Convicted drunk driver out on CCP

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - A year and a half ago, a drunk driver hit a 14-year-old boy, nearly killing him. She was convicted and sentenced to a year in jail, but she was let out on community custody after just three weeks behind bars.

Alicia Hicks was drunk when she hit Milton Baca, who was standing on the side of the road near Menaul and Carlisle in northeast Albuquerque on July 5, 2008. The crash left Baca in a coma, and doctors said he only had a 20 percent chance to survive.

The community custody program Alicia Hicks is on requires that she wear an electronic monitoring bracelet on her ankle. She also has to attend counseling classes and stay away from drugs and alcohol.

Capt. Heather Lough with the Bernalillo County Metropolitan Detention Center said they thought the program would be the most beneficial to prevent Hicks from driving drunk again. Hicks doesn't have a criminal history, so the jail decided she could be placed on the program.

"To change her behaviors and to support her in a structure and out in the community, where she has those triggers, and to make the difference in her life, and so she won't re-offend, we felt it would be the best structure for her," Lough said.

Judge Stan Whitacker, who had sentenced Hicks, could have ruled against allowing her out on the community custody program, but didn't.

He did not return News 13's phone calls requesting an explanation.

Meanwhile, Baca, who looks like a normal 15-year-old, continues to struggle with the injuries he sustained in the crash.

"They don't see the pills I take in the morning so I don't have seizures," he said. "I have to take Ritalin to keep myself awake, because if I get too tired, I will have a seizure."

His mother, Jennifer Stone, said Hicks should have stayed in jail.

"Milton sat in the hospital for five and a half months for something that was her fault," Stone said. "She gets to sit at home and eat bonbons or whatever. I just do not feel the justice here at all."

Hicks had asked the court to clear the criminal charge from her record when she finished her sentence, but the judge declined.