- Joined
- Aug 27, 2005
- Messages
- 43,602
- Reaction score
- 26,256
- Location
- Houston, TX
- Gender
- Male
- Political Leaning
- Conservative
.08 here in Texas too, but I wasn't given the opportunity to take the breath test. I ran out of breath, and the police officer pulled the tube out of my mouth, and said I refused. When I asked for another try, and told him it was not fair to not allow me the chance to take the breath test, he said no, and then taunted me, made fun of me, and threatened me with a beating if I didn't shut up. He was holding a long black flashlight, then raised it and told me that he was going to put me in the hospital if I didn't move towards the jail cell that had been opened for me.
I probably could have beaten this at trial. I had witnesses who were going to testify that I was not drunk, and even the bartender who served me at Ray's Entertainment, the venue I was playing at, was going to testify that I had 3 beers in a 6 and a half hour period. More than 1,000 people saw me play that night, and a few of them were going to testify at my trial too. My lawyer had contacted a couple of them, and they were lined up to take the stand.
However, the week before my trial, my wife was watching channel 13 news, and they had a story about someone who was convicted of DWI, where the bartender had testified that he only had TWO beers, the owner of the bar testified that he wasn't drunk, and other witnesses testified that he wasn't drunk either. The jury found him guilty anyways, and gave him a year in jail. Houston is a "burn 'em at the stake" kind of town.
My wife has schizophrenia, and when she saw the news article on Channel 13, she began decompensating badly. At that point, I had two choices - Either continue to fight, and my wife ends up hospitalized, or to plead guilty and take my medicine. I changed my plea to guilty and took my lumps. She's worth it.
At this point, some of you will say that I was railroaded, but I don't see it that way. I would like to think that the cop was doing me a favor, getting me off the street, but more than likely, he was getting me off the street so I would not be a menace to others. What I haven't told you so far is that I had been very sick all week, and had not slept in two days, and was on my third day without sleep, when I was called and asked to play a benefit to raise money for a widow who had just lost her husband, and didn't have enough money to bury him. I agreed to drive out there and play. I should have listened to my wife, who begged me not to go. She was seriously afraid that I would have an accident, and was crying when I left the house. So what did I do when I got to the gig? I drank beer. 3 of them during the time I was there, over a 6 and a half hour period. And as sick and tired as I was, that is all it took to put me over the limit. On the way home, as exhausted as I was, and no doubt, that the beer didn't help either, I fell into a state of mind that I was awake and kind of asleep at the same time. I was in kind of a daydream state, looking at the white lines on the road, but not really seeing them. I did not notice that the left lane I was in was ending until the very last second, and I barely avoided going off the road and killing myself. It was about 10 minutes after that, when I was going through Tomball, that the cop stopped me, and hell night at the police station began. One part of me is still mad as hell, but the more logical part of me knows better. If that cop had ended up letting me go, there is a good chance that I would have killed myself, or killed someone else.
This was actually my second DWI. in 1985, when I was playing for the metal band Viper, I had my first DWI. That is the one they should have gone medieval with me on, instead of this one. At that time, I was addicted to cocaine, and I was coked up, had smoked a couple of joints, and had had 2 long island iced teas, along with several shots, at a club called Cardy's, to level out the coke high. I was not only drunk as hell, but also high as hell. When the cop stopped me, he asked me if I was a boy or a girl, because of my long hair, and I told him to suck my dick and find out. LOL. I only got 12 days in jail, and was out in 6, and that was the end of it. But that was a good bust. I have been drug free for 25 years now.
Anyways, because this was my second DWI, this is the reason the justice system went medieval on me this time. But what the hell. I care about my wife, and will go to hell and back for her. Also, it is better to be getting the proverbial red hot poker up my ass than to be dead, and I could very well have been dead if the cop had let me go. And, of course, nobody put a gun to my head and made me drink those 3 beers, did they? No matter the circumstances, I still bear the responsibility for my actions. And that responsibility is kicking my ass. LMAO.
Sorry about derailing the thread. LOL.
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