The guy who went to court...
...yesterday did get the DUI dropped. They pleaded it down to a failure to maintain charge and everybody who hears the story says how "lucky" he was. That's such a crock. If he HAD been drunk, he'd be lucky to get the lesser charge but we wasn't drunk.
He was in a car accident earlier this year...some idiot ran him off the road and then kept going. There were witnesses to that wreck so no one could say that he "failed to maintain" a lane for any other reason except for the fact that another car pushed him out of the lane he was in.
Then, after he crawled out of his car and made it to the shoulder to collapse from his injuries...a cop showed up and asked him to do a field sobriety test. The guy couldn't get up so he didn't do it and that made the cop mad. They had to call an ambulance for the man who was sent to the hospital and that's where I met him. By that time, the EMT report didn't say a thing about smelling alcohol. According to the records, neither the doctor, the other nurses nor I smelled any alcohol. The only "evidence" that the man had been drinking was his own admission that, "Yeah, I had a beer on the way home from work, hours ago."
The doctored ordered pain medicine which he wouldn't have done if he had smelled alcohol. I read the ENTIRE medical report where NOT ONE medical professional said anything about the man being drunk. I've filled out MANY an assessment on patients conditions and if I had smelled alcohol, if I had thought for one minute that the patient was under the influence of ANYTHING, if the man had so much as one blood shot eyeball...any medical professional worth his salt would mention it in the assessment. We're taught to "use all 5 senses in our assessments" and one small sniff of alcohol, one slurred word or one inappropriately dilated or constricted eyeball would have made it to the medical records by any one of the 7 medical professionals who assessed the man at one point or another that night.
There was absolutely NO evdience to convict than man of a DUI but the ridiculous prosecutors wouldn't let him get away without a conviction of some sort. They offered reckless driving but the guy's attorney talked them down to the failure to maintain charge. If he wanted to fight the original charge, he could have and he WOULD have won. But...there was one small problem. His license was suspended the day of the wreck and his chosen profession requires one so he hasn't been able to work his regular job since. The ONLY way he could get his license back yesterday was to plea to something that he didn't do but still carried a $420 fine, 12 months probation with all the fees that go along with that, community service and points on his driving record. Not to mention the fact that the DUI is STILL on his record (but it will say, "No pros" so people will know it was pleaded down.) and he has to go to the DMV to get another license because "no one knows where his license is and no one ever gets these things pleaded down so we have no idea what you'll have to do to get it back. Ask the DMV."
Of course, who knows how much money the man lost waiting to clear his name and driving record (which, of course, isn't totally clear.). He HAD to get his license back so rather than go to a trial which he would have EASILY won...he has to go through a bunch of bullshit all because some OTHER asshole who MIGHT have been drunk cut the dude off on the highway.
I have no problem with people getting DUI's. If they're out there driving around while my children are out there with them...I want them taken off the road. I do have a slight problem with the fact that you can get a DUI after enough drinks to be LEGALLY drunk, but not ACTUALLY drunk. But even then, people know the law, if they drive after so much as 2 drinks, they're just asking for trouble. I've been asked to do field sobriety tests a couple of times in my life. Once I wasn't drunk and once I was. The time that I was drunk, I was WAAAAYYY drunk. I thanked the cops for pulling me off the road that time. The other time, I was just driving with a light out and I had a drunk dude in the car with me who I was trying to take home. The jerk couldn't remember where he lived and the friend who asked me to take the drunk dude home told me that he knew where his house was.
Well, he didn't. I took him to my house at one point and asked him to just crash on my couch and we would deal with it in the morning. He didn't want to do that because he had to go to work so I tried one more time to find his house. THAT'S when I got pulled over. I was so secure in my sobriety that I didn't worry one bit about a DUI. But, the drunk dude smelled up the car and the cop didn't know who smelled like booze so he ask me to take the test. I did fine but then he wanted me to blow. To this day I don't know what I blew because I was so shocked to hear, "You're under arrest for driving under the influence." I hadn't even finished the second drink and that was a LONG time before I was stopped. BUT...it was shortly after Rick left and I still had the cancer so I was a bit emaciated at 89 pounds. Apparently it doesn't take much beer to be legally drunk at that weight.
Even though I don't think I deserved that DUI...I was still willing to pay my debt to society, which by the way, is substantial with a DUI...even the ONLY DUI you ever get. I never got the DUI for the time when I told the cop, "I can't walk a straight line, I'm drunk." I was in a county where my parents were quite influential so the cop let me go. I'm NOT happy with that. He didn't let me drive, but if ever I deserved a DUI...that was the time.
