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If You Think A Drink Is Expensive, Try a DUI

Drinking & Driving

Kathy Waters/Highlands Today

Deputy Kim Altier and Deputy Juan Delgado conducted a field sobriety test recently in Sebring.

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By Joe  Seelig | Highlands Today

Published: September 9, 2007

AVON PARK — "I remember when those lights went on, saying, 'Oh God, I'm going to jail.'"

That's what Tom, age 27, of Avon Park, recalled after leaving a bar in Lakeland on April 23, 2006, and driving his Volkswagen Bug.

Tom was pulled over by a Lakeland police officer for not having his running lights on. He only had three drinks, he said.

"Those three drinks cost me about $485 each, no, it was a lot more than that," he said. "I spent 26 hours in jail. I received probation for a year and $2,500 in fines and another $45 per month for the probation."

Tom's mind shifted back to that fateful day in April.

"(The officer) was going to let me go," he said. "I walked to my car. Then he asked me why I forgot to ask for my driver's license back."

He blew a .100; it was his first offense. He was taken to the Polk County Jail.

"It was jail, you're not treated good," he said. "In the Polk County Jail conditions are not so nice. They serve you slightly-aged-looking food and it wasn't hot, barely warm."

He was served chicken nuggets on a Styrofoam plate in the holding cell.

"I was in a room, 25-feet by 30 or 40-feet, with 50 guys," he said. "(The food) was something like it was left over. And they didn't clean up the Styrofoam containers right away. Maybe it was two or three hours before anyone picked it up. And there was no trash receptacle. The containers and food was thrown on the floor."

Sitting down on the floor there was a good chance of sitting on some discarded food or dirty containers, he added. There was a concrete bench, a sink and one toilet.

At some point he was taken to the minimum security annex.

It was like going to prison, the doors groaned and clanked behind him, he said.

"I spent about two hours there," Tom said. "At least there, there was a room, a bed and some dirty sheets. It was like the Hyatt in comparison. Twenty-six hours. I sobered up in six."

He was taken back to the jail, where a family member posted his $500 bail.

"They keep that," he said. "People think you get it back, but it's applied to your court costs."

He's since paid the family member back, he said.

His auto insurance went up. He attended mandatory DUI classes at Tri-County Human Services, Inc., he said, as well as a Mothers Against Drunk Drivers class at another location.

"Those were disturbing," he said, "and sad, as people told stories of being seriously injured or losing loved ones to drunk drivers."

Tri-County Human Services, Inc.

The Tri-County Human Services, Inc. office in Sebring handled 369 DUI clients from August 2006 to August 2007 in Highlands County, and 2,246 clients out of its four offices in a three-county area of Polk, Highlands and Hardee, according to Flor Becker, DUI registrar and Betsy Deal, support staff coordinator.

It is the only provider of DUI services contracted in the tri-county area.

Driver's licenses can be suspended from six months to five or 10 years, or even for life, depending on the offense, said Deal.

Computers make it easier to identify DUI drivers from other states, she said.

"There's a thing called the national registry," said Deal. "States are required to enter their drug and alcohol traffic-related offenses into the national registry, which is a database which is accessible by the Florida Department of Motor Vehicle."

One of Tri-County's functions is to educate drivers so they can get their licenses back. On average the
Sebring office sees five to 10 clients a week, said Becker.

At present the company oversees 92 clients with five to 10 year driver's license suspensions in the tri-county area who are under "Special Supervision."

All of its fees are set by the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, said DUI Program Supervisor John Sim, who has worked with DUI cases since 1976 and has been with Tri-County for 4 ½ years.

There are about 25,000 alcohol and drug-related traffic crashes each year in Florida, said Sim.

"It's a tough system and still - look at the deaths in Florida - 1,200 to 1,500 each year," said Sim. "We understand the human costs on both sides, to our students and for those suffering the death of family members.

"This is a student-funded program. When it comes to the cost of the school and the administrative stuff it comes out of their pockets."

There are no grants, there is no government funding to pay for it. And everything Tri-County does is mandated by the Department of Motor Vehicles. Everything is regulated by the DMV, he said.

Driving Classes

Taking Level I classes entails completing a 12-hour course. For those with more than one DUI, Level II - is a 21-hour course including "a process of change curriculum." Classes for Level I can hold up to 32 people while Level II classes are limited to 15 in a class.

Any student who blows above a .00 on their breath test must re-register and pay the full registration fee and it becomes an automatic treatment referral as well as notification of the probation officer.

"The breath tests are administered before each class," said Sim. "In most classes one or two people will blow positive."

Sim understands the lack of mass transit makes it difficult, but Florida has strict regulations that his offices must follow.

"We're not being mean," he said.

Students who are more than 10 minutes late for their evaluation or for a class have to pay a $75 fee to reschedule. This, too, is state mandated.

"Whether the DUI was an isolated incident, whether it was a person abusing alcohol or drugs or whether they're addicted, nice people can kill people," Sim said. "There are consequences to behavior. What keeps me going is I've seen a lot of people change their lives."

CiCi's Story

For many people convicted of a DUI, the arrest may just be the beginning of consequences and a long personal nightmare.

A 40-ish Avon Park woman who just wanted to be called CiCi for the purpose of this story was issued a DUI citation in early 2007, following a traffic crash. Even though she blew a .00 breath alcohol level at the Highlands County Jail, she remained in jail.

"I did not have anything to drink," CiCi insisted.

She had two prior DUI's from out of state, the first in 1988 in Maryland and the second back in 1991 or 1992 in Virginia. She admitted she deserved those, but claims about 13 years of sobriety.

"The second DUI left a nasty taste in my mouth, so I quit drinking," CiCi said.

She completed a residential treatment program and stopped.

