Interesting weekend
 

Friday night at 3 AM, my cat was acting strangely. It was meowing and running to the door of the bedroom, then running back to me. I thought maybe it wanted me to follow it, so I got up and followed it to the bathroom.

In my back yard, there was a car sitting there with the headlights on. It's not a place a car would normally be. My lot is almost 2 acres, so to get there you would either need to come in the driveway and drive to the top of the hill, or you would need to go off the road, drive across a fairly steep drop. I watched for a few minutes, and I couldn't see any movement. We don't have street lights, so all I could see was the glare of the headlights.

There is a very large oak tree at the back of the property, so my first thought were that somebody may have run off the road and hit the oak, but the headlights would have been damaged. I wasn't sure what was going on, but I decided to get my gun just in case.

A few minutes later, I went back to the window and saw a person stumbling around the back corner of the lot. He wandered about 50 feet down hill, then leaned up against another tree. I decided he was just drunk.

In the meantime, my wife had called the police. The dispatch said the police were about ten minutes out, and told me not to go outside. Police arrived shortly thereafter. The guy was still leaning up against the tree, the cop told him to go stand in front of his patrol car. The guy then sat down on the road and the cop apparently talked to him for a few minutes. By this time, I had walked out onto the back deck.

The officer said it was a young man who had too much to drink. He hadn't hit anything with the car. The officer said the young man had called some of his friends to come get him and the car, and that unless I objected, he was going to let his friends take him and the car home. I had no objections.

I was very surprised the officer let the guy go with no DUI. He wasn't driving, wasn't in the car, and he hadn't damaged anything. A county deputy responded, he was a very nice older guy. His friends arrived, got the car and their buddy and left.

The next day, I went up to the road to see how he ended up where he was. He went between a Neighborhood Watch sign and a brick subdivision sign, barely missing both. He was extremely lucky he didn't damage his car and he got off with a stern talk from the deputy.

So what do you think? Should he have gotten a DUI?

I would say without some sort of consequences, he may do it again.
I got a dui years ago and had it dropped to a reckless due to the Trooper going to bat for me..
However! I had to go through all the stuff one does when convicted of a dui as part of the deal..
I won't so much as use mouthwash and drive a car now... the pain of the consequences cured me of ever doing that again.
It should be enough to think I could have killed someone else... but thought I was invincible.. consequences change behavior in my opinion.

I doubt that happens very often. I would say in almost all cases, yes, should get the DUI. However, there may be some extenuating circumstances. For example, did he run off the road, or did he realize he was too drunk to drive and pulled over intentionally? He did have the sense to call for help. Does he have a pristine driving record or lots of violations. Is he clean cut and polite, or is he an argumentative prick that looks like a criminal?

I live near a T intersection, lets say above the left hand part of the horizontal bar. One miserable night, I hear a godawful noise, and go into the field next to me to find a lady went straight thru the dead end intersection, and ended up in the field near my garage. It was very dark, very rainy, foggy, and generally cold and miserable, not to mention about 10pm. Lady driving was early 70s. Obviously shaken up, and managed to strain her SUV between two trees about 6" narrower than her vehicle at somewhere around 40mph. Glass everywhere. She was out of the vehicle before I even got to it. I brought her in the house, warmed her up, calmed her down. I called her husband from her phone, he lives 2 miles away. He called the cops. Sheriffs deputy arrives, talks to her, no DUI. Talks to me. Deputy says he is not citing her. No property destroyed besides hers, and she wasn't injured. We also heard that she had just moved her own mother in with her so the mother could die in peace in a familiar place. Nothing but sympathy for the lady, she was just having a bad night. Deputy was older and exercised a lot of discretion, he could written a whole bunch of tickets.

He appeared to be a fairly clean cut guy in his early 20s, may have been a college student.

I live in an older subdivision with large lots. My lot is at the entrance to the subdivision. He apparently turned off the main road, and somehow ran off the road between a sign on a metal post and the brick subdivision sign and ended up on the back corner of my lot. Where he ended up was not a logical place to pull over. He was in a small SUV, if he had been in a fairly low car he would have torn the front end up. There were marks on the ground where he dug into the dirt.