It was so ironic that I should have been driving drunk that day. A bunch of friends and I went to a backyard party given by one of the Chicago Bears. Everything was great, the food, the staff and even the ponies for the kids. I had one of my kids there and that one ate far too much shrimp before I caught him. Anyway, I was the designated driver for that day. Everyone else wanted to drink and since I had my kid with me...I just didn't drink. I didn't mind at all, I've never enjoyed drinking during the day.
Anyway, after the party, we went back to my girlfriend's house and then I did drink. I don't know how much I had...I don't even remember why I tried to drive. I don't remember anything except the blue lights in my rear view. Oh, I remember telling the cop, "Leave me alone, I'm drunk." To this day I don't know why I was driving that car but I doubt that I got very far before getting pulled over.
The cop who pulled me over surely saved a life that night. I don't know who's but if it wasn't been mine, I wouldn't be able to live with myself. As I said, I thanked the cop over and over again. Who knows what would have happened if I hadn't been pulled over?
Even when I did drink, I always believed ANYONE who told me that I needed to "Pull over." so I ALWAYS did. I was never one of those people who said, "Oh...I'm FINE!!!" I don't like those people...if any other person notices a dumb driving maneuver, a cop could too. I can think of many times when I probably shouldn't have driven at all but never got tickets.
I will NEVER, EVER get a DUI because I will NOT drink and drive...PERIOD. And anyone dumb enough to do so after more than 2 or 3 drinks deserves to get a ticket. But I honestly don't think that the fines are fair. Absolutely EVERYBODY makes money in a DUI situation. The court, the lawyer, the driving school, the psych people who have to...at the very least...assess you if not order treatments...and even the higher insurance rates. I'm forgetting someone...at least one. I'm sure it's supposed to hurt a bit but think about this...a DUI conviction would absolutely take a couple years to recover from financially. That'll stick with you...unless you're flush with cash. Anyone who can afford the 5 thousand dollar price tag of a first DUI pretty much has a gimme coming to them.
And if you weren't drunk...look out. You WILL pay some ticket. Failure to maintain carried a LOT of fines for the innocent guy. I have to wonder if the prosecutor gets a cut of the fines they bring in. Why else would they have pleaded the DUI down to "failure to maintain" when the guy was run off the road? They had witnesses who saw the other guy run him off the road. So, failure to maintain wasn't even a legitimate charge. But...to get that conviction is about as far from JUSTICE than was the time that the cop let me go instead of giving me a DUI...way, way far away.
...yesterday did get the DUI dropped. They pleaded it down to a failure to maintain charge and everybody who hears the story says how "lucky" he was. That's such a crock. If he HAD been drunk, he'd be lucky to get the lesser charge but we wasn't drunk.
He was in a car accident earlier this year...some idiot ran him off the road and then kept going. There were witnesses to that wreck so no one could say that he "failed to maintain" a lane for any other reason except for the fact that another car pushed him out of the lane he was in.
Then, after he crawled out of his car and made it to the shoulder to collapse from his injuries...a cop showed up and asked him to do a field sobriety test. The guy couldn't get up so he didn't do it and that made the cop mad. They had to call an ambulance for the man who was sent to the hospital and that's where I met him. By that time, the EMT report didn't say a thing about smelling alcohol. According to the records, neither the doctor, the other nurses nor I smelled any alcohol. The only "evidence" that the man had been drinking was his own admission that, "Yeah, I had a beer on the way home from work, hours ago."
The doctored ordered pain medicine which he wouldn't have done if he had smelled alcohol. I read the ENTIRE medical report where NOT ONE medical professional said anything about the man being drunk. I've filled out MANY an assessment on patients conditions and if I had smelled alcohol, if I had thought for one minute that the patient was under the influence of ANYTHING, if the man had so much as one blood shot eyeball...any medical professional worth his salt would mention it in the assessment. We're taught to "use all 5 senses in our assessments" and one small sniff of alcohol, one slurred word or one inappropriately dilated or constricted eyeball would have made it to the medical records by any one of the 7 medical professionals who assessed the man at one point or another that night.
There was absolutely NO evdience to convict than man of a DUI but the ridiculous prosecutors wouldn't let him get away without a conviction of some sort. They offered reckless driving but the guy's attorney talked them down to the failure to maintain charge. If he wanted to fight the original charge, he could have and he WOULD have won. But...there was one small problem. His license was suspended the day of the wreck and his chosen profession requires one so he hasn't been able to work his regular job since. The ONLY way he could get his license back yesterday was to plea to something that he didn't do but still carried a $420 fine, 12 months probation with all the fees that go along with that, community service and points on his driving record. Not to mention the fact that the DUI is STILL on his record (but it will say, "No pros" so people will know it was pleaded down.) and he has to go to the DMV to get another license because "no one knows where his license is and no one ever gets these things pleaded down so we have no idea what you'll have to do to get it back. Ask the DMV."
