The Detroit driver who was caught on camera talking about how well his 9 year old daughter drives has been sentenced to exactly two years of probation because he allowed the young girl to drive him to and from places simply because he was too drunk to drive.
The driver, Shawn Weimer, was no longer boasting about his daughter’s driving skills while in the courtroom. On the surveillance video, Weimer was shown bragging about his daughter and how she drives amazingly in his van. He also said that his daughter is his designated driver. The father no longer had much to say, aside from an apology that he issued about his poor decision to allow his child to drive a car at the age of 9.
Weimer chose to plead guilty for second degree child abuse because he let his daughter, who does not have a license and is underage, drive his car. He was arrested in October after the police pulled him over because they saw that a child was driving the car. His daughter testified that her father had been drinking and she told him she would drive but that she was very nervous.
Weimer said in comments before that when he was a child, his father used to let him drive on their farm and that he wanted his daughter to share a similar experience, learning to drive with her father. He also said she has driven four-wheel drives off of the road for quite a while.
Weimer is still allowed to see his daughter but all visits are supervised. Weimer is hoping to receive unsupervised visits as soon as possible. Because of his sentence, he needs to complete a program for substance abuse and will also need to do community service. He also says he has attended Alcoholics Anonymous meeting in the past. In court, Weimer was portrayed as a good father with a kind heart or simply made a bad judgment call.