I think he ran off the road, then probably realized he was too drunk to drive. He got out of the car to assess where he was, got dizzy and leaned up against a tree. It's my understanding the officer asked the young man if he had anyone who could come and get him, and the young man called a friend who was willing to come get him. The officer told me it didn't appear he had damaged anything, and asked me if I had any issues with letting him go with a warning. I never spoke to the young man personally, but from observing the interaction with the officer he didn't seem argumentative and complied with the officer's orders.

I just hope he learned a lesson, doesn't do it again.

The officer used his discretion in doing the logical thing and getting his friends to pick him up. Yes, he could have arrested him for DUI but it would have been easily thrown out because there were no "wheel" witnesses to him actually driving the car. He was out and hugging a tree when you saw him and when the officer saw him.

And even if the kid in his drunken state actually admitted to the officer he was driving, any defense attorney would have had a fun time with that. It would go something like this: (with a nod to Blazing Saddles)

Lawyer: So officer, according to your testimony my client was obviously intoxicated right?

Officer: Yes Sir, he was.

Lawyer: His speech was slurred and incomprehensible, right?

Officer: Yes it was.

Lawyer: Pretty much gibberish right?

Officer: Yes.

Lawyer: Authentic Frontier Gibberish?

Officer: Absolutely

Lawyer: Officer, are you a certifed interpreter of Authentic Frontier Gibberish?

Officer: Well no I'm not but..

Lawyer: So you have no idea what my client Mr. Gabby Johnson actually said, yet you claim he admitted to driving that car and parking it by the side of the road. And as you yourself testified earlier, you never did actually see him in the car did you...or behind the wheel did you?

Officer: No, I didnt.

Lawyer: No more questions for this witness, your Honor. Your Honor, motion for directed verdict of not guilty for failing to show a required element of the crime. There were no witnesses to my client being behind the wheel of the car.

Judge: Motion for directed verdict of Not Guilty is granted.


:-)

I was a former prosecutor decades ago and actually had a trial go just like this: the guy had come to his senses in the bar parking lot before leaving and got out of his car and was found snoring in the grass twenty feet from the car. The officer took the guy's wallet out and matched his driver's license name with the registration of the car and arrested him for a DUI. It only took five minutes for the not guilty verdict by a jury who all believed he did exactly the right thing by sleeping it off in the poison ivy bushes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ke5M...=MichaelTurner

I've never had a DUI. But when I was a teenager I got all kinds of tickets, mostly for speeding. I calmed way down in my early 20s. I learned early on that being very polite, apologizing, not arguing or trying to talk my way out of it, would get me a really long way. Now, I rarely get pulled over but there have been a few times over the last 40 years where I pushed the "9 mph over rule" just a little too far. So I have a clean record, I'm very polite, I don't argue and since my "teenage terror" days, they have always let me off with a warning.

Kid was exceptionally lucky that night on many levels.

If he’s a smart, decent guy, I’m sure the next morning he fully realized just how unbelievably lucky he was and will take the lesson close to heart. And I’m sure his friends who retrieved him will frequently remind him of exactly that!

If he’s NOT a smart, decent guy, well… he’d better hope that the same officer doesn’t pull him over for swerving between lanes.

Time will tell.

A DUI is a very serious, enormously expensive violation that will haunt someone’s life and wallet for many years.

Sounds to me like the officer is a seasoned veteran of the police force and very fair. With his years of experience, wisdom and discretion he most likely did exactly the right thing.


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They had a DUI campaign here in Ohio that showed someone blowing into a breathalyzer on the billboard, The caption under the picture said "Can you blow $10,000?" That is probably how much a DUI will cost you here, if not more.

By the same token, fairly often you'll hear on the news that someone has been pulled over for the 11th time for DUI, and driving under suspension, so some people never learn, even with consequences.

Years ago I was let off the hook, and I never did it again.

It all depends upon the individual, and the circumstances, IMO.

Same here, in my case, rolled six inches over the white line at a stop sign. Years ago, will never repeat that offence. I have some friends pretty high up in NY state law enforcement ... barracks that the troopers took me to was commanded by a very good friend .. but it was 30 min before he came to work. Called me later that day, sorry that he couldn't do anything .. mentioned he had two troopers that month he let go because of DUIs.

