SIMI VALLEY : Man Sentenced in ’87 Traffic Accident

A Simi Valley man with nine drunk driving convictions was sentenced to two years in prison Friday after evading authorities for nearly seven years, prosecutors said.

Linwood Rose, 34, formerly of Van Nuys, received the prison term after he pleaded no contest this week in Van Nuys Municipal Court to charges stemming from a June 18, 1987, traffic accident in that city, Deputy City Atty. Sharyn Siskel said.

Rose was convicted Thursday of driving under the influence of alcohol with prior convictions and driving with a suspended license due to a prior drunk-driving conviction.

Rose, who failed field sobriety and blood-alcohol level tests following the 1987 accident, never showed up for trial, and a warrant for his arrest was issued in November of that year, Siskel said. At the time, Rose was living in Van Nuys and had already been convicted of drunk driving on five previous occasions.

Rose subsequently moved to Simi Valley. In Ventura County he was convicted three more times of drunk driving in 1988, 1990 and earlier this year. But authorities were apparently unaware of Rose’s outstanding arrest warrant in Los Angeles, Siskel said.

“It’s not the intent of the system for these people to move around and to be lost track of, but it is possible for people to slip through the cracks,” said Karen Cullie, executive director of the Los Angeles County chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

Police finally put the brakes on Rose on Sept. 10 when he was involved in his ninth alcohol-related crash, in Reseda, for which he was convicted and faces another sentencing Monday.