HONESDALE -- A Dunmore man has been given a state prison sentence of 7 to 15 years in Wayne County Court today. A jury had found Sean Hannon, 49, guilty of to two felony counts of endangering the welfare of children, two misdemeanor counts of Driving Under the Influence, two misdemeanor counts of recklessly endangering others and summary counts of driving under a DUI suspension and permitting an unauthorized person to drive.
District Attorney Patrick Robinson said the jury deliberated for approximately one hour before reaching their verdict in the case, in which Hannon had been accused of allowing his 11-year-old daughter to drive a vehicle from Covington Township in Lackawanna County to Salem Township in Wayne County.
Evidence at Hannon’s Jury trial showed that the Defendant allowed his daughter to drive from his house on Drinker Turnpike to the intersection of SR 690 and Neville Road in Salem Township, while his 8-year-old son was a passenger. The child drove the approximately 10 miles erratically, swerving, running a stop sign and even running an oncoming vehicle into a ditch. Eventually, she ran the vehicle up under a pine tree,
Hannon, whose blood alcohol level was .228 percent, attempted to extricate the vehicle from the pine tree branches, but was prevented from doing so by a Good Samaritan who grabbed the keys from the ignition.
DA Robinson, who prosecuted the case, said, "“The Defendant had a terrible prior record of 16 arrests resulting in numerous convictions including four Felonies. This is the Defendant’s third DUI conviction. This present wild episode involving his children is just the latest manifestation of the Defendant’s anti-social conduct. He is a menace to society and he richly deserves the 7- to 15-year sentence he received today.”