Current mood:	depressed
Current music:	Folsom Prison Blues, Johnny Cash
Entry tags:	trial

How Much It Costs to Fight a DUI and Lose
To get my lawyer take the initial case:$4,000.
To do the DMV trial: $500.
Bill from County for the cop to show up: $190.
Transcript of DMV hearing: $90.
Retainer to take to trial: $2500.
Expert Forensic Toxicologist Witness for ½ day: $850.

Court Fines/Costs: $1404.
Work Release Program costs: $75.
DUI classes ordered by the court: $750.

Total for a 1st offense DUI at .08 on the breathalyzer, with no prior record and clean DMV record: $10,359. Keep in mind, my lawyer was fetched at a significant discount through friends - normally an initial case would cost $6,000, and at least $5,000 to go to trial, plus more in between.

This does not include what it will cost if the DMV revokes my license (which the court did not, ironically), nor what it will cost additionally when my insurance goes up. The estimate was roughly $400 a month.

For the record, the jury was hung on the first count of Driving Under the Influence, when they couldn’t all agree that I was actually driving impaired. Unfortunately, the DA did a good job of reminding them that on the second count – driving with a blood alcohol level of .08 or higher – you don’t even have to weigh the science that proved I at the time of driving that I was driving at a .07 or less, in order to find me guilty. So…they went with being able to convict on .08 alone, and here I am…about to put on an orange vest for Marin County at some point in the near future, for 5 days at 8 hours each of work release/community service (instead of going to jail).

I will get to enjoy one holiday before all this begins…which is Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, I will be broker than brokeback mountain, and can’t afford the trip to TX to visit dad…or for that matter, a goddamn turkey.

There is more I could say about all this, but I won’t.

As a public service announcement, I only wish to say that the next time you have had so much as ONE beer and decide to drive home assuming you are not impaired, remember this number: $10,359., and consider if you can afford that…or a somewhat pricey cab ride instead.

If, for instance, I had taken a cab that day – I’d still have my Z3 (or whatever would be left of it after considerably more crackwhore break-ins), and I’d still have that 10k (though I’d admittedly have spent it on frivolous things like…oh, I dunno…my first vacation in 10 years to some place warm like…Hawaii?)

I do not regret excercizing my right to a jury trial. Though expensive, I was facing the same fines and penalties with the exception of the time working for the sherriff’s department in lieu of jail, but would have had my license revoked. Not even the fines would have been scaled down.

Thank you to all of you who have called, written, text’d, emailed, and generally lent me support through this process. It’s over with (almost)…and soon I can move on.