DETROIT (AP) — A Detroit area man caught on a gas station surveillance video boasting about his then-9-year-old daughter’s driving skills was sentenced Thursday to two years of probation for having the girl drive him around because he had been drinking.

Shawn Weimer’s demeanor was much different Thursday than it had been in the early morning hours of Oct. 8 in Brownstown Township when the camera caught him talking up his daughter’s prowess behind the wheel of the fullsize van, and declaring that she was his “designated driver.”

The 39-year-old from Romulus said little in court, answering Wayne County Circuit Judge Margie Braxton’s questions with clipped responses, and, when given the opportunity to speak, offering a brief apology for his actions that night.

Weimer pleaded guilty in December to second-degree child abuse and allowing an unlicensed minor to operate a motor vehicle. He was arrested two months earlier when police pulled over the van and found the child behind the wheel.

The girl testified in November that her father had consumed half a bottle of whiskey that night and that she had agreed to drive but felt a “little scared.”

The Times Record Sustaining Sponsor
We believe a community must be informed to thrive. bowdoin.edu