Wasilla man charged with 7th DWI

A Wasilla man who apparently arrived drunk at his sentencing for his seventh drunken driving charge stumped defense and prosecutors Friday as they sought to come to an agreement on just what his sentence should be.

Robert Noden, 53, was arrested July 3 on this seventh DWI after colliding with Charles Thompson of Palmer on the Palmer-Wasilla Highway.

No one was injured, but Thompson's vehicle sustained $500 in damage, according to court documents.

Noden was arrested one day before Alaska's new DWI laws went into effect. On July 4, it became illegal to blow more than a .08 on a breathalizer test, new sentencing laws began to require more than the minimum sentence for repeat offenders, and the 10-year rule stating that a person's DWI record would be erased after that amount of time was voided.

Noden was arrested with a .262 blood-alcohol level, according to police records, and this represented his third DWI offense in the past 10 years. Since he made it before the legislative-mandated July 4 laws went into affect, he could not be charged with the lifetime DWI offenses and the court could only look at the previous 10 years, said assistant district attorney Bill Estelle, who is prosecuting the case.

But Noden showed up for his sentencing Wednesday "so drunk that we terminated proceedings," said Palmer Superior Court Judge Eric Smith as he asked the attorneys whether they needed to postpone sentencing to review the laws.

Noden was taken from the court and registered a .167 blood-alcohol level, according to court documents. He was placed in the Mat-Su Pre-Trial Facility where he remains in lieu of $8,500 bail and a required third-party custodian.

Estelle objected to imposing the sentence he had agreed to prior to Noden's sodden appearance in court. In a no-contest plea agreement, the state had accepted recommending the minimum felony DWI sentence of 120 days in jail, plus 30 days in jail for driving with a revoked license, Estelle said.

Noden was still on probation for a 1998 drunken driving charge and was driving on a revoked license at the time of his July 3 arrest. He was released on bail and placed in court-appointed, third-party custody with orders not to drink alcohol.

In light of what happened, Estelle told Judge Smith he "rued the day" he made that plea agreement. District Attorney Roman Kalytiak and Estelle said they now want to recommend five years in jail with two suspended for the felony DWI, and one concurrent year in jail for the revoked license.

"When he shows up drunk at his own sentencing, it doesn't give me a whole lot of hope for his rehabilitation," Estelle told Smith.

Defense attorney Carmen Spiropoulos argued that the altered recommendations should have been made prior to Thursday's sentencing hearing. She agreed that having extra time to review sentencing requirements would help her client.

Smith set a new sentencing date for 11 a.m. Jan. 4.

In a statement filed with Noden's court documents, Thompson recounted what happened in the July 3 wreck. He wrote:

"While waiting for a trooper to arrive, I observed that Mr. Noden had difficulty standing up and had to lean against my van during the initial moments after the collision … I was glad, in a sense, he had run into me and caused very minor injury instead of someone else who he could possibly have caused more severe damage and or injury."