Dad Who Let 9-Year-Old Drive Pleads Guilty
BROWNSTOWN TWP. (WWJ) - A downriver man who used his daughter as a designated driver has pleaded guilty to child abuse charges.
Shawn Weimer pled guilty on Monday to second-degree child abuse and to allowing an unlicensed minor to drive a motor vehicle.
Weimer's daughter testified about driving her father's van in the early morning hours of October 8 because, the girl said, her father had been drinking whiskey all night.
Police said the girl was behind the wheel — and in a child booster seat — when the full-size panel van was pulled over around 3 a.m. According to police, the girl said "What did you stop me for? I was driving good."
Weimer, who was immediately arrested, told police he was teaching his daughter how to drive.
Surveillance video from a Telegraph Road gas station shows Weimer explaining to the clerk that his child was his designated driver for the night.
He is scheduled to be sentenced in February.