FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 24, 2018
COVINGTON—District Attorney Warren Montgomery reports that Olivia Matte, 27, of Metairie, pleaded guilty to driving while intoxicated (first offense) and improper lane usage Tuesday (April 24), after District Judge William Knight rejected her attempts to delay the case.
Knight sentenced Matte to a suspended six-month jail sentence, enrollment in a DWI and substance abuse treatment program, four eight-hour days of community service, a $600 fine plus court costs, and continued house arrest until charges pending against her in Jefferson Parish are resolved. She was required to pay a $50 fine plus court costs on the improper lane usage charge.
Matte was stopped on Dec. 7, 2016, by a Louisiana State Police trooper after he observed her car veer multiple times across the center line of Louisiana Highway 22 in Mandeville and then ride on the line for another 30 feet. The officer noted that Matte’s eyes were “bloodshot” and glossy and that she was swaying back and forth and smelled of alcohol. Matte refused a breathalyzer but failed a field sobriety test and was arrested.
Just weeks before her St. Tammany arrest, Matte had completed a Diversion Program for a previous DWI arrest on the Causeway in Jefferson Parish, and authorities there ultimately dismissed the charge. Though Matte was charged by State Police in St. Tammany with DWI second offense, D.A. Montgomery was prohibited by law from pursuing the case as a second offense because the initial charge had been dismissed.
Matte was charged with DWI a third time on March 23, 2017, while out on bond for the St. Tammany charge, after an accident on the Causeway in Jefferson Parish resulted in the death of a Mississippi man. Matte faces the following charges in Jefferson Parish: vehicular homicide, failure to maintain control, driving with a suspended license, and vehicular negligent injury.
Matte’s attorney requested a continuance Tuesday to delay the St. Tammany case, but Assistant District Attorney Harold Bartholomew objected, and Judge Knight rejected the attorney’s request. A short while later, Matte pleaded guilty to the charges.
Knight noted during the sentencing that by law he had to sentence Matte for a first offense DWI and that he could not consider the pending charges in Jefferson Parish.