A 10-day jail term has been handed down to former Washington County Attorney Phillip Foremaster, who pleaded guilty to driving while under the influence of alcohol.
Foremaster, 57, changed his plea Thursday during a 5th Circuit Court appearance as part of a bargain with prosecutors who dismissed charges of public intoxication, disorderly conduct, interfering with an arrest and failure to comply with booking procedures.Visiting Circuit Judge Robert Braithwaite placed Foremaster on one-year bench probation. He also ordered Foremaster, now in private law practice, to pay a $760 fine.
Foremaster - who waged a successful five-year legal battle to force the city of St. George to stop subsidizing exterior lighting of the local LDS Temple - also was ordered to undergo an alcohol assessment at the Southwest Utah Mental Health-Alcohol and Drug Center.
Both the fine and the $150 cost of the assessment will be paid out of $1,500 cash bail previously posted by Foremaster.
Braithwaite ordered the jail time to be served on weekends beginning Friday at 6 p.m. Foremaster was given credit for a half day already served following his arrest Nov. 18, 1990.
Foremaster refused to comment on his sentence or the case, but a local official of the Utah Chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving implied the court had been too lenient - considering it was Foremaster's second DUI offense.
"It's sad when people are given a lesser sentencing because of their status," said MADD Chapter President Kathy Sieverts, who attended the hearing. "If it was someone else, not of his status, they would have had much stiffer penalties."
Foremaster was arrested Nov. 18 near the I-15 interchange shortly after a clerk at a gas station reported an intoxicated person, police said.
Foremaster pleaded guilty in 1986 to another DUI charge.