Defendant shows up after 17 years

Seventeen years after he was arrested for driving under the influence, Joseph Englund showed up in East Fork Justice Court to resolve the matter.

"Seventeen years later, it's come back to bite you in the butt," said East Fork Justice Jim EnEarl.

Englund, 55, appeared Wednesday with court-appointed lawyer Kris Brown who worked in the district attorney's office when he originally appeared in May 1991.

"I thought I had taken care of it," he said. "I served eight days in jai."

EnEarl expressed doubt at Englund's account of what happened.

"You knew it didn't go away," EnEarl said. "You knew you didn't pay any fines."

Brown said her client never received a notice of setting and no blood or breath evidence was taken at his arrest.

Englund said he served 27 days in jail after he turned himself in Sept. 2 in Auburn, Calif.

EnEarl dismissed the driving under the influence charge and gave Englund credit for time served on the failure to appear charge.

He was released from Douglas County Jail on Wednesday.

"Don't let it go 17 years again," EnEarl said.

n A 20-year-old woman whose heart stopped while she was being drug tested was sentenced Wednesday to six months in Douglas County Jail.

Katherine Rempt admitted using methamphetamine in violation of her probation on previous misdemeanor drug charges.

"Your life is completely out of control," East Fork Justice Jim EnEarl said. "My intent is to figure out how to keep her alive. I am not sure she knows how."

Rempt's attorney, Derrick Lopez, said his client wanted to quit using. He said she was hoping to be admitted to drug court and rehabilitation which she has undergone previously.

"She knows she needs strict structure," Lopez said.

EnEarl told Rempt she could request admission to drug treatment while she is serving her sentence.

She is to appear in District Court Sept. 30 on a gross misdemeanor drug charge of being under the influence.

According to reports, officers were investigating a domestic call Sept. 6 at the home Rempt shares with her mother when they observed she was under the influence of drugs, a violation of her probation on earlier drug charges.

She reportedly told officers she had been using methamphetamine and had been awake for four days. She had puncture wounds on her right forearm and in the veins in the back of her hands. Rempt reportedly told deputies she had been using methamphetamine intravenously.

When Chief Probation Officer Doug Swalm tested her, Rempt's blood pressure was 140 over 103 and her pulse rate was 120 beats per minute.

A few minutes later, he said, he couldn't find a pulse and rushed her to an emergency center where she was treated and released to the Douglas County Jail.

He said her legs were covered with bruises and she claimed to have been assaulted earlier in the day at a Reno motel. She said she did not report the attack.

n A 38-year-old Gardnerville man is to appear Oct. 6 before District Judge Michael Gibbons on a charge of attempted lewdness.

Edgardo Flores, jailed Aug. 7 on $400,000 bail, waived his right Wednesday to a preliminary hearing in East Fork Justice Court.

He originally was charged with two counts of lewdness with a child under age 14.

He was accused of improperly touching a 5-year-old girl and 4-year-old boy. The incidents allegedly took place in June.