Court watching: Drunk-driving mother gets plea deal, ‘child endangerment’ dropped

On March 21, WDIV Detroit televised police recordings of a mother, with a one-year-old child in the back seat, driving while “super drunk” as the Sumpter Police car behind her tried to get her to stop.
The dash-cam and body-cam images provided to the TV station showed the mother driving away from Officer Brian Steffani who attempted to stop her for speeding in the area of Bemis and Lohr roads. She drove north to her home in Van Buren Estates mobile home park in Van Buren Township.
Police told the TV station she failed the field sobriety test and was three times the legal limit of alcohol once they got the breath test. When asked why she ignored the lights and siren of the police car behind her, she told them she didn’t know they were behind her because she was listening to the radio and talking to her daughter.
A case of beer and bag of chips were in the front seat and she said her husband sent her out to get the beer.
On June 10, 34th District Court Judge David Parrott accepted the plea deal with Melody Rubago, 44, in the March 20 incident. Rubago pled guilty to driving while physically impaired and accepted responsibility for a speeding ticket and failure to yield ticket, in exchange for the court dismissing the child endangerment charge (operating while intoxicated with an occupant less than 16).
She admitted to the judge that she drove after drinking alcohol at about 6:46 p.m. March 20. The police report gave her blood alcohol content as .26.
Murray Duncan was her attorney.
Judge Parrott sent her to the probation department to set up alcohol screening. She will be back before the judge for sentencing in the future.
Terrance Antwan Carlton
Christopher Michael Miller
Co-defendants Terrance Antwan Carlton, 27, and Christopher Michael Miller, 30, were before Judge Parrott on June 10 to face identical charges of armed robbery, larceny from the person, and felonious assault.
Van Buren Township Police say the crimes took place Feb. 1, 2014 and the warrant was approved April 2, 2015.
Carlton had retained Joseph Wagner as his attorney, but a new attorney told Judge Parrott that she had been retained instead by Carlton just two days earlier and she needed time to study the case.
Judge Parrott adjourned the preliminary exam on the two until 11 a.m., July 1. He said there would be no further adjournments.
Carlton’s bond of $10,000 or 10%, which he posted, was continued.
Miller’s attorney is Michael Vincent and he had no problem with the adjournment. Miller’s case had been adjourned before as the court waited for Carlton’s case to catch up so they could be tried together.
Judge Parrott asked Vincent if he planned to hold the preliminary exam instead of waiving it and Vincent said it probably will be held. He said a plea deal has been offered and he is going to discuss it with his client.
Miller’s bond of $5,000 or 10%, which also had been posted, was continued.
Shirley Steward
Shirley Steward took a plea deal and pled guilty to failure to stop at a personal injury accident on Jan. 29, 2014 in Sumpter Township in which a male driver was injured.
A second charge was dismissed for the guilty plea.
Judge Parrott asked her if she failed to stop and identify herself and she said that was so and apologized to the judge.
“I’m sorry,” she said, indicating she abandoned the vehicle and ran away. “I was just scared … I wasn’t even at fault.”
She said she was at a red light waiting to turn and the light turned yellow for him and he put on the gas and hit her.
Judge Parrott accepted the plea and said it looked to him like it was “panic and poor judgment … in a snowstorm.”
She was ordered to pay $885 in fines and costs with restitution to be determined by the probation department.
Austin Sigarto
Austin Sigarto also took a plea deal, entering a guilty plea to domestic violence in Sumpter Township on May 24. The charge will be dismissed after six months if there are no further problems.
Sigarto told the judge he was having an argument with the mother of his child and he held her by the waist. He said he was trying to talk to her.
“Technically that is assault,” said Judge Parrott. “She didn’t want you to touch her.”
Judge Parrott ordered counseling as determined by the probation department and four days on the work program. When Sigarto said he didn’t have time for that, Judge Parrott said he could schedule him on Sundays, which he did. There were total fines of $645.
The victim said she would like to change the order of “no contact” to “no assaultive contact,” which the judge did.
Sumpter Police Officer Colleen Gottschalk was in charge of the case.