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Cambridge man behind bars following sixth OUI arrest
By adamg on Mon, 01/14/2019 - 5:07pm
A man who was so drunk he couldn't make himself understood while trying to order tacos at a Brighton Center restaurant and who then got back into his car and drove off was ordered held without bail at his arraignment today on his sixth OUI charge, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports.
Jay Coleman, 52, of Cambridge, was ordered held without bail until at least Jan. 22, when a Brighton Municipal Court judge will hold a dangerousness hearing to determine if he should stay behind bars even longer as a menace to the public, the DA's office reports.
Coleman was arrested Thursday night after getting back into his car following a failed attempt to place an order at Los Amigos on Washington Street in Brighton Center - where his speech was so slurred the counter help could not make out what he was saying, according to the DA's office.
The Globe reports police managed to stop him, but he sped away; when they found his abandoned car, they brought in a tracking dog to find him.
Coleman was charged with OUI as a sixth offense, refusing to identify oneself while operating a motor vehicle, failure to stop for police, negligent operation of a motor vehicle, operating with a suspended license as a subsequent offense, furnishing false identification to police and failure to appear on personal recognizance for an earlier case in Westborough, the DA's office say.
Innocent, etc.
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Comments
Serious question:
Serious question:
How many OUIs before you lose your license forever?
Is permanent revocation a thing? (Three, four, or five strikes and you’re out?).
Serious follow-up question:
If not, then why not?
5 or more....
And you lose your license forever.
The problem is that this guy did not have a license, it was suspended (and was probably suspended on some of the other times he was arrested and convicted for OUIL)
In terms of jail time:
2nd offense: 30 days min
3rd: 150 days mim
4th: 1 year min
5th: 2 year min
Of course the law allows an "and/or" for jail time where the person can pay fines instead of jail time.
Can anyone explain this?
Six times? One would think that the third or fourth would mean hard time.
I know people who have gotten their freaking act together after one OUI, and maybe some jail and a year without a license. The odds that will happen diminish drastically with each additional. All the more evidence that MA lawmakers don't see driving as the public health hazard that it is.
They have plenty of evidence
They have plenty of evidence that he will continue to drink and drive and put people's lives at risk. The only sensible thing to do is to lock him up and throw away the key.
Big part of the problem is
Big part of the problem is judges.
Look at all the felons with convictions stacked up thicker than a phonebook. All those creeps on their 6th gun or assault conviction got passes from judges too.
MA has relatively draconian laws and penalties on the books. They are usually plead away or watered down to nothing by the people playing dress up on the bench.
Lawmakers don't sentence people....
Judges do.
Yes, but
The judges have to follow the law.
The drunk driving laws in MA are very lax when it comes to yanking licenses and sending people to jail. MADD has rankings for these things.
cambridge drunk driver
he’s going to need a bike.
Hopefully he gets his head on
Hopefully he gets his head on straight and back behind wheel soon.
Los Amigos
Those guys are great. I hope this (expletive) was at least nice to them while incoherent.
Was he independently wealthy?
Or is he some day trader? How much money does 6 DUI's cost? I'm guessing at $10,000 each it's at least $60,000.
Many lawmakers are defense attorneys or have donors who are
It's not unusual to see your local state representative or senator in district court wheeling and dealing as defense attorneys. This includes members of the Judiciary Committee from both House and Senate. They vote on the judge's pay so there is an effort to please them.
As Pete Nice pointed out, in many cases the jail time can be waived by fines. I would add that a quick "spin dry" in a short term, state funded detox and "promise" to attend A.A. avoids jail time too. I knew a man (now dead) who went into the state detox limping with a hollowed out cane full of Crown Royal. For most, it's all a game.
If you have the right lawyer, "My client has no license, making it hard to find work, so may we waive the fines and grant him a "Cinderella" (daylight hours) license, your honor?" I've also seen dozens of third and fourth OUI defendants allowed to plea to a second offense, even though it is clearly a third/fourth+ with the (slight) possibility of jail time. No jail time if they plead to a second offense. Now with a judge banning the breathalyzer, the show will go on long after we're gone.