Tri-City man faces seventh DUI

A Tri-City man recently was found slumped over the wheel of a wrecked car on a Kennewick highway. An almost empty bottle of Monarch vodka rested between his legs.

Richard T. Hyde, 52, was arrested for DUI — and it wasn’t the first time.

Court records show Hyde has seven DUI arrests in Benton and Franklin counties.

But despite his long history of getting behind the wheel intoxicated, Hyde’s latest drunken-driving charge does not add up to a felony.

Under state law, a person must have four prior DUI-related offenses within the past 10 years to be charged with a felony.

Hyde’s DUI cases span four decades, his first in 1987.

“We don’t have sufficient priors to charge him with a felony,” said Benton County Deputy Prosecutor Andrew Clark.

And that’s in spite of the fact that Hyde was found passed out drunk behind the wheel in his past two arrests, according to court documents.

Most recently, Judge Joe Burrows called Hyde a habitual offender posing a “substantial danger” to the community and set his bail at $100,000.

Court records show Hyde was first arrested and convicted for DUI in Benton County in 1987, then in Franklin County in 1993.

His third DUI arrest came four years later in West Richland. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 45 days in jail.

Hyde again pleaded guilty to driving drunk in Richland in 2003 and was sent to jail for three months. He was ordered to undergo treatment, to stay away from alcohol and not to drive without a license.

But five years later, in 2008, Hyde was arrested for DUI in Kennewick and pleaded guilty to negligent driving. Court records show that he admitted to drinking vodka, and an arresting officer said Hyde failed a field sobriety test.

Then, in November 2014, a Washington State Patrol trooper found Hyde passed out in the driver’s seat of a running vehicle on Morain Street in Kennewick, court documents said. Hyde had a blood-alcohol content of 0.22 percent — almost three times the legal limit of 0.08 percent.

Hyde pleaded guilty to DUI in January 2015 and was sentenced to 232 days in jail, with some time suspended.

As part of the sentence, Hyde was ordered to not operate a vehicle without an ignition interlock device and to stay away from alcohol.

But a year later, a state trooper heard over the radio shortly after midnight Jan. 20 that a Volkswagen Jetta was on the shoulder of Highway 240 near the Edison Street exit.

Trooper Robert Morris found Hyde alone in the driver’s seat. He smelled of alcohol, had bloodshot eyes and slurred speech. And it appeared the Jetta had just crashed.

“I observed fresh scrape marks from the Jersey barrier to the right rear of the vehicle, and fresh damage to the right front fender,” Morris wrote.

Hyde was arrested and taken to the Benton County jail, where he was uncooperative and refused a breath test, court documents said. A sample of his blood was taken at the hospital, and he was medically cleared to return to jail.

This story was originally published March 11, 2016 at 4:43 PM with the headline "Tri-City man faces seventh DUI."