Mom Sentenced to 2 1/2 Years In Prison For Driving While Drunk With Her Kids In The Car

Jamie Dunn was sentenced Thursday in Lake County Common Pleas for driving while drunk with her children in the car.

She , as well as violating her probation for trying to assault a police officer.

Her grandmother, Jane Korfok, and her father, Michael Porter, were with her in court Thursday and spoke in her defense.

"She had a relapse here but she's a very good kid," Porter told Judge Eugene Lucci said.

"I don't care what anybody says," Korfok said. "She takes good care of her children."

But Assistant Lake County Rocco DiPierro disagreed. He said that this was the second time Dunn had been convicted of driving drunk with her kids in the car and the fifth time she'd been convicted for driving drunk overall.

"This is the same situation -- driving drunk with her two kids in the car," DiPierro said.

"Anyone who has four OVI convictions and then would take another drink, I can't understand," he said.

Dunn, 29, who lives in Mentor, apologized tearfully.

"I take full responsibilities for my actions," Dunn said. "There's no excuse in the world for what I've done."

Lucci had previously given Dunn two years of probation for kicking a police officer. He asked Dunn what caused her to violate the terms of his probation by drinking, smoking marijuana and breaking the law.

"I think it had a lot to do with stress," Dunn answered. "I just turned to the wrong thing to relieve the stress."

"This means whenever you have stress, you're going to turn to drugs and ignore court orders?" Lucci replied.

The judge ultimately decided to sentence Dunn to two years in prison for driving drunk and endangering her children and another six months for violating probation.

He also suspended her driver's license for five years, sentenced her to drug and alcohol treatment, confiscated her car and fined her $850.

Dunn was arrested on March 19 while driving in Mentor.

A Mentor police officer was parked on a driveway along Center Street just south of the State Route 2 exit when he saw a car pass by with a fight happening inside, .

Dunn was driving and Isaac Reynolds, 34, of Mentor, was the front-seat passenger.

The officer could see Reynolds hitting Dunn so he pulled his cruiser out behind them and signalled for them to stop.

They pulled onto Station Street and stopped. The officer got out of his cruiser and could still hear Reynolds yelling and saw him punch her in the head.

Reynolds did not stop yelling until he saw the police officer approach, police said.

When the officer reached the car, he saw an open can of Labatt Blue beer in Dunn's hand and two kids in the back seat. The children were four and five years old, respectively. Neither was in a car seat.

The officer asked Dunn to get out of the car and she stumbled as she did, police said. She had minor visible injuries.

The policeman gave Dunn field sobriety tests, which she failed, prosecutors said. When he asked her to take a blood test, she refused.

The officer arrested both Dunn and Reynolds. Reynolds, who lived with Dunn, was charged with domestic violence.

in and served 28 days in jail.

Meanwhile, Dunn was charged with operating a vehicle while intoxicated and child endangerment.

All of those charges are felonies because of previous convictions. Dunn has been convicted of drunken driving four times in the last six years.

She was also previously convicted of child endangerment in Cuyahoga County.