Minnesota mom gets 1 year in jail for driving while drunk with 5 kids in car

A Minnesota woman was sentenced to a year in jail after pleading guilty to driving while drunk with five of her children in her vehicle, the Star Tribune reported.

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According to prosecutors, Tasha Lynn Schleicher, 42, of Rochester, was drunk in September 2017 when she sideswiped a median cable barrier, exited the highway and then pulled over to breastfeed her baby along the side of the road, the newspaper reported.

Schleicher has been arrested 12 times on drunken driving charges, WTHR reported.

Schleicher, who lost custody of her 11 children, was charged in Olmsted County District Court with child endangerment, drunken driving and failing to have a driver's license. Last week, she pleaded guilty to second-degree drunken driving and all other charges were dismissed, the Star Tribune reported.

Schleicher also was sentenced last week in Hennepin County District Court after her conviction for felony drunken driving from an October 2017 arrest in Bloomington, the newspaper reported. She was sentenced to nearly 3½ years in prison.

Schleicher's sentence comes nearly a year since police in Riverside, Illinois, said they found an open bottle of whiskey in her car at a gas station, WTHR reported.

Riverside police Chief Tom Weitzel called Schleicher "one of the worst DUI offenders" in the entire country after her arrest on April 2, 2018, the television station reported.

"She blew a .20, so that's 2½ times the legal limit. She's the poster child," Weitzel told WTHR. "She knew how to work the system."

Schleicher pleaded guilty in Illinois to drunken driving and received two years of probation, the Star Tribune reported.

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