A Night Out
Let’s say it's 1 AM on a Sunday morning and you're at the bar with your friends. You’ve had quite a few drinks, and you decide to get behind the wheel of your car and drive back home. While you’re driving on familiar roads back to your house, you begin to see flashing lights in your rear-view mirror. You know it’s the police. You pull over to the side of the road.
An officer approaches your window, asks you a few questions, and orders you to step outside the vehicle to perform some balance tests. You're then asked to blow into what looks like an inhaler. After a few moments, the officer asks you to do one last test – read your license plate out loud. While you’re reading the plate number, the officer puts your hands behind your back and handcuffs you. He tells you he’s bringing you to the police station. You’ve driven by the Police station countless times, but you soon realize that you’ve never actually been inside it before.
Written Up
You enter through the back of the police station, are taken to a holding cell of some sort, and are forced to sit and wait for what feels like an eternity. You're told you can make a phone call. You call a relative, ask them to pick you up from the police station and you tell them you’ll explain it all later. You give the phone back to an officer and continue to wait.
Eventually, a different officer approaches the cell and takes you to small room with a strange machine in it.
You find yourself now standing uncomfortably close to the officer as he takes out a flashcard and begins to read some strange legal language in a fast, robotic manner. There's some mention of an attorney being appointed, and a question about whether you understand and if you're going to consent or refuse the immenent test. Since you’re drunk, you barely managed to keep up with the Officer and, because he seems like a nice guy, you consent.
After signing and initialing a few forms, the officer pulls a tube from the strange machine and asks you to blow into it. You do so. After a few moments, you’re brought to a new machine to have your fingerprints taken. You're then brought back to your cell to continue waiting.
Some time passes, and another officer approaches you to explain that you've have been charged with two counts of Driving While Intoxicated, a lane violation, and a tail lamp violation. The officer mentions that you'll be released to a relative, but you must appear in court on Monday at 9:00 AM or a warrant will be issued for your arrest.
You're uncuffed, given some paperwork, and leave the police station with your relative. You two get into a car and head home. You look down at your phone and see that it is now 3:20 AM on Sunday. Little more than two hours have passed, yet everything feels so different.
So What Happens Next?
Maybe it happens at that moment, or perhaps the next morning, but a number of questions begin running through your head:
Was I charged with a crime? What crime did I commit? Was it a misdemeanor or felony? What’s the difference?
Wait, how did I get two counts of driving while intoxicated if I was only pulled over once?
What is a lane violation? Was I swerving while I drove? Were my tail lamps out?
The officer mentioned something about an attorney when he was reading off the index card. Do I have an attorney? Did they appoint one to me?
What's going to happen to my license? What's going to happen in court on Monday?
What am I going to do about work on Monday?
Those are only a few of the questions you might racing through your head after being arrested.
Fresh Perspectives: What's to Come
The purpose of this blog, and the next few posts to follow in this series, is to help break down the ambiguity of the legal process, from arrest to sentence.
To gain a better understanding of the process behind an arrest, the next post in this series will discuss this incident from the Officer’s perspective.
