Young Lawyer Goes to Jail, 6-18 Mos for DUI Fatality

Young Stroudsburg lawyer, Robert Kidwell (pic) drove drunk and killed a Bushkill, Pennsylvania man in the early hours of January 10, 2009.  This afternoon it is reported that Kidwell was sentenced to 6-18 months in the Monroe County Correctional facility.  His blood alcohol was .13 at the time that he cut down twenty-two year old Daniel Gallagher. 

This is the link to the story at the Poconos Record.  Presumably, Mr. Kidwell who was a 2007 graudate of Villanova Law School will sustain a significant disciplinary sanction in conjunction with his vehicular homicide conviction.   

I was at an AA meeting over the weekend at which the discussion centered on the suggestion sometimes heard that if the prospective AA participant doesn't truly believe he or she "qualifies" for AA membership they should go back out and try some "controlled social drinking."  A very wise person at theis AA meeting (not me) observed that outcomes such as the one reported concerning Mr. Kidwell and his victim Mr. Gallagher, are often the tragic consequence of just such experiments in "controlled drinking."  An article at the Lancet that I read in summary this AM analyzes research that demonstrates that alcohol is by far the most dangerous of all recreational drugs (exceeding cocaine, heroin, ecstasy, meth) in terms of every parameter of individual and social costs.  Career, lives, health, crime, safety,  .  .  .