A short history

I received my first DUI n March of 2010. I was on my way home from  Lakewood with some people I worked with. It was becoming more and more of a Friday tradition to go out after work and I was almost always there. This was at a time in my life that I was working a 9 - 5 office job and so I was working all week and we would leave work on Fridays and go have some drinks to blow off steam. I had a good job and unfortunately was mixed in with the wrong sort of people and behavior. I do still remember my first DUI, however, as time passes, and years go by there is a tendency to suppress the memories of everything that you went through for all of that. And also there is a big big difference between DUI law in 2010 and DUI law in 2014. This was about the time that the laws were starting too take a very big turn for the harsher, and while I didn't experience much of the super harsh realities of the first DUI, I am definitely experiencing the harsh realities of the second. When I went through the first it was just about what you would expect from anything. The night that I was pulled over, it was the weekend before St. Patricks Day and detox was full so I was taken to jail to sober up. This was a significant plus as there was no charge for detoxing in jail. I blew a .095 which was barely over the legal limit over the time, but let's keep in mind throughout this, that from this point forward in your life it doesn't matter if you blow a .0095 or a .095 you will be over the legal limit, and you will get another DUI. Because I was so low I didn't think I needed a lawyer. I did my research and I went to court. I lost my license at the DMV hearing which at the time you still had to drive all the way up to the Lakewood office for the hearing. Of course these days they are all phone in hearings because I guess they realized that once they took away people's licenses, they technically had no way  of going home afterward. The DMV hearing was the day before my court hearing. The court hearing was also pretty standard. I went in, talked to the DA and got my plea deal. DWAI with probation, 24 hours of community service, track A classes, MADD panel, and should I be caught for anything or sent back for anything the possibility of a year in jail. I got started with everything, got the interlock installed in my car and I was done with everything including probation and interlock within a year. In fact I was released from probation a month early. I went through the process and was somewhat compliant and got done and moved forward. Well as you know the following will be testament to what I did not learn the first time I went through this.