Deputy D.A. Sentenced on Drunk-Driving Charge

A veteran deputy district attorney who once prosecuted former California Highway Patrol Officer Craig Peyer for murder has been sentenced to two days in an honor camp for his second drunk-driving conviction.

Joseph van Orshoven, 58, was ordered this week to spend two days in the Descanso honor camp under his five-year probation.

Van Orshoven, who has been with the district attorney’s office more than 20 years, was also fined $980 by El Cajon Municipal Court Judge Eddie Sturgeon.

Deputy Atty. Gen. Rhonda Cartwright said Wednesday that the court restricted Van Orshoven to driving only to and from the El Cajon courthouse, where he now works. The restriction will last a year.

She said Van Orshoven is also barred from drinking any alcoholic beverage for one year.

“The sentence that was handed down Monday is the standard sentence for second-time driving under the influence,” Cartwright said. Because of a possible conflict of interest, the state attorney general’s office prosecuted the case.

Van Orshoven, who was not present for the misdemeanor sentencing, pleaded no contest Oct. 2 to driving under the influence as a result of an July 28 arrest by the CHP on California 67 near Lakeside.

He also was convicted of drunk driving in 1987, and was also placed on probation, but his record was expunged last year.

Cartwright is seeking to have that expungement order set aside because she said her office was not notified of that request at the time. A hearing in El Cajon on the matter is set for Nov. 3.

If the attorney general’s office is successful in reinstating Van Orshoven’s first conviction, he faces the possibility of having his probation revoked and being sent to jail for 30 days.