A 48-year-old man who had been charged with five DUIs in less than a year and was arrested on his sixth charge Sunday, was formally charged with felony DUI Tuesday, according to information released by St. Clair County State’s Attorney Bob Haida.
Matthew Roth, formerly of West Harrison Street in Millstadt, was charged Tuesday with one count of felony driving under the influence and one count of driving with a suspended license. His bond was set at $100,000. He was arrested after a one-car crash Sunday on misdemeanor charges issued by the St. Clair County Sheriff’s Department of drunken driving and driving on a suspended license.
Haida could not be reached for a comment on the basis of the felony charge, or whether it involved convictions in other states.
Millstadt Police Chief Ed Wilkerson, whose officers also responded to the accident scene, said a 2007 Chevrolet Cobalt that Roth was driving was pulled from a ditch about 1:30 a.m. Sunday in the 6100 Block of Floraville Road and towed to a nearby towing company yard.
Roth was the subject of a news report about the complexities of the state’s drunken driving laws. Despite being charged with five DUIs in less than a year, Roth still had a valid driver’s license when he was charged with drunken driving in Millstadt on Feb. 13, when he smashed his pickup truck into a vehicle parked in a sheriff’s deputy’s driveway, police said. A suspension for a fourth DUI received when Fairview Heights police charged him on Jan. 18, did not kick in until March 3.
In Missouri, Roth was convicted of four counts of DUI in the 1990s, six counts of driving on a revoked or suspended license and one count of fleeing the scene of an accident.
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