It was a Monday afternoon in mid-February. I left work around 2 pm, still driving a rental car because my vehicle was still at the body shop waiting for parts to come in. I got home, picked up the mail, and sat down to watch TV.
My cell phone rang and it was an unknown caller.
I ignored it.
It rang again, this time displaying a number in my same area code.
I answered it.
The caller on the other line asked if it was me he was speaking to and I answered, “yes.” “This is Trooper X with the Florida Highway Patrol, I’d like to stop by and talk about an accident you had on December 25th, will you be home in the next two hours?”
I told him I would be, as my heart raced and I knew my time was up. I immediately called my attorney who made his way over to my home.
About an hour passed and my phone rang again, this time it was my attorney.
“I’m outside your building with the police. Don’t be nervous. They have a warrant for your arrest. Bring your keys, your wallet, ID, your phone, and nothing else, and come outside.”
Are they going to take me to jail?
“Yes, you will be going to jail, come out and we will explain it all to you.”
At this point, I was scared to death. I’ve never been arrested before and I didn’t know what to do other than panic. Once outside, I was met by two highway patrol cars, two officers, and my attorney. I was advised to cooperate, remain calm, and listen.
I was given two citations – one for failure to remain in a lane and the other for driving under the influence.
They read me my Miranda Rights, handcuffed me, put me in the back of a patrol car, and was taken to jail.
In the police car, all I could think about was jail.
I was terrified.
Once there, due to COVID-19, I had to wait outside, hands cuffed behind my back, scared to death with the trooper by my side. When it was my turn, I was called inside to be checked for weapons, photographed, and held for the next step of the process.
After about an hour, I was taken inside the prison where I had to remove all my clothes and put on a jumpsuit. I was held in an area much like an airport terminal with rows of seats with telephones in between. You were not allowed to move from your seat. If you did, you were screamed at by the guards.
I sat there for five hours.
Bologna sandwiches were delivered around 11 pm as I waited to wonder why I’m not allowed to go home. I asked several times when I could leave and the answer was always, “soon.”
During this time, my attorney contacted my brother (who lives 1,000 miles away) to have him post a $1000.00 bond in order to get me released.
It wasn’t until around 1 am when my name and others were called and were told we could leave. We were then led to another room where we were given our clothes, personal property, and changed communally in front of each other.
After final processing, I was released, along with others, including one woman who vomited all over the floor in front of the exit door we had to go through.
Nobody cared.
It was jail.
This was normal.
“Just do your best to walk around it,” we were told. Nobody from the jail offered help to the woman.
It was now 2 am. As I stood outside the prison by myself, I called my brother and my attorney all while trying to get an Uber or Lyft to take me home.
There was not a single rideshare driver who would pick me up – as nobody wants to pick someone up at a jail. I called the local taxi company and in about 45 minutes a taxi arrived. The driver would not take a credit card but drove me to a 7-Eleven where he had me take out $60 in cash in order for him to take me home.
I arrived home around 3:30 am, got into bed still traumatized by what I had just gone through, and waited until my 4:30 am alarm went off to get up and go to work.
At this point, I was officially charged with DUI and the legal process began.
Now that I was charged, I had 10 days before my Florida Driver’s License would be suspended for a period of six months. This suspension is an administrative suspension imposed by the Florida Department of Motor Vehicles. There is another suspension period, which I will discuss later as part of my conviction.
In Florida, if you are charged or convicted of driving under the influence, you have the right to apply for a Business Purposes Only (BPO) license. This type of license is granted after you attend a hearing and are approved for it by the hearing officer.
A driving privilege restricted to “business purposes only” means a driving privilege that is limited to any driving necessary to maintain livelihood, including driving to and from work, necessary on-the-job driving, driving for educational purposes, and driving for church and for medical purposes. – Florida Statute 322.271
For the process involved with obtaining a Florida Hardship License, click here as I discuss this on another page.
Fortunately, I was approved to have a Business Purposes Only license so I could continue to drive to and from work rather than rack up charges from taxi and rideshare services.
Before the first court appearance, my attorney began discussions with the state’s prosecutor handling my case. During a pre-trial hearing in May, the state made a plea offer that would allow me to avoid pleading guilty to DUI, but instead enter a Pre-Trial Diversion Program.
The terms of the offer were:
- 12 months of supervised probation
- Victim Impact Class
- 50 hours of community service
- Level 1 DUI Class
- 10-day impound
- 6-month interlock
- $100 fine
- $50 cost of prosecution fee
- 6 months driver’s license suspension
Upon successful completion of the Pre-Trial Diversion program, the DUI charges against me would be expunged from my record.
Obviously, knowing that a DUI on your driver’s record will result in higher insurance premiums and other issues for the rest of my life, I said I would take the offer.
In August, I received notice that I was not approved for Pre-Trial Diversion because I “failed to meet the State Attorney’s Office criteria for entrance into the Pre-Trial Diversion Program. ” Keep in mind, this letter was after my attorney and the Assistant State Attorney assigned to my case agreed to the plea offer.
After inquiring why I was rejected, we were told that my BAC disqualified me from Pre-Trial Diversion. This was frustrating, as the state’s attorney had all the details of my case including the BAC. The plea offer should have never been on the table if the state’s attorney reviewed the documents prior to making the offer.
Now that Pre-Trial Diversion was off the table, my case was headed to court.
Up next, my day in court and my conviction of driving under the influence.