During the 2007 crash investigation an anti-anxiety medication was in her purse. She had a prescription, she said. "I hadn't taken any that day," she said.

She was unable to do the roadside sobriety test, she said, because she was dazed and injured. Jail was no joke.

"It is awful," she said of her jail stay. "The food is terrible, I gave mine away, and the people are not nice."

It was the week of the 12 Hours of Sebring races and the jail was crowded.

"They put my mattress on the floor about four feet from the toilet," she said. "It was overcrowded and it was freezing cold."

With some help from a friend, she posted a $200 bond to make her $1,000 bail. She was between jobs with medical issues and couldn't afford the $127.50 towing or $650-plus in storage fees. Eventually her car was disposed of by the tow operator.

She still owes the jail $5.38 for her stay.

Her refusal to a take blood or urine test, followed by advice from a public defender to plead no contest to the DUI charge, led to her post-conviction problems.

She didn't know that once she pleaded no contest, she couldn't fight the charges.

She had to pay the Highlands County court a $738 fine, a $135 DUI fee, $15 court transcript fee, $25 for the public defender. And she had to pay a $40 appointment fee for her initial visit.

There was also a $540 probation fee imposed by Salvation Army Correctional Services, which oversees misdemeanor charges. CiCi has already worked 27 hours of her 50 hours of community service at a local church. She must complete that program by November.

She was assigned to attend Level II Education classes at Tri-County. The price tag was $258 for the education, $55 for her evaluation, a $12 state DUI Trust fee, and $5 for a DRI test; total $330. She has her certificate of completion.

Tri-County also will charge her a $29 fee for outpatient services, plus $4.50 per session one to two times per week for an unspecified time, she said. Plus there is an additional $3 per hour for family therapy and $20 expense for each urine screen she undergoes.

"The funniest part is it's only just begun," she said. "The fun has just started for me. I can't drive. I have to get to the classes. I have to get to work. It's going to be an ongoing, almost gross experience. But I'm glad I didn't drink."

Tri-County has informed her she must be enrolled in drug education classes.

"Try getting from here to the hospital on a bike," she said. "My wings are clipped. I'm on the ground. It's tough. There is no bus. There is no metro system here."

Her driver's license is suspended for six months. It will cost her $150 to have it reinstated. Once she is allowed to drive again she will have to have an "Interlock" device installed in her car for two years. The device requires her to blow into the device before the car will start.

According to Tri-County the Interlock can be calibrated in Fort Myers, Tampa, Orlando or Lakeland. Any way she slices it, it's a long drive.

Droopy's Tale

Droopy, as he wanted to be called, is about 40 years old and a resident of Avon Park. His southern twang would probably classify him locally as a good old boy.

In Droopy's case it's the lost opportunities and intangibles that add up to the true cost of drinking and driving.

"In DUI school they called me a bad boy," he began, "because I had two of them."

His first came in 1998, at age 31, when he bumped another car after drinking. He was in jail for about 12 hours before his girlfriend, now his wife, bailed him out. It cost her $500 for bail and he got a year of probation.

He lost his driver's license for six months and attended the DUI school. He guesses with court costs it was a $1,500 tab.

"I was drinking with my brother," he said. "We was drinking beers. The (Avon Park Police) officer smelled the beer on my breath and that was it."

He was placed into a 6-foot by 8-foot holding cell, he said, with a 2-foot by 8-foot bench. "It was very confining, and it was very cold," he said.

He later served a 48-day stretch for violation of probation on the DUI, he said.

"They shoved about 10 of us in a little bitty cell," he said. "I lost a good job on that one. Right now, I'd have 10 years in it with retirement. I'd have excellent insurance and benefits."

But he had another lesson coming.

"In 2001, I had a DUI with an accident," Droopy said. "I got into a fight. I killed a liter of vodka, and I managed somehow to get home. I was going back to his house to fight him again when I passed out, hit a telephone pole and collapsed behind the wheel."

When he woke up an ambulance was there and Sebring PD was there, too.

"The officer stood in front of me, bent down and smelled my breath," he said.

He got a ride to the hospital and then it was back to jail. He doesn't remember what he said to the judge at first appearance, but the judge denied Droopy bail for two days.

"I was kept in a holding cell for a day and a half," he said. "Then they put me in population. Thank God for that."

There's no bed in the holding cell, he said.

He was sentenced to 60 days in jail, his driver's license was taken away for five years and he was given a year of probation and DUI school with Tri-County.

"It made me think cause I could have killed somebody," he said. "Thank God all I got was a wake-up call. I don't drink and drive no more."

He hasn't given up drinking, however.

He participated for a year in a work release program, which he completed.

Droopy guesses it cost him about $1,100 for the court and all together it's cost him about $2,100 for the second time around. He's turned his life around, he said.

He's got a decent-paying job after five years of having to travel six miles each way to Labor Finders. His wife had to get up early every day to drive him.

"It cost me a lot of money and a lot of aggravation," he said. "I'm just an average schmoe trying to make a living."

Interestingly, Droopy said he learned in DUI school that you can get a DUI while riding intoxicated on a bicycle or even a riding mower.

That's right, said Avon Park Police Cmdr. Mike Rowan.

"Once you get on the road, it becomes a vehicle," he said.

Even riding a skate board drunk on a street is a DUI, Sim added.

Lawyers Fees

Two of the lawyers offices contacted by Highlands Today for costs to defend a DUI case referred the call to the attorneys themselves, who were not available. A third office was not open on Friday.

At two offices secretaries said the hourly rate was between $200 and $250. One office secretary agreed that it could cost $2,500 to $3,000 from start to finish on simple DUI cases. Cases involving multiple offenses, damage to persons or property or DUI manslaughter, would cost significantly more.

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