Police Blotter Item from Highland Heights, Ohio

When I actively drank, I would buy a six-pack and leave the brews in a paper bag on the passenger seat (in the pre-plastic bag days,) and as I drove I drank.  My only real problem was disposal, in my drunk logic I didn't want the empties in my car maybe I was afraid I would forget them and they'd roll around on the floor.  One night I tried to chuck an empty bottle out of the passenger window as I badly negotiated a circular off ramp. Operating on gross motor, so to speak, my aim was not true and the empty rebounded striking me in the head.  What a genius!  This police blotter item from Highland Heights, Ohio sounded familiar:

"DUI, BISHOP ROAD: A caller reported a non-injury motor vehicle accident on Friday in the rear drive of Zeppe’s Pizzeria, 5559 Wilson Mills.   Police had one female in custody for operating a vehicle while intoxicated and for having five open bottles of wine in the passenger seat."
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As I said in so many words, above, I totally relate.

Golf Outing Drunkeness Yields Illinois Bar Complaint

The Legal Profession "blawg" features the Bar Complaint against the Illinois lawyer (pic, for amusement only) who after a game a golf and multiple alcoholic beverages got behind the wheel of his car, headed home, hit a bicyclist causing serious injuries, dragged the bicyclist down the road, drove off the pavement, and then left the scene of the accident.  Mike Frisch at the LP summarizes the tale of DUI woe as follows:

A recent complaint filed by the Illinois Administrator alleges ethical violations based on the following facts:

On May 28, 2008, while playing golf near Portage, Michigan, Respondent consumed four beers and four shots of bourbon.

Respondent entered his automobile after leaving the golf course property, and entered South 11th Street in Prairie Ronde Township, Michigan, a public roadway.

Shortly after Respondent entered South 11th Street, his automobile struck Jared Sweet ("Sweet"), who was riding a bicycle along the road. Respondent's automobile knocked Sweet to the ground and dragged him several yards, inflicting upon him a compound bone fracture and skin abrasions.

After striking and dragging Sweet, Respondent's automobile left the roadway and entered an adjoining field. Respondent then reversed back onto the roadway, told a bystander that someone had been hurt 'back up the road,' and drove away from the scene. Prior to leaving the scene of his collision with Sweet, Respondent did not identify himself or offer to render assistance to Sweet. Respondent was arrested later that day. The complaint further alleges that the attorney pleaded guilty to criminal charges and was ordered to pay restitution to the victim."
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Years ago the practice area that I was most active in had an annual Golf Outing at a Country Club in a more rural area of the OurTown region.  To get to this location you had to negotiate curvy rural roads and every year, there was some car or another that went off the road on the way home.  The next day the regular practitioners would check in with one another to share laughs over drunken debacles of our close associates.

We were pretty clueless.

Drunk Driving, Murder 2

The Charlotte Observer is reporting on the second degree murder charges against a Gaston, NC driver who killed a 17 year old local girl resulting in his 4th DWI arrest.  This is the Observer by reporters David Perlmutt and Steve Lyttle: 

"A Gaston County man was charged this afternoon with second-degree murder after a Jeep Cherokee he was driving Sunday night slammed into a car and killed a 17-year-old girl who had recently graduated from North Gaston High. Authorities arrested Howard Pasour (mugshot left), 28, of Bessemer City, this afternoon and charged him with second-degree murder, habitual DWI, two counts of assault with a deadly weapon with intent to inflict serious injury and three counts of death by vehicle, said a spokeswoman with the Gaston County Sheriff's Department.

Pasour, who has three prior DWI convictions and an array of other arrests, is being held in the Gaston County Jail.

Shortly before 9 p.m. Sunday, he was behind the wheel of a Jeep Cherokee, traveling about 60 mph, when the SUV crossed the center line and collided head-on with an 1984 Oldsmobile driven by 19-year-old Victoria Elizabeth Iffergan, the N.C. Highway Patrol said this morning.  The brunt of the impact was on the Oldsmobile's passenger side, instantly killing Laura Elizabeth Fortenberry, 17, who had graduated from North Gaston High in June. She was pronounced dead at the scene, Patrol First Sgt. Tracy Greene said this morning. Iffergan and a back-seat passenger, 17-year-old Evan Griffith, were air-lifted to Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte. Iffergan, Greene said, underwent surgery Sunday night. The condition of the two teens isn't known at this time.

