How many times have you heard someone say this?
"If you get in an accident, and you know you’ve been drinking, go someplace close by and, in view of many witnesses, proclaim how distraught you are from the event and pound several stiff drinks. THEN, go back to the scene."
And of course, the thought being that, at best, the cops can charge you with leaving the scene of an accident and you’ll get off of a sure DWI charge. But, does anybody actually know anybody that has successfully gotten away with such a scheme?
Then there’s the trick of rescheduling court dates at the last minute in the hope that the arresting officer will be a no-show, and you’ll get off due to that technicality.
Again, despite many prayers and wishes for such luck helping the accused, the reality is that it really doesn’t happen all that often… Unless, of course, you’re a member of the law enforcement community. Then, all bets are off…
The proof was in the lead story in the September 13 NH Union Leader:
Police Officer Benjamin Beauchemin never lost his driving privileges, despite refusing a Breathalyzer sobriety test after an off-duty car crash last spring.
Beauchemin instead fought to keep his license at a state motor vehicle hearing and prevailed on a technicality when the investigating state trooper failed to show up, apparently because of a court conflict.
See? How fortunate for Officer Beauchemin that a fellow cop somehow just couldn’t make it for his hearing. How many times does that happen when it’s just an ordinary citizen?
At a rehearing, Trooper Nick Cyr’s reason for missing the Beauchemin hearing was deemed insufficient to reopen the case, allowing Beauchemin to keep his license, Curtis Duclos, hearings administrator for the state Department of Safety, said yesterday.
Beauchemin this week was found not guilty in Candia District Court on a driving while intoxicated charge from the May 11 crash.
Beautiful, isn’t it? And here’s the rest of the story:
Beauchemin has admitted to having one beer before the crash.
He also has said he left the scene of the crash to go to his girlfriend’s home, two doors down from the site, where he had four more to calm his nerves.
He later returned to the crash scene, where court records show he refused the sobriety test.
Does anybody think that the above scenario would have happened were Beauchemin just an ordinary, unpriviledged citizen? How much legal expenses were incured on this? Again, Joe Sixpack, in most instances cannot afford the astronomical costs necessary to properly fight a DWI charge. In this story, with Beauchemin’s brothers in the law enforcement and other NH gov’t communities doing their part for him, it most likely didn’t cost him much more than what can be earned back in a few hours of "detail work."
"To Protect and Serve"
(one another, that is…)
When it’s ordinary folks, this, this, and this is the normal procedure. Wake up NH!!! The "Live Free or Die" state is rapidly becoming the "Police State". I don’t understand how a people that rejects REAL ID as too intrusive on freedom and privacy then turns around and allows the police to get away with what they do here in the Granite State.
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