On a side note, isn't this the Purple People Eater Alan Page?
I knew someone in Maryland that got a DUI ticket while sitting in the parking lot. She had no intention of driving and was waiting for the designated driver to return to the car.
It’s this kind of silliness that causes people to really hate the cops, the clueless state legislators and the rest of the nanny state.
This is stupid
Once, In order to prevent a drunk friend of mine from driving home, I pulled the ignition wire off his distributor cap.
He slept in his car and THANKED ME for it later
The loonies are out of the asylum and have assumed control!
I agree...the defendant was convicted for crimes he might have done or possibly could have done. In absence of an “attempted DUI” charge, I don’t see how you can convict the man for doing something he clearly did not do.
Sure! We should be able to get drunk driving convictions without driving! Heck, we should be able to get drunk driving convictions without drinking or driving!
The presence of a car within 100 miles of the suspect, is presumptive proof of commission of the crime of drunk driving. The presence of alcohol within 1200 miles of the suspect is good as corroborative proof, but it is entirely optional.
America. Good ole' Crunchy Police Statin'! Yummerilicious!!!
Call a tow truck.
Ride in the cab home.
Let your insurance or AAA pay for it.
The gov’t makes big money off of DUI convictions.
Pretty soon you’ll be DUI in your own home, simply because your car is in the garage and you could have driven it...................
What country is this again?
Then I supposed I could be charged with attempted murder because I have a loaded gun, haven’t fired a shot at anyone, but am in control and could do so if I intended.
Had a neighbor who drank too much, and realizing he was too drunk to drive, pulled over and slept in the car.
The cop found him parked along the side of the road, saw the keys in the ignition (engine off) and him sleeping in the backseat. He got the DWI charge.
Next time, he and everyone he knows - now know that you are better off taking your chances and driving all the way home = drunk off your butt; rather than take the responsible decision and pull over and sleep it off.
Nice work, Officer Fife.
Sometimes, you just want to slap these people. This judge needs a swift knee to the groin a couple dozen times. If the car won’t start, and the keys are in the console - that car is nothing more than shelter from the weather.
sorry, but three DUI priors and sitting in the car with the keys while drunk, he should be in jail for at least a couple years.
three DUI’s is at least one too many. cops are saving the guy from himself to say nothing of some poor innocent sob that the guy kills.
The guy had 3 priors. He’s drunk in his car with the keys. I probably would have voted GUILTY. It’s not clear from the info that the car was inoperable. They said a few weeks later in impound it wouldn’t start. Didnt say why. Was it just a dead battery?
So if they install those breath machines in an automobile so that it won’t start if you have been drinking, you can STILL get a DUI?
That makes NO SENSE at all.
“Driving under the influence” would imply that you need to be DRIVING to qualify.
On a side note, isn't this the Purple People Eater Alan Page?
Everyone limbering up to jump on the Pawlenty bandwagon, remember he led this state and had a significant role in campaigns and appointments to the judicial system.
This is the kind of tangental extrapolation that can get anyone connected to a crime. What’s next, you are drunk in your house, your keys are also in your house, and you could theoretically go to the car and sit in it. Conspiracy to walk and sit while intoxicated, not to mention the conspiracy to commit an unattempted manslaughter on an unknown individual because of a pistol with no rounds in it, found in a garbage can near the drunk non-motorists home.
PS- this is the same court that secured al Frankens theft of the senate race using ballots found in a trunk that were all democrat votes. Tim Pawlenty is directly responsible for Obamacare because of his failure to vigorously fight the theft of that senate seat.
so, would that include cars with no engines?
Um, a parking lot is private property. Hang these judges.
I think I would have given this guy the offer from the Who song “Who Are You”—“You can go sleep at home tonight if you can get up and walk away,” and if he couldn’t, take him to sober up, and maybe cite him for drunk in public for being dumbass enough to fall asleep outside his own apartment. But for DUI, and especially felony DUI, if he’s passed out and the car’s cold and can’t be started, I think I would have serious trouble voting to convict on that.