By Michael
Here’s a round-up of the latest bizarre DUI news from across the country, including an update the goat rescued in a DUI checkpoint.
Bride-to-Be Gets DUI Hours Before Wedding
According to an Associated Press article, a bride headed home from her bachelorette party was driving drunk with a blood alcohol level of more than twice the legal limit. She was arrested only a few hours before she was scheduled to make her vows.
The Seattle Times reports that she was pulled over for going 90 m.p.h. and weaving in and out of traffic on an interstate highway.
When state troopers pulled her over, she said she would be getting married the following afternoon.
This wasn’t her first DUI, and the process apparently went quickly as she was booked and released in time to make her wedding.
Florida Man Gets Arrested for DUI Twice in 48 Hours
The Gainesville Sun released a report on Antony David Dees and his two DUI arrests in two days.
Police were dispatched to a hit-and-run on Thursday, August 19 at 3 a.m. Witnesses and physical evidence linked Dees to the incident which occurred barely 48 hours after being charged with refusing to submit to a breathalyzer test.
Dees was additionally charged with DUI causing property damage, hit and run, leaving the scene of the crime, and driving on a suspended license. He was booked into the Alachua County Jail with a bond set at $170,000.
North Pole DUI Retrial
The Anchorage Daily News reports that a North Pole woman will get a retrial because she claims she was only driving drunk to escape her ex-boyfriend.
The Alaska Supreme Court ruled that the woman had grounds for an acquittal under the necessity defense. She will be acquitted if she can prove that she felt she had no other option to escape her violent ex-boyfriend and that drunk driving was safer than remaining where she was.
Strange DUI Update: Woman Convicted, Goat Gets New Home
A few weeks ago, we published a story about a routine DUI stop that turned into animal cruelty charges when a goat was found tied up in the very hot trunk of a car during the middle of summer.
If you’re wondering what happened to the goat and the driver, the news is out: The Associated Press reports that Fiona Enderby has been convicted of animal cruelty under Virginia law and has been fined $100.
As for the goat, WSET News reports that he has been adopted by Danny Johnson, owner of Peaks and Otter Winery, and has been named Trunk, in honor of his harrowing ordeal.
According to Johnson, he’s become quite famous and people come to the winery solely to visit him. He’s also become quite popular with the goat ladies, and is expecting kids. Fairy tales do come true.
By Michael
Finding a parking spot at a popular store can be tricky. But the spot Kentucky resident Whitney Lochmueller left her SUV was definitely taken.
Lockmueller’s SUV landed in the women’s department of Kohl’s after her she collided with another vehicle, accelerated, hit a tree and went through the store’s front wall.
The driver was charged with DUI after police found her incoherent and confused at the scene, reports WKYT. Police found a bottle of the painkiller Tramadol in Lochmueller’s vehicle. Though the prescription was filled the day before already a significant number of pills were missing from the bottle, WKYT reports.
After finding her incoherent and confused at the scene, police later charged Lockmueller with DUI. Although she had no alcohol in her system, a DUI arrest may be made if the driver is under the influence of any substance.
She was also charged with criminal mischief and wanton endangerment.
The National Center for Biotechnology Information states that the Tramadol “may make you drowsy and may affect your coordination. Do not drive or operate machinery until you know how this medication affects you.” And that’s assuming she took the recommended dose.
Mrs. Lochmueller’s six-year-old twin sisters were in the SUV’s backseat. No one received major injuries in the crash, though the passengers of the Suburban were taken to the emergency room for some minor injuries.
Luckily, no one inside the store or out on the sidewalk was harmed. Shoppers lent a helping hand to the passengers of the out-of-place vehicle. Once all of the riders were removed, it became the store’s priority to remove the SUV from its impromptu showroom. That process took several hours of hard work by the local fire department.
The store reopened at 8 am the following day after a surprisingly quick clean up. Kohl’s issued a statement that they were very glad no one was hurt, and that they hoped to have the damage completely repaired in a week or so.
Hopefully from now on Ms. Lochmueller will attempt to find a spot that, while not perfect, is also on the outside of the store.
By Michael
Kelly Moss, a resident of Germantown, Tennessee, is facing DUI charges after drinking more vanilla than she could handle.
CBS News reports that Moss’ car had jumped up over the curb and both of the front wheels were on the curb at a middle school. She narrowly missed hitting a telephone pole.
The police found Moss slumped over the wheel, apparently unable to stand, according to KWGN news. The National Ledger adds that according to a police affidavit, Moss’s speech was also slurred and she refused to comply with field sobriety tests or blood alcohol tests.
But her breath gave Moss away. Police report that she smelled strongly of vanilla. After searching her car they found a receipt for two 8-oz. bottles of the common baking ingredient, reports ABC News.
