Father Deems Nine Year Old Daughter His Designated Driver

A father who had been drinking had his nine year old daughter drive him to the store in the early morning hours a few weeks back. A video surveillance camera recorded a conversation he had with a store clerk telling her that his daughter was his designated driver. Someone called the police after seeing the girl and her father at the gas station and seeing the girl get into the driver's seat then take off onto the road. She made it a few miles down the road before being stopped. Her father sat in the passenger seat.

When a police officer pulled them over, the girls was sitting in the driver's seat propped up in a child's booster seat just a bit before 3 a.m. on October 8^th. She was driving her father's full sized panel work van and acted surprised that the officer had stopped her. She asked him why he was pulling her over and that she thought she was driving "good."

Father Gets Charged With Child Abuse

The daughter told police that her father had been drinking whisky all night and he had allowed her to drive before. The father told police that he was teaching his daughter to drive and was arrested shortly thereafter after refusing a breathalyzer test. He was charged with second and fourth degree child abuse and was ordered to have no contact with his daughter. He was also charged with being a habitual offender for having four prior felony convictions and now faces the possibility of being sentenced up to fifteen years in prison if convicted again. The girl's parents are separated and she was turned over to her maternal grandfather after unsuccessful attempts by officials to reach the mother.

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