Seattle Area Man Racks up 11th DUI Since 1984, Labeled a ‘Grave Danger’

The 59-year-old man, now living in Renton, WA, is being held in lieu of $500,000 bail after being pulled over last Friday.

According to the Seattle Times, Dean Hermson has been charged with 11 DUI counts since 1984, three since 2006. He had been out of prison for only five months since his last conviction.

Records show Hermson has been arrested for DUI in 1984, 1985, and again in 1995, 1996, 2000, twice in 2002, and 2003. He received a felony DUI conviction in Nevada in 2006.

In 2010, says the Times, he was arrested after a confrontation in a bar where he was reportedly becoming too aggressive with a woman in the bar. He was pulled over driving home.  At least three times he has also been charged with failure to install an interlock device on his vehicle, and various incidents of refusing to take a breathalyzer test and resisting arrest.

County prosecutor officials repeated what was said about Hermson in 2013, that he is a "grave danger" to himself and the community, and he cannot refrain from "becoming impaired and driving." It's for that reason this time he's being held in lieu of bail.

A bill that would make a 4th DUI charge a felony instead of the 5th has passed the State Senate, but is still in committee in the Democratically-controlled State House. Washington state has some of the most lenient DUI penalties in the U.S.