MONROE — At his sentencing Oct. 21 for his sixth drunk driving conviction, a Mount Horeb man said he’d been taking his sobriety seriously since his arrest.

Joshua Dennis Potter, 40, was arrested near New Glarus in June 2019 during a traffic stop for speeding. Court records show his blood-alcohol level that night was 0.229%, nearly three times the legal limit for driving in Wisconsin.

He pleaded no contest to the sixth-offense felony charge of operating while intoxicated, with another felony for operating with a prohibited blood-alcohol concentration dismissed as part of a plea deal.

“There’s no question in my mind that you absolutely have an alcohol problem,” Green County Judge James Beer told Potter. “How am I going to be ensured that this will finally be getting through to you?”

Potter told the court he appreciated the patience he’s received as he’s undergone treatment and worked toward sobriety.

“Over the past 15 months, I’ve struggled and taken it very, very seriously,” he said.

The judge told Potter it was “a real, real close situation” for a decision to sentence Potter to prison. But there are limited resources behind prison walls for alcohol and drug treatment and “locking someone up is a real last resort,” Beer said.

Beer instead ordered Potter to serve five years on probation, with the first year in jail. Beer also recommended the Department of Corrections put Potter on Soberlink alcohol monitoring. Potter’s driver’s license is revoked three years and he is ordered to pay $3,339 in costs and fines.

Potter has previously lived in Gratiot and Madison and has prior OWI convictions in Green County and Lafayette County. He was sentenced in 2010 in Dane County to eight months in jail and three years on probation for his fifth-offense OWI, also a felony.

Beer had parting words for Potter: “Good luck to you. I hope we don’t see you here again.”