B=Brandon
M=Maury

B-Why did you ask me to interview you about your DUI?

M=Because it just about ruined my life. I want people to know how bad it is to get a Dooey. 

B-Do you feel like you deserved a DUI?

M-I still don’t know. I didn’t think I was drunk at the time, I really thought I was fine to be driving. 

B-Set the scene, how did you wind up behind the wheel? 

M-It was St. Patrick’s Day. I wanted to go see a band I like at an Irish bar in Kirkland. 

B-Going to Kirkland to have a good time was your first mistake.

M-Normally you’d be right, but this band has a guy that plays an electric violin and he shreds on it like an electric guitar.

B-I think I’m still right. Were you dancing around, acting crazy and doing shots of whiskey like Shia LaBeouf? 

M-No, the band wasn’t there for some reason so my buddy and I decided to leave. 

B-How much did you drink?

M-Three Guinness’s each.

B-Over what period of time?

M-I dunno really. Maybe an hour. We were thinking about staying for the show and then the show never happened. It threw us off. 

B-I was going to say I thought you hate Guinness..

M-I do, but it was a drink special for St. Paddy’s. I think that’s what made me blow over the limit. It’s a heavier beer than I usually drink when I’m out. 

B-Were you swerving, how did you get pulled over?

M-First of all, there were cops everywhere looking for drunk drivers because everyone is supposed to party hard on Paddy’s Day, right? 

B-Yup. 

M-I’m not stupid. I knew there were lots of cops out around the bars, but I felt fine. I wasn’t worried about it all. I got pulled over for going like 40mph on a road that goes from a 25mph speed limit to 35mph before it switches to 35mph. 

B-And the cop thought you were drunk?

M-I think he just assumed it. I argued with him and asked him why he was asking me to do sobriety tests which probably wasn't a good idea. I asked him if he thought I was drunk and he said he thought I might be close or something like that. Then he said that if I blew close to the limit he would just let me leave my car and take a taxi home. 

B-Obviously it didn’t turn out that way. 

M-I blew a 0.89.

Maury’s car was impounded. At the police station he was charged with a DUI and released. From there the financial buggering began:

-Car retrieval from impound: $250
-Good lawyer: $5,000
-Court Fines: $1,500 
-DUI Victims Panel & 8-hour class - $100
-Alcohol Evaluation - $100
-SR22 Auto insurance (Required for three years): Doubled his original rate
-Ignition Interlock Device
Installation - $100
Monthly Service (x3) - $100
Removal $100
Etc.

(Costs are close estimates)

Maury’s lawyer reduced the DUI charge to negligent driving. A year of probation later his record was cleared and his life savings were nearly decimated.

M-I think the whole thing probably cost me close to ten-thousand dollars or something like that. The worst part though was that my job at the time had me making deliveries in a company truck. When they took my normal license away during the (court) hearings my work fired me. 

B-This all sounds incredibly depressing.

M-It was one of the worst couple months of my life. I’m still pretty broke from it.

B-And cheap. You still owe me gas money from that trip to Bellingham.

M-(Comment flagged and removed)

B-What’s your message to people reading this regarding the whole ordeal?

M-Just don’t even try it. It doesn’t matter whether you’re drunk or not… There were people in the class I had to take that got arrested for blowing under the limit. If you drink at all and a cop wants to **** you over he can; it’s his word against yours.

B-But were there people in the class that you thought deserved to be there?

M-Oh yeah. A few of them literally blacked out behind the wheel. They could have killed someone. I never did anything like that, but it doesn’t matter. The point is you just shouldn’t try it. It’s true what they say, ‘You could pay for a lot of taxi rides with ten-thousand dollars.’ 

Friends don’t let friends drive drunk. 

Thanks for sharing, Maury. I’m glad you’re not Ryan Dunn.

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