photo by: Douglas County Sheriff's Office

Dustin Rhodes Crowe

A Eudora man pleaded no contest on Friday to three DUIs, received in the space of four months, and a child endangerment charge for having three children in the vehicle during the final drunk-driving incident.

The man, Dustin Rhodes Crowe, 40, was charged with one count of felony fourth or more DUI, three felony counts of aggravated endangerment of a child, one misdemeanor count of leaving the scene of an accident, one misdemeanor count of driving with an open container and one misdemeanor count of reckless driving.

As the Journal-World reported, the charges stem from an incident on March 28, when a Dodge Ram was reported driving off the roadway and into oncoming traffic on Kansas Highway 10 westbound from Haskell Avenue before driving into Lawrence. A sheriff’s deputy saw the vehicle driving south in the 500 block of Maine Street and striking a parked car. The deputy pulled the vehicle over to find the driver was under the influence and had three children — ages 5, 8 and 10 — in the truck.

Crowe was also charged with felony DUI for an incident on March 15 and for an incident on Nov. 28, 2022.

On Friday, Crowe pleaded no contest to all three felony DUI charges and one felony count of endangerment of a child as part of a plea agreement in which the state dismissed the remaining charges.

Assistant District Attorney Ricardo Leal said that after each incident Crowe had his blood drawn by law enforcement within three hours of his arrest. Leal said that Crowe had a blood alcohol level of .33 for the Nov. 28, 2022, incident, a level of .35 on March 15, and a level of .34 on March 28 when he had the children in the car. In each incident, his blood alcohol level was four times the legal limit of .08.

Crowe was on diversion at the time of the incidents for another DUI that he received in 2021. He has three additional DUIs from 2004, 2008 and 2010, Leal said.

A diversion is a process controlled by the District Attorney’s Office in which someone accused of a crime is “diverted” from the usual legal procedures and instead completes the terms of an agreement, which may include some sort of rehabilitation program or fine. If the program is successfully completed, the criminal charges are dropped.

Leal said that the state was recommending that Crowe be sentenced to the “aggravated” number of months in prison for each charge and he must pay a $2,500 fine for each DUI charge plus KBI fees of $400, and $30 for blood draw fees. For all three DUIs, Crowe will be fined about $8,790 plus other court fees. Leal said the state would ask the court to run the first DUI and the child endangerment charge consecutively and the remaining charges concurrently.

Judge Sally Pokorny accepted Crowe’s no contest plea and said that Crowe faces between 17 and 46 months for the first felony DUI charge depending on his criminal history and between 5 and 17 months for the endangerment charge.

Pokorny said that at sentencing Crowe’s criminal history score would increase for the second and third DUI charges and for those he could be sentenced for a longer period of time and that it would be up to her whether to run those counts consecutively.

Crowe has been in custody since his arrest in March and is being held on a $25,000 cash or surety bond. He is scheduled to be sentenced on July 12.

The Journal-World has requested Crowe’s booking photo from the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office.