeanor.
Sherman was pulled over by state police after a high-speed chase in the middle of a summer afternoon. Officers found empty beer cans under the driver's seat. He had not had a driver's license since he was 18.
"This is a man who has been drinking and driving thousands and thousands of times," a spokeswoman for Minnesotans for Safe Driving told the St. Paul Pioneer Press.
Sherman must undergo mandatory alcoholism treatment to be eligible for parole.
