Grover, 58, has accumulated at least 36 traffic-related convictions over the past three decades. He's been on drugs while behind the wheel, driven recklessly and, since 1998, caused at least two crashes in which someone was hurt, records show.
In 2006, Grover's driving problems intensified. That February he was convicted of operating under the influence. In May he was convicted of driving while his license was suspended. And in August he was convicted of driving without a license and was sentenced to 48 hours in jail.
Those three convictions made Grover a "habitual offender," a license status that meant Grover would face stiffer penalties if he were pulled over again by police. But because of paperwork delays in the court system and at the Maine Bureau of Motor Vehicles, more than five months passed before the state officially reclassified Grover as a habitual offender.
In the meantime, Grover was arrested, again, for driving with a suspended license. Had the state moved more quickly, Grover would have received a minimum sentence of six months in jail under "Tina's Law," the 2006 overhaul of Maine's traffic statutes. Instead, he got a five-day jail term.
Tina's Law was passed with great fanfare. Legislators said the law would send a strong message to the state's worst driving offenders: Ignore the rules of the road, and you will pay dearly.
But as Grover's case shows, it's one thing to pass a law, and something else to enforce it effectively. And for years in Maine, bureaucratic glitches behind the scenes have diminished the effectiveness of the state's safe-driving laws.
In one wide-scale example that happened just as lawmakers were crafting Tina's Law, the state issued tens of thousands fewer license suspensions than it should have because of problems with the computer system at the judicial branch's Violations Bureau. The problems cascaded through the criminal justice system, resulting in thousands fewer prosecutions of suspended drivers in 2005 and 2006.
In Grover's case, an official at the Maine Bureau of Motor Vehicles said a staffing shortage may have contributed to the delay in classifying him as a habitual offender. And Secretary of State Mathew Dunlap, whose office oversees the motor vehicle bureau, said he believes the Grover case was an isolated incident.
Yet the delay alarmed lawmakers who helped write Tina's Law, and who see the Grover case as exactly the type of problem the law was supposed to address.
"Obviously, that beats the intent of Tina's Law," said Rep. Richard Sykes, R-Harrison, who served on the legislative committee that helped craft the law. "And it sounds like the system failed at that particular point."
Grover's last known address was at a motel in Raymond. Repeated attempts to contact him through family members were unsuccessful.
Grover's driving history and the state's handling of his case worry Pat and Bob LaNigra, mother and stepfather of Tina Turcotte, the late Scarborough woman for whom Tina's Law is named.
"Our main concern is, the law is only as good as how well it's enforced," Bob LaNigra said.
TARGETING 'WORST OF THE WORST'
Turcotte, 40, was on her way to Bangor on July 29, 2005, when, as traffic slowed to merge on the Maine Turnpike in Hallowell, a tractor-trailer slammed into her car from behind. She died from her injuries two days later.
Turcotte's death sparked outrage. Scott Hewitt, the tractor-trailer operator, had 63 prior driving convictions, and his license to drive was suspended.
In 2006, the Maine Legislature responded by enacting Tina's Law. Politically, the law was a compromise between legislators who favored tougher penalties for suspended drivers and others who were wary of requiring judges to impose lengthy minimum sentences.
The result was a law that established...
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