Vanilla extract is 35 percent alcohol by volume. When doled out by the teaspoon for chocolate chip cookies it’s harmless.
Moss was using slightly more, though she didn’t drink her vanilla straight. She mixed almost an entire bottle of the stuff with Diet Coke first to concoct an atypical cocktail.
According to experts, this is not an uncommon way for alcoholics to “cope” with their alcohol abuse issues.
Sam Palmer, a recovering alcoholic who was at the scene, told ABC News reporters that abusers would try to get their drugs any way they could, including mouthwash, Geritol, and Robitussin.
Drug counselor Carolyn Bryant agreed, “Instead of the drug that may be their drug of choice, that may be they have been arrested for or got in trouble about, they take something that will give them that same effect”. She suggested a 12-step program for Moss, and urged women everywhere to get help if they need it.
If Moss thought drinking vanilla would help her avoid a DUI she was wrong.
This is Moss’s third DUI arrest, and she has been charged with driving under the influence and refusing to submit to a blood alcohol test. She will be back in court on August 19 to determine her fate.
Tennessee DUI laws call for up to a year in prison, $10,000 in fines, and the judge may order an ignition interlock device installed at his discretion. She is also subject to vehicle seizure or forfeit, and may have to attend DUI school.
Hopefully, Ms. Moss will get things turned around, and this DUI will be her last. And hopefully, she will stick to the proper use of vanilla from here on out: Dessert.
By Michael
Some people assume if they’re not driving a car they can’t get arrested for DUI. That’s simply not the case, as the following folks found out during some unusual DUI arrests.
If you are driving any motorized vehicle drunk you could face DUI penalties. That’s what happened in these separate strange DUI stories involving a basketball player and a golf car, a moped and a wheelchair on the highway.
- J.J. Hones will not be returning to the Stanford Cardinals for a fifth season after she found driving a golf cart in a “wreckless manner,” according to the NCAA’s website. After leading the police on a chase around the Stanford campus, she was arrested after failing a field sobriety test, and was released on bond.
- An Australia man is giving new meaning to “asleep at the wheel.” The AP reports a man making a nine-mile trip from his home to a friend’s house was arrested after he was found sleeping on the highway exit ramp - in a motorized wheelchair. He was arrested and charged with DUI after registering a blood alcohol reading of 0.301. The man was found about 10 a.m. on a Friday morning.
- Preferring a more conventional form of transportation , a 37-year-old Maryland man led police on a chase before crashing his moped. WGMD reports the moped driver was not injured. He was committed to Sussex County Correctional and charged with resisting arrest, a third DUI and other minor charges.
- Some food might taste better after a few beers, but that doesn’t mean you should drive to go get it. A Tennessee woman learned that the hard way after they decided to go to Taco Bell for a late night snack and passed out behind the wheel while in the drive through lane. The vehicle apparently contained “several open beer cases” and pills that were not prescribed to any of the passengers, reports the AP. The police arrested the occupants of the vehicle.
So be careful this summer, and don’t let someone talk you into riding, oh say, a motorized couch to the bar for a couple cold ones.
By Michael
This week’s round-up of strange DUI tales features one man who seems to lack the sense to quit while he’s behind, cracking a fresh brew while trapped in his crashed car.
Another woman let the people testing her blood know that they would find a veritable cocktail of pharmaceuticals.
In Wellington, New Zealand, Paul Sneddon hadn’t merely crashed his car. He flipped his vehicle over after running into a wooden barrier along the highway. Already drunk, he found himself flipped around, trapped behind doors that were wedged shut in the crash.
What did he do to pass the time as police made their way to the scene? He cracked open another beer and had himself a drink.
Sneddon plead guilty to driving drunk recently, and his lawyer told the court that “he had nothing else to do at that point,” being trapped in the car, “so he had another beer.”
When the police finally arrived at the vehicle and helped Sneddon break out, his blood-alcohol content was measured at 1,191 micrograms, which is almost three times the 400 micrograms legal limit for driving.
Sneddon had gone on a bender after he was fired from his job at a bakery. When asked how much he’d had to drink, he told police that he’d been drinking for four days straight.
In Kingsport, Tennessee, a woman who had been charged with DUI decided to let the police and her blood testers know what they were going to find when they completed those tests.
Bobbie K. Cato said that the drug test would fine only a few drugs. At the scene of the crime she had claimed innocence from taking any drugs or alcohol, but at the hospital she admitted to taking an array of drugs, including Xanax, Lortab and Phenergan.
According to police, the over-sharing Cato was arrested when her car was found blocking a convenience store entrance. She was lying across the passenger seat, her legs dangling out of the car.
She posted bond and will be due back in court soon, where authorities will learn whether her predictions about her own drug test are accurate.
