Court Records Show That the Driver Accused of Dragging a 9-year-old Girl Behind His Suv Has Been Arrested for DUI Before

New information has been found about the guy who is accused of hitting a 9-year-old girl with his SUV and dragging her for almost a quarter mile.

Jeffrey Atkinson is accused of hitting a family of five with his left turn into a crosswalk and pulling Ashley Escalante, 9, along with it.

Family members are with Escalante in the intensive care unit (ICU) at Dayton Children’s Hospital while he heals. A piece of her leg is gone.

Atkinson was taken to the Montgomery County Jail on charges of driving while drunk, leaving the scene of an accident, and assaulting another driver while driving.

For 30 years, Charles M. Rowland has been a DUI and OVI lawyer.

In the last five years, the Ohio State Highway Patrol has caught almost 100,000 people for DUI and OVI.

Rowland said, “For a first offense OVI, the minimum sentence is three days in jail or a weekend intervention program.”

He said that people who go to the three-day weekend recovery program don’t break the law again 87% of the time.

However, data from the OSP shows that 30% of drivers arrested for OVI did it again.

Court records showed that Atkinson had been arrested for DUI or OVI in 1991 and 2022 before he was caught earlier this month.

Rowland said, “That’s a tragedy. No one in the world wants anyone to get hurt by a drunk driver.” People say, “But an accusation is just that. Our system is the best in the world because we believe that we are innocent until proven guilty.”

Next week, Atkinson will be in court.