Sentencing

I wish I could tell you exactly what to expect if you’re ever in a situation like this, but to tell you the truth, gentle readers, from hearing others’ stories, it’s all different. I can only tell you what happened to me.

I went to court three separate times, roughly dated a month apart. The first was what was called the arraignment, where I would enter a plea.  I was advised from various people, some attorneys, not to take the original offer as I might be able to get it reduced through the public defender. Well, that didn’t happen and if I would have just taken the offer in September, I would have had this mess over with by November. But, hindsight is 20/20. The last court date consisted of me going in and meeting my defender, her telling me my ass was in a sling, and to basically suck it up and take the punishment.

Your BAC is your scarlet letter, as mentioned before, and the punishment is statutory. They do not look at it on a case by case basis, it’s all a formula. If it’s a first offense and your BAC is between this and that, then you get this; if it’s your second offense and the BAC is whatever, then you get worse than the first time, which is pretty bad. The third offense you actually go to prison. No matter if you did any damage hurt anyone or not.

You are basically a slot in the docket and there is very little you can do about it, and Arizona is absolutely unreasonable about DUI’s.

So I had 30 days incarceration to look forward to. Luckily I was able to put it off until mid-January, as I work a retail job and having to restrict my schedule during the holidays would be out of the question. Then came the fun talk with my manager at work. Having to admit the embarrassing truth about what I was into was agonizing, because this just isn’t my “brand”. As I stated earlier, I don’t get up to shenanigans like this. Work was very cool about it and was able to set my schedule for the two weeks I would spend in Tent City.

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