Strangest thing, called my attorney, went to court a few days later, paid the fine $540, $700 to my attorney, did the classes etc. I had an absolutely pristine driving record for 20 years. My insurance never went up, in fact it went down the next year, my motorcycle insurance never went up, my wife insured with the same company, same household .. never went up. Never heard a word from the insurance companies. I think some phone calls were exchanged between some friends at the Capital ... and some how it got erased from the database the DMV allows the insurance companies to access. And not wanting to look a gift horse in the mouth, I've never asked for a transcript of my driving record, or pressed any of my friends about it.

In NY ... there is ZERO being let go on a DUI, numerous organizations always watching for that to happen. If you are in your vehicle drunk, back seat, unconscious, with the keys locked in the trunk .... they will still write you a DUI ... in NY they do not have to SEE you driving. If you are IN the car, and the keys are in the car (in the trunk counts evidently) ... and you are drunk (not on your own property) they will give you a DUI.

Although ... rural situation, Deputy Sheriff pulls you over ... anything is possible, county Sheriffs have huge sway over how they run their departments.

In PA, you only have to have the keys in the ignition lock, that is constituted as intent to drive.

Two guys came out of a bar at closing time, neither one is fit to drive, and they realize that. It was winter time and they were intermittently starting the car in the parking lot to keep warm, while sleeping it off. Cop sees a lone car in the lot, and investigates. The car was not running, but the keys were still in the ignition. He cites the guy sitting in the front seat for DUI because the keys show intent to drive.

A guy I used to work with has a brother that is a state cop, so I asked him about that, he says that it is correct, and it probably would stick in court. It sounded far fetched to me, so that is the reason I asked my buddy's brother. So in PA you can be on private property, not actually operating the car, and still get pinched if the key is in the ignition, it doesn't seem right, but he said it was......:noidea:

I want to hear more about that cat

The cat likes to sit in the window that the car's headlights were shining into.

He's very good at communicating what he wants. He doesn't meow unless he wants something. During the day he'll come into my office and meow, then turn around and head out. If he goes into the bathroom, he's out of water. If he goes into the extra bedroom, he's out of food. If he heads toward the bedroom, he wants me to lay down on the bed and pet him. We've had him for about 15 years now, he's finally got me trained.

I worked down in Florida at the time I was a prosecutor. (25 years ago) The local defense attorneys knew that any time a case came up like that where the guy obviously did the right thing by sleeping in off in his car, that they would always take those to trial. They knew that 1) no jury would ever convict in that circumstance because the guy was doing what everyone says they should do: park it and sleep it off or get a cab, and 2) the state would drop the case if it actually got set for a trial date and offer the guy a $50 disorderly conduct citation for disturbing the peace (nonspecific incident based on loud snoring/stereo/open container).

The most important thing is nobody got hurt. That said, there should be consequences to his actions. I'd bet money he will do this again and perhaps not be so lucky. I have serious issues with people that drink and drive as I've been on the receiving end of that type of behavior (at great physical and financial cost)!!

I sure wish they would handle texting and driving the same way .. there is not a single time I drive into town and back (14 miles each way) that I don't see someone do something dangerous while on their phone ... every single time. Last week it was a woman that blew through a four way stop ... never looked up, never slowed down ... I watcher her in my mirror and she never even hit the brakes after she went through it, she most likely had no idea there was even a stop sign. Might as well been blotto drunk.

I'm with Bermuda Blue! I think your feline friend is Awesome!!
The subject of the DUI has been handled very well.
Growing up, we only had dogs. Thats all I was familiar with, and they were the best buddies a kid could have. I had several cats as an adult. Man are they different from dogs!
One in particular was my "watch cat". So I can relate to your story.
Cheers

Agree with dataway...texting while driving is becoming as prominent an evil as drinking. Don't see a way to legislate against that unless vehicle manufacturers and/or phone manufacturers figure out a way to block while driving. LEOs don't seem to care unless there is an accident.

So then why is that dumb law punishing someone for doing the correct thing? I found it ironic that, as you said, they did the right thing, and still got cited.

The guy I talked to, (state cop), is by the book, and straight as an arrow, when it came to being a cop, and enforcing the law. He's not someone that will "cut someone a break" typically. He probably would not have cut the guy in this OPs incident, a break, he would have been in jail.

Is there a reason there is an the "intent to drive" clause for some other reason? It surely doesn't seem well intentioned, in the case I cited, and actually seems counterproductive.