Years ago, immediately after this happened, I thought for sure the blood alcohol test would come back under the limit. In fact I had ONE beer about 12 hours previous to getting arrested for drunken driving near Riverside CA.
The reason the CHP'er charged me with DUI was because I was being uncooperative. You see, I was detained at one of those checkpoints north of San Diego. If you are familiar with Southern California, you will know these checkpoints are everywhere north of San Diego. I was basically pulled aside by INS because they wanted to search my RV for illegals. I was initially cooperative, but things soon escalated when they started tearing apart my vehicle. By the time the CHP officer showed up, I was fuming mad. I feel that MAYBE a disorderly conduct charge was the only thing he could charge me with, but when I answered honestly that I had 1 beer after lunch, I was cuffed and stuffed...in my opinion it was because I was a wise ass. I cannot speak for the cop, but he said he was late for dinner with his wife, and apparently I was going to pay for it.
He then takes me to the hospital to get my blood drawn. I suppose breathalyzers aren't reliable enough. Nothing much memorable about this. they stuck me with a needle...even though I hate and fear them, I had no choice. If I refused, I was guilty on the spot. After that was done, I was
taken to the "drunk tank" at the police station, where I was left for 10 hours in a cold empty cell. I did have a roll of toilet paper to prop my head up when I layed on the cold cement floor though! It was my only luxury that night. After I was released without bail, "on my own recognizance", I made a B-line for Vegas(Well, we were actually going there, then back east anyways when this all went down..)
Once I gotback to NYC, NY, I call 1-800-LAWYERS, and get some half assed, crappy advice from some fly-by-night attorney. He told me that since it was my first offense, and a misdemeanor DWI, that he could appear in court for me for $1500. Great, I thought....Then I asked him what would happen to me if I never came back to California. "Nothing", he replied. Hmmmmm $1500 or $0? I never planned on going back to CA regardless, so I opted with the cheap route(actually, I think I did pay like $50-$100 to either 1-1800-LAWYERS or directly to the attorney for the consultation). You know what they say: "You get what you pay for!"
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