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Questions raised about sentencing of drunken defendant

gavel-moreOMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A public defender says someone should have stopped an Omaha hearing before a judge sentenced an apparently intoxicated woman who, minutes later, tested out 5½ times the legal limit to drive.

The judge gave Sarah Carr 90 days after she acknowledged violating probation by being arrested Oct. 25 on suspicion of drunken driving.

Her aunt told the judge that Carr was not at the Feb. 2 hearing because she was passed out drunk outside. A wheelchair soon was used to take Carr into the Omaha courtroom.

The judge said he couldn’t be certain Carr was drunk at the hearing, but county Public Defender Tom Riley says the judge, the prosecutor or Carr’s court-appointed attorney should have sought a delay until Carr was tested.

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