This may get a little long, and something I don't typically share, because "people" do judge and regardless of how you deal with the entire rest of your life they will want to define you by this. What I am about to say doesn't mean your BIL doesn't have a problem and need attention. But again, based on your post this may just be an issue that needed a wake up call. I will start here. In spite of being careful and trying to obey the law this is a subject I have some experience with.
Quote:
Originally Posted by doug_porsche
Thanks for the advice so far.
Giving a little more information.
Unfortunately this was not a DUI checkpoint.
It was deserved DUI (passed out in the car, parked in front of the house, with the keys in the ignition). A very uncharacteristically poor decision.
I believe 100% this is an unfortunate situation that slowly just sort of spun out of control, and with the correct attention now, does not/will not define him.
We will address this now, as a family, and it can be that 2 pound monkey, not a 300 pound gorilla, at future family gatherings.
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DUI- Driving Under the Influence
DWI- Driving While Intoxicated.
OWI/OUI- Operating While Intoxicated or Operating Under the Influence.
What you described doesn't convict your BIL of DUI or DWI. Bare in mind this is NJ I am speaking of not CO, but most of the laws across the country are similar. In NJ you can be convicted if the key is in the "ON" position or if the engine is running, that is "Operating" the vehicle.
So in 1992 (I was 27) I received a Operating under the influence. Long story short St. Patrick's day. I am with a group of friends we have my car an one friend is our DD. We go out and celebrate. Somewhere around 1:30AM I say to the DD I have had enough I'll waiting in the car. I leave the bar walk across the street get in the passenger side of the car, start the car and turn on the heat. I put my head back and close my eyes. Some time later five minutes or a half hour I don't know. There is a knock on the window. It's a police officer. He asks have I been drinking? I said yes. He then asks, is there anyone else in the car with you? I say no. He then asks who started the car? I say I did. I couldn't find an attorney that would "defend" me so I represented my self pro-se. I was found guilty of Operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated. Had I answered I don't know who started the car. There is no way I could have been found guilty.
When I answered that I started the car I convicted myself. So unless your BIL admitted to driving to that spot himself there is no proof he did anything other than fall asleep in the car while intoxicated. Assuming the car was not running or the key in the on position. The moral of the story is I wasn't a threat to anyone and either was your BIL at the time. However, my drivers abstract shows the exact same conviction as someone driving on a busy free way at twice the legal limit.
Now the hard part.
I was pulled over for a second time in 2017. I went to get Chinese food. As I was walking up to the restaurant I guy I have known most of my life was walking past with his girlfriend heading to a little spot across from the restaurant. He asked If I would have a beer with him. I spent a little over an hour and had four 12oz. miller lite bottles. The fourth was unfinished. I got my Chinese food about fifteen minutes and headed home. A few blocks later I was pulled over. I was asked if I would do a filed test to which I agreed, but declined to do any walking tests as I was wearing flip flops. For those that don't know you can not refuse a breathalyzer but you do not need to consent to a filed sobriety test. I consented to the ABC test, Count backward and the Horizontal Gaze Mystagmus. For the record the officer that pulled me over was a class II summer cop with an authority attitude. He had been on the job for sixty days and hadn't received any DUI training. So I said my ABC's, counted backward and then he tries to perform the HGM. He waves his pen in front of my face, twirls it above my head, moves it to the left and then the right. I then tell him he is not doing the test correctly. You're supposed to go to the sides to see if my eyes twitch. He responded with "OH yeah? I think you are intoxicated you're under arrest." He took me to the PD where I sat and waited. About an hour later I was taken into the booking room where they then do a twenty minute visual evaluation. This is to ensure you don't ingest anything that could cause an improper reading. So at nearly two hours after I was stopped I blew a .13. There are more details which I would be happy to share but it would be a lot of typing. The police report, dash cam video, chest video of two officer, etc. In short I plead to a second DUI at my attorney's advice.
An important detail (In NJ anyway) is most states have a time frame that a DUI need be performed. If out side of that time frame the breath test can either be thrown out or time must be subtracted to come up with a reading for the time of the stop. New Jersey does not have that condition in place. It states "a reasonable amount of time" and no definition for what is a "reasonable" amount of time. It is completely open to the judges discretion. What you may not know is the human body absorbed alcohol at a faster rate than it eliminates it. So in my case my body absorbed alcohol for nearly two hours before I was given the test.
As part of my sentence I was required to under go an in depth alcohol evacuation as is required for all second offenders to see if "a bigger problem exists". A mental evaluation, questioning regarding my home life, work, sexual orientation, etc. I was required to attend sixteen weeks of group meetings one day per week at 8am in the morning and consent to a toxicology test each week. The program was called "relapse prevention". I was also required to attend private counseling every other week to see how I was progressing. When I asked he mental evaluator, group counselor and private counselor if I had a bigger problem and why I was in "relapse prevention" they all said you don't belong here, but we received funding for sixteen weeks of treatment.
My point Doug, is he may or may not have a "bigger" issue. But don't automatically convict him. You are going to stigmatize this man. I for one will take exception to your statement "it was deserved". Unless there is additional information that proves he was a danger what does he deserve? What was his BAC? How long was he asleep in the car? Did he actually drive anywhere? Step lightly and give him the benefit of the doubt. If he has a problem help him. The police aren't your friend. They are not Andy Griffith and are not always right. They're job is to arrest people.
Maybe your BIL is bored and needs a hobby or a part time job to take up some idle time. What is the saying"
"Nothing good comes from boredom. It's said that idle hands are the devil's workshop, an old saying dating at least as far back as Chaucer in the twelfth century who called idle hands the devil's tools. : "Friends, the idle brain is the devil's playground."....
So that's my story and my .02