REPEAT OFFENDER 1: THE NEVERENDING NIGHTMARE
by John Lee
We have buried the putrid corpse of liberty. --Prime Minister Benito Mussolini
What is a citizen to do in order to recover from an allegation of DWI? Is it simply a matter of avoiding alcohol and driving carefully, or is it more complicated than that?
Brad got his first DWI as a 16-year-old minor. He had volunteered to exchange cars with a friend, since his friend did not feel comfortable driving his stick-shift transmission in the rain. Apparently, his young friend could not drive an automatic transmission either, and had a wreck in Brad's car while following Brad on the slippery drive home. Since the car was registered to Brad, Brad was arrested for DWI, even though he had not had an accident and had not been drinking.
Brad's "second" DWI occurred at the age of 17. This time he was actually drinking alcohol--"young and dumb," as he described it. Learning his limits. Strike two.
Soon Brad had a family and was living away from home. This required a driver license to get to work in order to feed his family, which had been revoked after his second DWI charge. He spent weeks getting the run around from the state licensing departments. After spending $3,000 on attorney fees and "high-risk" car insurance, the court still refused to issue him a restricted driver license. Regardless of the government's ruling, Brad could not afford cab fare, and did not live near a bus route, so he was forced to drive without a license. Besides, he had court costs and monthly probation fees to pay or risk being sent back to jail--he had to get to work, and there was no other way to get there besides driving his car.
At the age of 25, Brad was injured in a car wreck while leaving work. A female driver T-boned him as he pulled out of the parking lot. Although the other driver had been drinking and was determined by police to be at fault, Brad was the only one charged with DWI (although he had not been drinking, he did not have a license, which is "proof" of DWI). He was not arrested and taken to jail, since he had been injured and admitted to the hospital. However, since he never received a summons for a court date, Brad assumed the false DWI charge had been dropped. Unknown to Brad, this incident resulted in "three strikes" of DWI, and a computer classification of "Habitual DWI Offender."
A couple of years later, Brad's mother asked him to help his sister move across town. She needed someone to transport her furniture. Although Brad was apprehensive about risking fate driving with his revoked license, he agreed to his mother's request.
Sure enough, a cop decided to pull Brad over, allegedly for a burned-out brake light (although the bulb worked fine when later tested at the police impound lot). Since he did not have a license, he was automatically charged with DWI, even though he had not been drinking.
While sitting handcuffed in the back seat of the police car, Brad asked the cop if he could smoke a cigarette. The cop replied, "You can smoke 'em if you can reach 'em." Since the pack was in his front shirt pocket, and his hands were handcuffed behind his back, he obviously could not help himself. Out of frustration from his predicament(s), Brad decided to try to wiggle his hands out of the handcuffs. Lo and behold, he accomplished this Houdini feat, and fired up his tobacco. The infuriated cop jammed on his brakes, throwing Brad to the floor ("cannonballed" as police call this torture -- prisoners are not allowed seat belts). He was ordered out of the car, and a cop cop nearly broke his arm jamming a metal baton behind his arm and twisting it. One cop said, "I want you to run!" Brad replied, "I'm not going to let you beat the shit out of me or shoot me in the back." He was handcuffed again--this time with his hands "hog-tied" to his ankles behind his back--thrown in the back of the government car, and driven to the jail.
After paying bond, the bail bondsman advised him he was a wanted fugitive on the previous DWI allegation from the non-drinking car wreck (that was not his fault) several years prior. This raised his bond from $100 to $400 cash on-the-spot. Since Brad could not afford $10,000 for a competant attorney, he was forced to settle for a government defender. This government-paid lawyer did not request a hearing regarding to illegality of the traffic stop for the not-burned-out brake light, which would have voided the DWI arrest. Since Brad was being prosecuted under the Habitual DWI Offender law, he faced ten years in prison. His government lawyer advised him the best he could do was 90 days in jail, plus $2,500 in fines, court costs and attorney fees.
After two years of worry, the government defender negotiated a plea bargain of ten days in jail and 2,500$ in fines, court costs and attorney fees for his non-drinking, not-burned-out brake light traffic ticket. Fifteen years after his first non-drinking DWI from letting his friend switch cars, Brad is wondering when his nightmare will end? Although he is now living at home with his mother (his father is deceased) and working to provide for his five kids, he is not allowed to have a driver license for ten years, not even a restricted license (his government-issued I.D. card is labeled "DWI Offender"). For the next ten years, any future traffic stops for minor alleged infractions will continue to result in DWI arrests, even without drinking any alcohol beverage. [Inteview]
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