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FACT BRIEF

Did Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Jennifer Dorow sentence a woman convicted of drunken driving for the fifth time to probation?

By Tom Kertscher
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YES

Waukesha County Judge Jennifer Dorow, one of four candidates for Wisconsin Supreme Court, sentenced Lynne M. Shirikian in February 2021 to three years of probation.

Shirikian had pleaded guilty to fifth-offense operating while intoxicated. Her blood-alcohol concentration at the time of her arrest was .299, nearly four times the Wisconsin legal limit of .08.

Dorow later denied the prosecution’s request to resentence Shirkian. The prosecution appealed, arguing that state law required a minimum sentence of one year in jail.

On Feb. 1, 2023, the state Court of Appeals issued an opinion agreeing with the prosecution. The court ordered Dorow to resentence Shirikian.

More than 770,000 licensed Wisconsin drivers — or nearly one in five — have at least one conviction for operating while intoxicated, and more than 20,000 have at least five such convictions, the Wisconsin State Journal reported in December 2022.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Sources
Wisconsin Circuit Court Access Wisconsin Circuit Court Access
Wisconsin Courts Wisconsin Appeals Court Opinion
Wisconsin State Journal Drunken drivers in Wisconsin
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Fact briefs are short, credibly sourced summaries that offer “yes/no” answers in response to claims found online. They rely on publicly available, often primary source data and documents. Fact briefs are created by contributors to Gigafact —a nonprofit project looking to expand participation in fact-checking and protect the democratic process. See all fact briefs here.