Man accused in deaths paid fine on last DUI

LOUISA, Ky. — On his eighth charge of driving under the influence since 1992, Bobby L. Frazier paid a fine of close to $2,000 and was ordered to attend an alcohol treatment program.

That was in a Lawrence County, Ky., court in 2006.

Now, Frazier, 49, of Louisa, Ky., faces four counts of DUI resulting in death and a charge of third-offense DUI. He is charged with stealing a truck in Ashland, and driving it to Wayne County, W.Va., where it collided with another vehicle, killing all four occupants inside, including two small children.

A search of court records has revealed that Frazier has had nearly 30 criminal complaints brought against him in Boyd and Lawrence counties since 1992. Eighteen of them involved driving under the influence or public intoxication.

However, the only serious jail time Frazier has ever been handed was in 1997, when he pleaded guilty to stealing a car on New Year’s Day of that year, and then another three days later.

Boyd County Circuit Judge C. David Hagerman sentenced Frazier to five years in prison as part of a plea deal in that case. Frazier was back out by March 2000, when he was again arrested and charged with driving under the influence. However, since it had been five years since his previous DUI offense, the crime was a misdemeanor, and Frazier paid a small fine in Boyd District Court.

Many of the criminal complaints brought against Frazier have ended in a similar fashion: a guilty plea and a fine.

Hagerman said he has seen rap sheets similar to Frazier’s over the years, and said it is usually only a matter of time before such repeat offenders end up hurting themselves or someone else.

“I can’t say what has been in front of other judges at the time when it came to this guy; I just don’t know the circumstances surrounding each case,” Hagerman said. “But, looking at his history, I don’t know why no one ever brought the hammer down on him at some point, either.”

Hagerman said he believes repeat offenders who scrape by with fines and minimal jail time rarely reform and can end up being a serious threat to those around them.

“When someone goes on like this over a period of decades, and no one ever stuck it to them, it gets developed in their mind that they can keep doing what they’re doing and nothing bad is going to happen to them,” he said. “There’s no deterrent.”

Frazier’s most recent brush with the law before the April 17 accident in West Virginia was a public intoxication complaint in Boyd County filed in February. According to the police report from that incident, Frazier was seen going through cars on a residential street. When approached by a police officer, Frazier smelled of alcohol, had trouble keeping his balance, and slurred his words, the report said. After his arrest, Frazier appeared in district court, where he pleaded guilty and paid a fine of $148.

Hagerman said he believes Kentucky’s DUI laws, which were strengthened in the 1980s to restrict the ability to plead down drunken driving charges, are adequate.

The so-called “Slammer Law” has produced a reduction in drunken driving and has applied tougher penalties to offenders, he said.

“I think the DUI laws are OK the way they are,” he said. “They’re always being revised and tweaked. Kentucky really has come a long way over the past 20 years.”

Killed in the April 17 accident that police said involved Frazier were 28-year-old John Michael Boone and his two children, Jordan, 3, and Michael, 2 , along with family friend Thomas “Reno” Hardwick, 29.

A preliminary hearing for Frazier in Wayne Magistrate Court has been set for 9 a.m. Tuesday. He is being held without bond at the Western Regional Jail.

If he waives his preliminary hearing, the case could go to a Wayne County grand jury by July.

Reporter David E. Malloy contributed to this report.