By Michael
DUI checkpoints are a hot topic as to whether random vehicle checks are constitutional solely because they can keep drivers safe. Rarely, however, are DUI checkpoints debated as to whether or not they can keep animals safe.
A recent DUI checkpoint in Bedford County, Virginia surveyed nearly 15,000 cars, resulting in three DUI arrests, a drug bust and the rescue of one goat, reports the News Advance in Lynchburg.
Bedford County authorities pulled over 32-year-old Fiona Ann Enderdy and asked about the strange noises coming from her trunk.
Fearing a human might be trapped inside, officers were startled to find a goat, bound at the feet and thrashing around inside the trunk.
This is not the first time an animal has been found at a DUI checkpoint. Sign on San Diego reports that just one month ago, police found a “dog-napped” shih tzu in a car that had been stopped for routine reasons. That animal was returned to its proper owners who were excited to have their family pet returned.
When the goat was discovered he wasn’t the only oddity earning the police’s attention. No loving family Officers in that case were far more interested in the other passengers — suspected illegal immigrants from Africa.
WSLS reports that while Ms. Enderdy is a resident of the Washington, D.C. area, she is actually a transport from Great Britain. Apparently, when asked why the goat was in her trunk, Ms. Enderdy replied that in Great Britain, it is perfectly acceptable to transport a goat in the trunk of a car.
The goat was bought from a local farmer, and was a gift to the Kenyan immigrants who were traveling with her.
Luckily, an animal control expert was also at the checkpoint. He measured the heat in the trunk of the car and found it to be at a steamy and none-too-comfortable 94 degrees.
The goat, who was panting heavily, was given water, a check-up, and sent to the pound. The Roanoke news reports that since being sent to the pound, the goat has been recovering.
He is “just chilling and as happy as can be,” says Lt. Darryl Saunders.
The goat wasn’t the only one in the car who was sent to the clink. Enderdy was arrested and released after being charged with animal cruelty. She is to attend an advisement hearing on July eighth, where her fate as to the charge will be determined.
The goat’s fate will be determined at a separate hearing in the Bedford County General District Court.
By Michael
If you watch the news tickers as we do, there never seems to be a shortage of news stories that chronicle the strange and precarious situations that result from the unfortunate decisions of drunk drivers
This week’s round-up features the same collection of oddities and unfortunate incidents from across the country.
New York: After Liver Transplant, a DUI
In New York state, a man was arrested for and admitted to driving while intoxicated after he injured a pedestrian and ran his vehicle into several other cars back in March of this year. He was driving with a blood-alcohol content that was seven times more than the legal limit.
The 32-year-old was the recent recipient of a transplanted liver. He plead guilty to aggravated drunk driving, reported WIVB.
Idaho: DUI Crash in Irrigation Canal
In Boise, Idaho, police arrived at the scene of an accident prepared to rescue a man who had driven his car into an irrigation canal. Before they left the scene, they had pegged the driver, Gerardo Huerta-Flores Jerome, with a DUI citation.
Huerta-Flores was speeding in a work zone around dawn when he veered off the road and his vehicle rolled into the canal. A trooper passing by saw parts of the accident. He stopped and waded out into the ditch and pulled Jerome from the car, which was under water.
The driver went to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, reported Fox12.
In North Dakota: Billboards Track DUI Arrests
In Fargo, North Dakota, police have taken a decidedly public approach to cutting down on DUI arrests: they are displaying the latest number of arrests on several electronic billboards.
Police in Fargo installed two billboards in the city, which will display the number of arrests for driving under the influence that have occurred in the city. The count will update every Friday. Fargo police Sgt. Mike Bernier considers the billboards an educational tool with a simple goal: “We’re just trying to get people to not drink and drive,” he said.
A state grant had paid for the purchase and maintenance of the signs. The total cost for the effort was around $7,000.
Georgia Man Steals Own Car During DUI
In Rome, Georgia, a man reported that his car had been stolen while he was at the store. Three hours later, that man was arrested. He was driving the very car that he had reported stolen, and he was allegedly driving it drunk.
He was arrested for DUI and false report of a crime, reported the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
By Michael
In the history of DUI arrests, all manner of property has been damaged, from cars and houses, to fast food restaurants and burger joints. Drunk drivers have been discovered driving Barbie cars, lawnmowers and even a motorized recliner.
The least advisable piece of property to damage, though, would seem to be that of the police, especially if you are driving drunk or impaired. Two suspects this week, however, seemed to have disregarded this simple idea, and these DUI stories out of Pennsylvania and Florida prove that nothing should be a surprise when it comes to drunk driving.
In Allentown, Pennsylvania, the Lebanon Daily News is reporting that Eric Verbin of the town of Bath was stopped by a police officer on a bicycle while he was driving his car.
