Bus driver will face felony DUI charges

BROWNSTOWN, Ind. – A former school bus driver will stand trial on felony drunken driving charges that could send her to prison for three years, a Jackson County judge ruled.\nCircuit Judge William Vance on Friday set a trial date of Jan. 17 for Sylvia Cook, whose blood-alcohol level tested at .19 percent, more than twice the legal limit of .08 percent, while driving 13 New Albany High School cheerleaders and their coach from a football game last year.\nCooke, 61, originally was charged with a Class D felony and a Class A misdemeanor, but Prosecutor Richard Poynter, who took office after the charges were filed, discovered in July that his predecessor had not included in the felony charge the allegation that the bus was driven “in a manner that endangered a person.”\nThe mistake could have thrown out the felony charge and cut Cooke’s maximum sentence to one year. But Poynter filed new charges inserting that language into the original felony count and changing the wording of the misdemeanor count to boost it to a felony.\nVance originally rejected the changes, but Poynter asked Vance to reconsider and after a hearing Thursday, Vance allowed Poynter to file both charges as Class D felonies.\nDefense attorney Bart Betteau had argued that Poynter’s motion to change the charges 10 months after they were filed was unfair to Cooke. Betteau lost that argument but won a delay in the trial, which had been set for Nov. 14.