By Mark Coddington
mark.coddington@theindependent.com

Michael Van Boening, 23, of 335 S. Plum St. pleaded no contest in Hall County Court to first-offense DUI for a Feb. 2 incident.

He was sentenced to 14 days in jail and a $400 fine and was ordered not to drive for six months.

Van Boening's bond was also increased in two other cases. He must pay $500 on a misdemeanor child abuse charge in which he is alleged to have left his 8-month-old daughter home alone on Jan. 26.

He must also pay $1,500 on charges of felony child abuse and DUI for a Jan. 20 incident in which he was stopped while his daughter was in the vehicle.

In addition to his two DUI arrests in Hall County, Van Boening was also arrested for DUI in Hamilton County on Feb. 10 and in York County on Feb. 24.

Deputy Hall County Attorney Matt Molsen had Van Boening's bond reviewed on Wednesday in four cases. He argued that, because of his repeated DUI arrests, Van Boening's bond should be raised in the interest of public safety.

"He's clearly presenting a significant danger to the community," Molsen said.

Deputy Hall County Public Defender Tregg Lunn, who was representing Van Boening, countered that his client's other DUI arrests had already been addressed through the bonds in those counties.

"We can't go back and double-bond him for punishment," Lunn said.

Hall County Judge David Bush's ruling landed between the two requests, raising Van Boening's bonds but not as much as Molsen had requested.

Bush said he was particularly concerned about Van Boening's warrant for failure to appear on Feb. 26 on the Hamilton County charge.

In the case in which Van Boening was convicted on Wednesday, Molsen said his blood-alcohol content had been found to be 0.149, nearly twice the legal limit for driving of 0.08 and just shy of the 0.15 threshold for aggravated DUI.

As part of the plea deal in that case, an earlier misdemeanor false reporting charge was dismissed. The two bonds released in those cases added up to $450, nearly enough for Van Boening to pay his new $500 bond.

Van Boening also was tried on Wednesday on the misdemeanor charge of child abuse for leaving his infant daughter at home alone.

He had been left at home with the child by his then girlfriend, the girl's mother, Amber Schmidt.

At about 2 a.m. Jan. 26, Schmidt came home to find the baby asleep and Van Boening out of the apartment. He came home a few minutes later, shortly before Grand Island police officer Wes Tjaden arrived.

Tjaden testified that Van Boening said he had been waiting outside the apartment's back door for Schmidt to return and left in his car when he saw her car approaching.

Tjaden also said Schmidt told him that night that Van Boening wasn't home when she arrived, but two days later, she said he had just ducked outside to retrieve her car, a block away.

Schmidt repeated the latter assertion in her testimony on Wednesday.

The trial is pending as attorneys submit their closing arguments in writing later this month.

Van Boening's felony child abuse charge and corresponding DUI were bound over to Hall County District Court, where he is scheduled to appear at 9 a.m. March 25.