Rather than submitting himself to the terms of the traffic stop, Verbin ran over the officer’s bicycle, then fled the police officer.
The chase did not last long, as Verbin soon crashed his car and the pursuit was over. It turned out that he allegedly had prescription medication in the car with him. Verbin was charged with DUI and fleeing the police in the traffic stop.
In Jacksonville, Florida, a man from Gainesville faces DUI charges after he allegedly smashed his car in a parking lot, according to a report from News 4 in Jacksonville. Adding to the man’s problems? The parking lot was for the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office.
It was early on a Sunday morning when police say Michael Giermanski crashed into a sign in the parking lot of the sheriff’s office substation. Also damaged in the ill-advised accident was a palm tree and some shrubbery.
There was a Putnam County deputy in the parking lot at the time that Giermanski crashed onto the scene. That deputy saw the whole thing happen, and was able to provide medical assistance to the driver until the paramedics got to the scene.
Giermanski’s injuries are reportedly minor. He was charged with DUI with property damage, and careless driving.
By Michael
When we say you can be arrested for DUI while driving any motorized vehicle, we mean: You can be arrested for DUI while driving any motorized vehicle.
Don’t believe us? Try this story on:
The Scottish Daily Record is reporting that a man was arrested for drunk driving while operating a toy Barbie car.
Paul Hutton, a 40-year-old resident of Clacton-on-Sea in Essex, was tearing down the road in a child’s motorized Barbie car. He was going the vehicle’s top speed of 4 miles per hour when police stopped him along the road at night.
Police administered a Breathalyzer test and booked Hutton for driving under the influence of alcohol. His blood-alcohol content was double the legal limit.
For his offense, Hutton was banned from driving a real car for three years. After the hearing where he learned of his fate, Hutton admitted that he was “a complete twit” for earning himself the driving ban.
“I was very surprised to get done for drink-driving,” he continued. “It is designed for three-to five-year-olds.”
Hutton had found the little pink electric car ten years previous, and had begun to customize it with his son only a few months ago, adding larger wheels to it. Still, he was candid that it was not the ideal vehicle for a full-sized adult.
“You have to be a contortionist to get in and then you can’t get out,” he said of the pint-sized pink ride. He had to drive it with his knees under his chin, and it moved more slowly than a mobility scooter, according to the article.
According to Hutton, he’d been drinking as he worked on the vehicle, and had not realized how much he’d had to drink.
“When it was done,” he said, “I couldn’t resist the temptation to take it out. I wanted to show my friend.”
Hutton had actually ignored a warning from the police. They told him not to drive the vehicle, but he went against their advice and drove it away from the scene, very slowly.
“I knew it was daft, but I didn’t realize it was a criminal thing to do,” he said.
His three year ban from driving was brought down because he had previously been convicted of DUI. Chairman of the bench in the case said “I’ve never seen the like of it in 15 years on the bench.”
By Michael
This week in bad judgment brings two stories of stubborn and troubled drunk drivers. One decided not to yield to police while driving a lawnmower under the influence, and another decided to do his time with a buzz.
In Blountville, Tennessee, a man was arrested for drunk driving after he was pulled over while driving a lawnmower against traffic on a road near his house, according to the Kingsport Times-News.
According to police, Martin Junior McMurray ignored police sirens and loudspeaker commands from the cops for half a mile before he finally brought his vehicle to a halt.
At around 11 p.m., a deputy passed McMurray riding the lawnmower down the road. The deputy turned around and followed the mower, watching as McMurray veered across the road into the oncoming lane of traffic.
The deputy fired up his lights, but McMurray ignored them and continued on his way. The deputy even broadcast commands over the loudspeaker, to no avail.
A half mile later, McMurray finally pulled to a stop. The deputy reported that McMurray was unsteady while standing, and that he smelled like alcohol. McMurray admitted to having a few beers with dinner. The deputy then found an unopened can of brew in McMurray’s jacket pocket.
McMurray performed poorly on a field sobriety test, according to police, and they later found that McMurray’s driver’s license had been revoked. He was arrested and charged with driving under the influence, driving on a revoked license and being a habitual motor offender. His blood-alcohol content later registered at .15 percent. Most states, including Tennessee, can charge a person with DUI if they are operating any type of motor vehicle, including cars, lawnmowers, boats and motorcycles.
In a separate story, a man in Vermont didn’t wait for police to flag him down. He showed up drunk at the local prison to serve a two-day sentence for DUI.
Turns out, Timothy Carney had also driving himself to the prison while intoxicated. Prison officials called local police who performed the proper procedures before leveling DUI charges again, reports CBS news. He remained at the prison to serve out his first DUI penalty.