Of course, who knows how much money the man lost waiting to clear his name and driving record (which, of course, isn't totally clear.). He HAD to get his license back so rather than go to a trial which he would have EASILY won...he has to go through a bunch of bullshit all because some OTHER asshole who MIGHT have been drunk cut the dude off on the highway.
I have no problem with people getting DUI's. If they're out there driving around while my children are out there with them...I want them taken off the road. I do have a slight problem with the fact that you can get a DUI after enough drinks to be LEGALLY drunk, but not ACTUALLY drunk. But even then, people know the law, if they drive after so much as 2 drinks, they're just asking for trouble. I've been asked to do field sobriety tests a couple of times in my life. Once I wasn't drunk and once I was. The time that I was drunk, I was WAAAAYYY drunk. I thanked the cops for pulling me off the road that time. The other time, I was just driving with a light out and I had a drunk dude in the car with me who I was trying to take home. The jerk couldn't remember where he lived and the friend who asked me to take the drunk dude home told me that he knew where his house was.
Well, he didn't. I took him to my house at one point and asked him to just crash on my couch and we would deal with it in the morning. He didn't want to do that because he had to go to work so I tried one more time to find his house. THAT'S when I got pulled over. I was so secure in my sobriety that I didn't worry one bit about a DUI. But, the drunk dude smelled up the car and the cop didn't know who smelled like booze so he ask me to take the test. I did fine but then he wanted me to blow. To this day I don't know what I blew because I was so shocked to hear, "You're under arrest for driving under the influence." I hadn't even finished the second drink and that was a LONG time before I was stopped. BUT...it was shortly after Rick left and I still had the cancer so I was a bit emaciated at 89 pounds. Apparently it doesn't take much beer to be legally drunk at that weight.
Even though I don't think I deserved that DUI...I was still willing to pay my debt to society, which by the way, is substantial with a DUI...even the ONLY DUI you ever get. I never got the DUI for the time when I told the cop, "I can't walk a straight line, I'm drunk." I was in a county where my parents were quite influential so the cop let me go. I'm NOT happy with that. He didn't let me drive, but if ever I deserved a DUI...that was the time.
It was so ironic that I should have been driving drunk that day. A bunch of friends and I went to a backyard party given by one of the Chicago Bears. Everything was great, the food, the staff and even the ponies for the kids. I had one of my kids there and that one ate far too much shrimp before I caught him. Anyway, I was the designated driver for that day. Everyone else wanted to drink and since I had my kid with me...I just didn't drink. I didn't mind at all, I've never enjoyed drinking during the day.
Anyway, after the party, we went back to my girlfriend's house and then I did drink. I don't know how much I had...I don't even remember why I tried to drive. I don't remember anything except the blue lights in my rear view. Oh, I remember telling the cop, "Leave me alone, I'm drunk." To this day I don't know why I was driving that car but I doubt that I got very far before getting pulled over.
The cop who pulled me over surely saved a life that night. I don't know who's but if it wasn't been mine, I wouldn't be able to live with myself. As I said, I thanked the cop over and over again. Who knows what would have happened if I hadn't been pulled over?
Even when I did drink, I always believed ANYONE who told me that I needed to "Pull over." so I ALWAYS did. I was never one of those people who said, "Oh...I'm FINE!!!" I don't like those people...if any other person notices a dumb driving maneuver, a cop could too. I can think of many times when I probably shouldn't have driven at all but never got tickets.
I will NEVER, EVER get a DUI because I will NOT drink and drive...PERIOD. And anyone dumb enough to do so after more than 2 or 3 drinks deserves to get a ticket. But I honestly don't think that the fines are fair. Absolutely EVERYBODY makes money in a DUI situation. The court, the lawyer, the driving school, the psych people who have to...at the very least...assess you if not order treatments...and even the higher insurance rates. I'm forgetting someone...at least one. I'm sure it's supposed to hurt a bit but think about this...a DUI conviction would absolutely take a couple years to recover from financially. That'll stick with you...unless you're flush with cash. Anyone who can afford the 5 thousand dollar price tag of a first DUI pretty much has a gimme coming to them.
And if you weren't drunk...look out. You WILL pay some ticket. Failure to maintain carried a LOT of fines for the innocent guy. I have to wonder if the prosecutor gets a cut of the fines they bring in. Why else would they have pleaded the DUI down to "failure to maintain" when the guy was run off the road? They had witnesses who saw the other guy run him off the road. So, failure to maintain wasn't even a legitimate charge. But...to get that conviction is about as far from JUSTICE than was the time that the cop let me go instead of giving me a DUI...way, way far away.
posted by Meg Kelso | 6:27 AM
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