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Truck driver sentenced for DUI

| July 11, 2017 1:00 AM

By RALPH BARTHOLDT

Staff Writer

COEUR d'ALENE — A 40-year-old Post Falls truck driver with six DUI convictions was sentenced to prison Monday in Coeur d’Alene for being drunk when he drove a semi-trailer truck through an intersection earlier this year.

Grigoriy A. Kharlamov was sentenced in First District Court to a fixed four years in prison with a maximum of 10 years behind bars.

Before being sentenced, Kharlamov told Judge Lansing Haynes the latest incident, for which he had already served 164 days in the Kootenai County jail, had changed his life.

He asked the court for placement on a rehabilitation program.

Haynes, however, said given Kharlamov’s criminal history there was no room in the sentencing parameters for leniency.

“It is extensive, it is alarming in terms of the number of DUIs,” Haynes said.

Police said Kharlamov was behind the wheel of a swerving, semi-trailer truck, Jan. 27, that couldn’t maintain its speed when it drove onto an Interstate 90 ramp and through a red light. His blood alcohol level was almost twice the legal limit when he was arrested.

Deputy prosecutor Dave Robins said Kharlamov’s drinking problem has placed him in similar situations many times before. He wondered out loud how he could maintain a trucking license.

Kharlamov has already served prison time for two prior DUI convictions, including 16 months behind bars in 2000 when he injured another motorist, Robins said. The defendant was sentenced to an additional two-year prison term in 2005.

“He has injured people before, yet he still … drives semi-trailer trucks,” Robins said. “He has done prison before and it did nothing to deter him.”

Jay Logsdon of the public defender’s office, said his client is an alcoholic with an extensive history of alcohol-related offenses who has never been ordered treatment by the court. No court in almost two decades has ordered rehabilitation as an alternative for Kharlamov.

“I think the right thing to do is recognize the need for rehabilitation,” Logsdon said. “He’s just tired of this happening to him, and he wants it stopped.”

Haynes imposed the four- to 10-year sentence and ordered Kharlamov’s driver’s license be revoked for five years after he is released from prison.