Man Suspended In Vicious Cycle

When Robert Lovoi Jr. lost his driver’s license, he lost more than the right to drive on Idaho roads.

He lost his job. Home-buying plans crumbled.

“It’s really affected my whole life,” says the 28-year-old father of three.

Lovoi is one of thousands of Idahoans who have lost their driving privileges for breaking one of more than 50 state laws. But for Lovoi and many like him, being ordered off the streets is the start of a cycle that can mire them deeper in the legal system and drag them further into debt.

Lovoi, who lost his license for not paying traffic citations, said he was forced to drive illegally so he could go to work and feed his family. He has since been arrested numerous times for “driving without privileges” and is now facing possible prison time.

“It is very cyclical,” concedes Kootenai County Deputy Prosecutor Erika Ellingsen. “For many people out there, it is a crime of poverty.”

Lovoi’s trouble started in California. The Idaho native lived there for seven years. During that time, he got several traffic citations - citations he didn’t pay.

“I was single and just didn’t care about them and didn’t pay them on time,” he says. “By the time I realized I needed to take care of them, it was too late. They had gone to warrants.”

When he moved back to Idaho in 1993, he was pulled over for a traffic infraction. Officers discovered that his license had been suspended in California for the unpaid tickets. Lovoi was cited and arrested for “driving without privileges.”

Two months later, they caught him driving illegally again, according to court records.

When he went to court on the two DWP charges, a judge gave him 20 days in jail, a $64 fine and suspended his license. Still, in the following two years, police arrested Lovoi three more times for driving when he wasn’t supposed to.

Lovoi says it is nearly impossible to survive in North Idaho - much less take care of a family - without driving. There is little public transportation. On several occasions he says he was caught on his way to or from work - a job he needed to both feed his family and pay the mounting California fines.

“What he did was wrong, but it’s like, how do they expect you to pay these fines when you can’t work?” asks Lovoi’s wife, Michelle, who now tries to support the family on a store clerk’s wages.

“It is a right and a privilege to drive, but isn’t it a right to try to take care of your family? Don’t we have a right to feed our kids and clothe them and house them?”

The prosecutor agreed to dismiss two of the DWP charges against Lovoi if he agreed to plead guilty to the third. The prosecutor also agreed not to make the remaining DWP a felony. Lovoi was sentenced to more jail time, fined $570 and had his license suspended for another year, according to court records.

Ellingsen says she tries to negotiate with people who have been caught in the DWP revolving door. She would rather see them pay off their fines and get their licenses back legally than spend time behind bars.

“A lot of these people are just people who don’t have the money to reinstate their license,” Ellingsen says, noting the cost ranges from $15 to $155. “So, they just dig themselves in deeper and deeper.”

Robert Moser, 27, of Coeur d’Alene, lost his license after being convicted of three drunken-driving charges. But after the suspension period was over he couldn’t afford the reinstatement fee on top of fines and increased insurance costs.

He’s since been cited three times for failing to purchase a license.

“I feel like I’m a little kid again,” he says. Although he admits what he did was wrong, he says friends often aren’t willing to give him a ride. Pedaling a bicycle around town isn’t realistic in the winter.

“It’s tempting (to drive) when you’ve got a rig sitting outside,” he says.

“We’re talking about a responsibility issue here,” says Capt. Ben Wolfinger of the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Department. “You’re responsible to obey these laws or you’re going to lose a privilege. If they can’t meet that level of responsibility, then maybe they don’t belong behind the wheel.”

But Robert Lovoi says he has lost his job as a tree trimmer and steel worker because he can’t drive. He has hunted for work, but says some places won’t even accept applications from people without driver’s licenses. He and his wife were prepared to buy a house, he says, but that plan fell through when he lost his job.

Last month, Lovoi again was arrested for DWP. If the prosecutor decides to pursue felony charges, he could face up to three years in prison.

Lovoi also is responsible for child support. Thanks to a new law, those who don’t keep up their payments face license suspension.

But Michelle Lovoi points again to the vicious cycle. “How can he pay child support when he can’t work?”

, DataTimes