If you haven’t been closely following my DUI saga, the basic gist of the story is that after three hours of not drinking I got in my car, drove a block, pulled over because I realized I was still somewhat intoxicated, and next thing I know a cop was knocking my window asking me to step out of the car because someone called 911 on me due to seeing me get into my car in the parking garage.
I take full responsibility for my actions and believe I deserve the fullest punishment to the extent of the law — though in reality everyone tells you to fight the DUI conviction to at least try to get a wet reckless, which is still a misdemeanor, but has a slightly less harsh punishment.
But then there’s a separate DMV case that has to be won or lost irregardless of the result of the criminal trial. The whole thing is a huge headache, which besides the cost of the lawyer and fine, is such a major waste of time. Boys and girls, I highly advise you not to drink, wait three hours, think your sober and drive. If you’re going to be driving, don’t drink at all. Much easier than this mess.
So I finally went to see my lawyer for a meeting last night. We’ve been corresponding by email and he’s been to a few of my hearings so far to schedule the one hearing I actually need to be at — the pre-trial hearing. This is for the criminal case. He explained to me that what we want — best case scenerio — is for a plea bargin of wet reckless. If the district attorney decides to be tough and says she’ll only give a DUI conviction than the lawyer can say he is going to file a motion to dismiss due to an unlawful arrest. While this might not work, chances are the DA will, to save the court money and time on a “first-time offender,” offer the wet reckless option at this point. And — I don’t say anything at all at the court — I just sit around and wait for this offer to be presented, and accept it, and fill out a bunch of paperwork — so I’m told.
The good thing about wet reckless is that it provides a chance at the DMV hearing to not lose your license. I think that’s actually really stupid — if you are charged with wet reckless you should lose your license right then and there. But the law doesn’t make sense. So the DMV hearing requires the cop who arrested me to show up and make a statement. He’ll probably show up but it’s a good 45 minutes from his precinct — maybe he’ll be sick that day or busy doing something else, or maybe he’s not on duty then and doesn’t want to drive all the way to the DMV. Regardless, he’ll probably show up, but if he doesn’t then I’m told it’s highly likely I won’t lose my license at all. Which, again, doesn’t make any sense, but if that is the outcome then I won’t complain.
The more important part of the DMV case is that if the cop doesn’t show up and it’s dismissed, I don’t have the file the SR-22 with my insurance that basically says dear insurance companies please gouge me with extremely high rates for the next three years because I’m a dumb fuck, thankyouverymuch. Fingers tightly crossed the cop will not show up at this hearing. He probably will. I’m probably fucked. I totally deserve it. But then again, people who deserve it a lot more than I do get off scott free everyday — a coworker of mine constantly drives drunk after work events and even recently was pulled over for speeding 30 miles over the speed limit on the freeway and got off with a warning. Meanwhile I was parked when I got that unlucky knock on my door.
Besides the DUI, I still have an outstanding driving ticket case for rolling a stop sign and apparently going ~40 in a 25 mph zone for a block (I don’t think I was going 40, prob more like 33, but anyway, speeding) and my lawyer is taking care of that mess also. It’s nice to have a lawyer deal with all this shit, even though it is costing me $3000 plus the fines, etc, to deal with it. The traffic court, for some reason, pushed my traffic court date out to June 2012 — so at least I don’t have to worry about that right now. Maybe the cop won’t show up for that one either. It’s more than a year out from the ticket date, will he even remember me at that point?
Anyway, I’m really not that bad of a driver. I just had a few rough months. In better news, the accident I was in last year — which I swore wasn’t my fault — turns out to have not been my fault. I received a call from my insurance the other day saying they had an update about the accident I was in in Nov 2010. I was worried to hear what the update was, but then I heard they released my $1000 deductible to me (after paying out $1600) for the $2600 fix to my car — since neither party could prove fault. I figured that was all well and done, but my insurance company didn’t want to pay the $1600 they had to cough up, so they fought for me and we won! I guess you win some, you lose some. I really hope for the DUI it’s more on the winning end of the spectrum, but I’m also willing to accept my punishment and never, ever, ever get myself locked up in handcuffs again. That really shouldn’t be that hard to do.
I really have to commend you on how you are handling this. You're taking responsibility for something that many people would have foisted onto someone else somehow, and you're doing it with grace. I appreciate your honesty in recounting everything that's happened, and I'm really glad you're sharing.
I'm impressed that you are blogging about this. It's entirely possible that the fact that you are blogging about it, admitting your guilt and telling people just how a DUI will screw up their lives, you are doing a community service. In other words, make sure you share all these posts with your lawyer. Judges like to see criminals who are truly remorseful and who have changed their behavior, when deciding on punishment. It's pretty clear from your blog posts that you fall into this category.
"that you are blogging about it, admitting your guilt"
Actually, I'm not getting that vibe from this at all. It's more of a "Boo hoo! Poor me" than actual remorse. It's more that you're sorry that you got caught and not that you are sorry that you did it.
I don't think that this series of posts really qualifies as admitting guilt and taking responsibility. It's not a thorough job of it, anyway, since you keep throwing out excuses about your shoes and the fact that jeez, you didn't even drive that far! The cops were waiting to catch you!
You said: "Don't ever get a DUI."
You didn't "get" a DUI; you earned a DUI.
When I was a very small child, a drunk driver hit a car in which I was a passenger. Almost thirty years later, strangers still ask me what happened to my face.
I have to wear the evidence of somebody else's crime on my body for the rest of my life. There is no handy ten year expiration date for permanent disfigurement. I didn't get the option to plead out and choose to receive a less prominent scar.
It doesn't matter how much you had to or will have to pay in legal fees and court costs.
You got off cheap.