Pasour was treated and released, and was at his father's home in Bessemer City this morning, Greene said Pasour's father reported to the highway patrol. So far, the patrol has charged Pasour with DWI -- his fourth since 2002 -- possession of open alcohol containers, driving with a revoked license and reckless driving. N.C. court records show that Pasour has been charged with offenses dating back to 2002, including three DWI convictions, all in Gaston County, and other traffic charges, drug charges, larceny and shoplifting.

Greene said he and Sgt. J.A. Brodhage plan to meet with District Attorney Locke Bell today to discuss additional more severe charges, including death by vehicle, manslaughter or second-degree murder charges. 'We'll present the evidence; we have put together a good package,' Greene said.  Pasour, he said, wasn't given a Intoxilyzer exam because he'd been taken to a hospital. 'Blood was taken and it has been sent to the state lab,' he said. It could take months for blood-alcohol results to be returned.

Open 'alcohol containers' were found the Cherokee, Greene said."
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Yeah, you don't want to hear me preach but there is a terrible, cosmic and paradoxical message about the power of alcoholism in this fatality.  Thank God, this young woman was not your daughter or mine.

Colorado Drunk Driving Gets Lawyer, Suspension for Year + Day!

The Legal Profession blawg had this account by Mike Frisch:

"After Work

On April 1, 2009, in Orange County, California, Respondent left work, consumed alcohol, then fled from the police and ran eight red lights and stop signs while exceeding 100 MPH. He then intentionally rammed another vehicle occupied by others in an attempt to cause great bodily injury, and fled the scene of the collision without stopping. Respondent pled guilty to felony evading while driving recklessly, misdemeanor driving under the influence of alcohol/drugs, misdemeanor hit and run with property damage, and an amended felony charge of battery on September 29, 2009."
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When I have the opinion and a few other details, I'll update this post. 

Alcohol cunning, baffling and powerful.

15 Years for Driving Drunk, After Violating Probation

Here's the scenario, you've killed a bicyclist while driving intoxicated and you do three years in prison and you get five years probation.  Are you going to drive drunk again? 

Of course you are!  Alcoholism is cunning, baffling and powerful--nothing, absolutely nothing has the power to stop an alcoholic from reaching bottom and digging deeper.  Raymond Pratte (pic) of Golden Gate Estates near Naples, Florida is going to prison for 15 more years, according to the story at NapleNews.com.  Here's reporter, Aisling Swift's account:

"A 49-year-old Golden Gate Estates man who served prison time after killing a bicyclist while driving drunk was sentenced today to 15 years in prison for violating probation by driving drunk again.


'It appears to the court, Mr. Pratte, that you just don’t get it,' Collier Circuit Judge Fred Hardt told Raymond Louis Pratte, who was convicted of driving under the influence last week involving a Jan. 18 traffic stop while on probation for the 2007 conviction. 'You don’t understand what the problem is. You seem to have an excuse for everything.'

Hardt accused Pratte of lying during the probation violation hearing, testifying he wasn’t drunk when he killed 34-year-old Oscar Giovanny Alvarez on June 29, 2006. Pratte testified he left the scene of the crash only to call 911 and drank beer afterward because he was so 'shocked.'

But Assistant State Attorney Richard Gorman showed that wasn’t true, producing a sworn affidavit from a friend who drank with Pratte during golf and at Pelican Larry’s before the crash. 

The sentence is what Pratte faced in October 2007 for leaving the scene of a crash with death, a second-degree felony at the time. Instead, the plea bargain allowed him to serve three years in prison, followed by five years of probation. Gorman noted Pratte was charged with DUI less than a year after his release, and a month or two after an ignition interlock device was removed; it prevented him from driving drunk.

Alvarez was bicycling eastbound at about 2 a.m. on Immokalee Road, a half-mile east of Collier Boulevard, when Pratte’s van hit one of the bike’s tires, flattening the van’s tire. Pratte fled, leaving the van, but was quickly arrested.  Under the plea bargain, Pratte also pleaded to DUI .20 percent or more, a misdemeanor reduced from DUI manslaughter, a first-degree felony.

Circuit Judge Elizabeth Krier had ordered Pratte to undergo a substance-abuse evaluation after his release and to follow recommendations. Gorman said the recommendation was to refrain from alcohol."
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This is pro forma for the alcoholic.  Judge Hardt is actually saving this guy's life for the time being, and possibly the life or lives of other area-residents.  Tragically, the sentence may only postpone the inevitable if Pratte doesn't kill himself on Prison hooch.   

The thing is, there is a solution, for Pratte, the Hollywood starlet, for all alcoholics, they have to let go absolutely, recognize their utter powerlessness over alcohol and in my case, turn my will and my life over to the care of God.  Maybe Pratte will discover the solution during his next incarceration.  Miracles do occur.