Day 3, What My Mother Calls" Disparaging the Commonwealth Attorney"

As I thought my Halloween blog was lost , my thoughts were focused on how to rewrite yesterdays. So this is kind of a last minute, hail Mary, grasping at straws kind of blog.

It was probably the fall of , I don't know, '98. I worked at a at one of Winchester's best restaurant, Violino Ristorante Italiano. It was probably the hardest restaurant job I ever had, hard in the sense that the service was very professional and the place could book up quickly. Made a lot of money, could have some of that today, but after a combination lunch and dinner shifts I frequently passed that cash back across the bars at T Jeffery's or my favorite, Sweet Carolines. And I particularly enjoyed drinking Sonoma Cutrer. Still my favorite Chardonnay, but $6 a glass, even in 98.
Enough about that. This particular night I had hung out for a few Rolling Rocks at Sweet Carolines. Actually taking it easy because my tags had just expired and I wasn't looking for probable cause. But, that's just what I got. Thought there might be a cop behind me so I turned the corner, down not too far from Handley. Probable cause was dead tags and whipping around the corner. And by a wet behind the ears cop who my father taught in school. Should have been a slam dunk!! But no. Have you ever tried to walk a straight line in an almost ankle length skirt with the only slit in the back--with Tony Lama cowboy boots?? (It was stylish at that time!) And it just got worse from there. Officers are under no real obligation to give you specific results of traffic stop breathalyzers. But they hand cuffed me. Had to remove every piece of jewelry down to my belly button ring, and my boots. Frederick County legal buildings could help scan for Reagan National. I don't want to bore you any more than necessary, but they monitor for 20 minutes, then administer the breathalyzer, the officer and I did those things--it probably took a little more than the 20 minutes to be finger printed and mug shot. Any way, I did blow a .006. Cop looked disappointed and sent me on to the magistrate. At this point I'm feeling pretty good about dodging a bullet, only to be told that the Commonwealth Attorney charges everyone pulled in with Driving Under the Influence and usually drops the charges to Reckless Driving. This is when I lost what little patience and good humor I it was at least 2 AM.
It gets a little complex from here, but I'll try and be succinct. The Commonwealth Attorney and his mistress, oops, I mean assistant had lunch several days a week at my restaurant, where they would test drive a convertible to lunch. Consume a bottle or two of wine, then return the car and go back to the courthouse. Needless to say the irony of this was not lost on me, even then. So I asked some questions, made some wondered aloud if this was the same guy getting drunk in the middle of the day in a rented car before returning to work. And of course, Officer Obie, taught by my father, apparently related some of my concerns.
Now it really gets sort of 6 degrees of separation. The mistress was the mother of my brother's long time ex girlfriend. Luckily for me, the girlfriend was now dating the assistant Commonwealth Attorney. I go see my family attorney, who actually wants to see the documents because who gets charged with a DUI when they aren't considered legally drunk. So again, slam dunk. But no! The date of my court case was during his trip to Florida, so he passed me down to the son. Who to make the whole story just a little more all worlds collide, I had spent an evening with during a scotch fueled 30th birthday celebration that I have done my best to forget for 15 plus years! Needless to say, the Commonwealth Attorney took a special interest in my little case. Pretty sure he set up a meeting with the assistant and my attorney at Sweet Caroline's where they drank pitchers and discussed what they could give someone with no previous record and and a breathalyzer reading of under the legal limit.
It would have been funnier if it hadn't happened to me. My attorney was $500. They suspend my license for six months, but suspended that also. Gave me two weeks in jail, and suspended that. Let's see, a $1500 fine which I had to pay another $500 of. But I did get stuck with 1 years unsupervised probation, and a substance abuse evaluation.The good doctor who did my evaluation also read the paperwork several times, not quite believing my story. He had some theories, blonde, end of the month, talking crap about the guy prosecuting me. He gave me some tapes to take home and return, signed off on just about the last piece of paperwork. I'm still not sure what exactly unsupervised probation is, but it was a whole year of worrying about it. Oh yeah, had to work with the DMV to get the Reckless Driving to Endanger Life and Property properly reported.
Again I'll try not to bore you with being released in the middle of nowhere, on foot, on the way back side of Winchester. Luckily, I cop took me to Sheetz where I called my ex boyfriend, Egan, who came and got me at 3 in the morning.
That would be the end of the narrative(although it could really benefit from Arlo on the guitar)--except, that commonwealth attorney has been in the news quite a bit lately. At first I felt vindicated. But you have to feel at least a little bad about a guy who is going to prison for 3 years with who knows how may guys he has put away. Actually started to fell bad and friended him on Facebook.
Night guys!
Bottom line--keep tags up to date!!