So back in April my brother's best friend graduated from college and he and I went to go visit him since the college isn't far away at all. So we get there and find out it was the campus bar crawl night, which I had never heard of. So basically his friend had been drunk for two days (he was trying to go out on a high note I guess..) and was throwing a massive party. It sounded good to me because I was on sabbatical waiting to go to The Ohio State University
and hadn't really partied in a while. Well, it turns out that I don't have the skills required haha I'm ridiculously bad at Beer Pong, Civil War, etc. and was relegated to sipping a beer in the corner while my brother and his buddy (Jason) ran shit on the table. So like an hour goes by, I've had three beers and am bored as hell because sicne all of my friends went to UT, BG, and OSU, not this place.So this would be a great time for my night to start sucking. They were storing their beer in huge plastic 300+ gallon containers on ice. They'd been binging for two days and thus the ice became water. So Jason walks into his roommate's room to get another beer and finds one of the containers is out, so what does he do? He breaks it. 300+ gallons of water flow out onto this roommate's room. Who does he blame? Me. So now I don't know anyone at this sausagefest, don't like how hard they're going at it binge-wise, and have now been blamed for drenching one of the guys who lives there's room with 300 gallons of water. Yeah, it was pretty awkward.
So another hour passes with me cautiously avoiding this roommates sipping my beer and Jason decides it's time for some food. There is a pancake place down the street and Jason decides it's best for him to drive. Already not a great idea. But it's ~200m down the road at 3am so I agree. We get there and eat, and leave. Well on the way back Jason does't turn his lights on and gets pulled over by the Ohio Highway patrol. He blows a .10 and gets arrested with a DUI. The Patrolman asks me and my brother if we'd been drinking, and I tell him I had a few but was fine. I told him I was only 20 but he didn't mind. However the local Policeman who came as backup watched the whole thing and was staring intently at me the entire time, as if looking for a reason to ticket me. Yes, we're doing a little bit of foreshadowing right now.
So the Patrolman lets us go because we're in walking distance of the house. We get back to find that his buddies were so pissed at what happened to his room (it's drenched, as said) that in a drunken fit they were throwing their jack bottles accumulated over the years against the walls. So we come in and there's glass all over the floor and one of the guy's girlfriends is vacuuming it up to little avail. So I turn to my brother, who's rather inebriated, and tell him we're getting the fuck out of there. I was not even buzzed because I never had enough beer due to running away from people all night and sucking at beer pong haha I'd maybe consumed five beers all night. So we hop in the car and drive off. Who's sitting there waiting for me to do just that? This local policeman. First thing he says "I wanted to give you the underage earlier, did you know that?" Yes, I knew that. So of course he makes me get out of the car and blow. I blow <.08, of course, but since I was under 21 I was fucked anyway. So he arrests me for going 35 in a 25, gives me an underage, and an OVUAC. An OVUAC means you blew between a .02-.079 and were under 21. It counts as an OVI (.08<) on your record though and is a M-4 (the lightest misdemeanor there is).
Of course, the policewoman who drove us back went 35 in a 25 the entire way back, as anyone would at 4am. So a night in jail later and I get back home. I realize just how much deep shit I'm in so I get a lawyer. He was rather confident we'd get it reduced because I'm an honors student, Eagle Scout, religious leader, etc. and had a spotless record, and am not a binger at all. Well the prosecutor saw it differently, first he stated that the officer who pulled me over is infamously strict and is known throughout the county as being the last guy you want to get ion this position with; the plea they offered me was:
-speeding ticket wasn't dropped, but no points or fine.
-OVUAC stands as is. Fines and court costs and I lose my car for three months.
-the Underage Consumption goes into a diversion program, in which I'd have to take two classes and be put on probation for a year. I turn 21 this fall but I won't be allowed to step foot in a bar or party with alcohol present for the next year. If I get caught in a bar I get THIRTY DAYS IN JAIL. Soooooo the expect me to be 21, and attend Ohio State and not touch alcohol for a year, even when it'll be completely legal. Hmmmmm....
Basically they didn't drop anything and will hang the underage over my head for a year. Now I wasn't looking to get off of this entirely, as I completely understood what I did at the time and have no problem paying the fines and getting a good ol' slap on the wrist. I'm well aware drunk driver is stupid, and buzzed driving isn't smart at all........but I was completely fine so I'm a bit hateful.
Am I being obtuse to think this might be overkill? I mean they drop OVIs that are near .08 to reckless operation all the time, but a person <.08 gets fucked extra hard because he's just shy of his 21st? Also they don't give you a year's worth of probation and hang 30 days in jail over your head for an underage normally. The classes I have to take are 2-3x more costly than what the fine would be anyway, but my lawyer says I want the certainty of knowing no jail time (initially haha) because since an underage is an M-1 the judge could give me six months in the slammer. Yeah, that'd be the best thing for society. Throw the honors student in jail because he had three beers in his system.
/end rant. How much do I deserve to spend four weeks in the slammer getting my shit pushed in?
Personally I'm 50/50 on not taking it and just pleading no contest to it and hope the judge sees it differently. My lawyer and I agree, this Diversion Program is just a huge fundraiser for the city.
