Alcohol: Cunning, Baffling and Powerful

The Des Moines Register is reporting on the former Muscatine County Judge who has been jailed for the second time for violating his parole for drinking following multiple DUI conA former Muscatine County judge convicted of drunken driving three times is back in prison for violating his parole again.  Here's the summary:

James Weaver was ordered back to prison last week.

The Iowa Board of Parole will determine how long he will remain in custody. Weaver was arrested June 16 at his home in Davenport. Officers were sent to his home for a safety check, and they found him intoxicated.  Weaver had been paroled on June 9, and his parole conditions prohibit drinking alcohol.

It was the second time Weaver has violated his parole since he pleaded guilty in August 2009 to a third offense of drunken driving.  Weaver’s other convictions were in 2002 and 2004. He was an associate judge from 1982 to 2004.
_________________
Alcoholism is in the words of Alcoholics Anonymous, "cunning, baffling and powerful," it is one of the few known diseases inflicted on human kind that actually whispers in the ear of the alcoholic that he or she does not suffer from the disease.  It is both a disease of physical compulsion for the addiction and in my case it was a mental illness that unchecked led me to make a series of decisions that have destroyed my former professional life and imperil my very freedom.  On the other hand, recovery form alcoholism is an amazing adventure even with the damage done and consequences to be addressed.  I pray for Judge Weaver and the still suffering alcoholic that they also can find a new freedom and a new happiness.