Behind the Wheel: Drunk and Narcissistic

     On October 13, 2015, 23-year-old Whitney Beall, while driving from one bar to another in her 2015 Toyota Corolla in Lakeland, Florida, recorded her alcohol intoxication by video on the social media app Periscope. "Let's have fun! Let's have fun!" she repeatedly exclaimed into the little camera. Also: "Hi everybody in different countries. I really hope you don't mind that I drive, because in the USA it is really important."

     Beall declared herself unfit to drive when she said, " I'm driving drunk and this is not cool. I haven't been arrested yet, and I really don't hope so." A few minutes later she announced this into the video camera: "I'm driving home drunk, let's see if I get a DUI."

     Several people watching the live-steamed video called 911 to report the drunken driver who was exhibiting her condition to the world.

     Lakeland patrol officer Mike Kellner spotted a 2015 Toyota Corolla being driven on the wrong side of the road. He pulled the car over and encountered the social media sensation, Whitney Beall.

     Beall and her car reeked of alcohol, and her eyes were bloodshot and glassy. In addressing the officer, Beall made a series of slurred, rambling statements that included the claim she was lost and driving on a flat tire.

     After failing the field sobriety test, Officer Kellner took the suspect into custody. After refusing to take a breathalyzer test, officers booked Beall into the Polk County Jail on the charge of driving under the influence. It was her first DUI arrest.

     The day following her DUI charge, Beall made bond and was released from custody. To a reporter she said, "It was a big mistake and I'm learning my lesson." Fortunately, her "big mistake" and learning experience didn't kill someone.

     In February 2016, Beall pleaded no contest to driving under the influence. The judge sentenced her to a six month license suspension, ten days of vehicle impoundment, and a year of probation.

Politics and the Art of Hypocrisy

     On Christmas Eve 2019, an upstate New York newspaper, The Daily Messenger of Canadaigua, published an op-ed by Brian Kolb, the 67-year-old minority leader of the New York State Assembly. Mr. Kolb had first been first elected to the Assembly in 2000 and became its minority leader in 2009. The Republican lawmaker, in his newspaper piece, urged his constituents to avoid driving under the influence during the holiday period, good advice for anytime of the year.

     At ten o'clock Tuesday night, New Year's Eve 2019, Assemblyman Brian Kolb, while driving his state issued 2018 GMC Acadia on County Road 41 near his hometown of Victor, New York, lost control of the vehicle and ended up in a roadside ditch.

     A short time after the accident, a deputy with the Ontario County Sheriff's Office took Mr. Kolb into custody on the charge of driving while intoxicated. The Assemblyman, after being issued a ticket, was released from custody and driven home.

     The next day, the Assemblyman's office released the following statement: "This was a terrible lapse of judgment, one I have urged others not to make, and I take full responsibility for it. I want to offer sincere apologies to my family, friends, colleagues and the people of the 131st Assembly District. I fully recognize that severity of the situation and I am profoundly sorry. There is no excuse and no justification for what occurred Tuesday evening. I made the wrong decision, and it is one I deeply regret."

     Assemblyman Kolb's full-throated apology didn't impress one of his Democrat colleagues, Assemblyman Angelo Santabarbara who called for Mr. Kolb's resignation as the Assembly minority leader. Brian Kolb's political opponent called the DWI incident a "serious" crime.

      Cases like this make all politicians uncomfortable because they remind voters that in one form or another, they are all hypocrites. Compared to the widespread corruption within our political classes, a first-time DWI offense where no one is injured, while highly embarrassing and perhaps politically damaging, is not a serious crime. And as a lawmaker, Assemblyman Santabarbara should know this. His calling it serious as justification for the minority leader's resignation, is just another example of political hypocrisy. 

Drunken School Bus Drivers Shouldn't Get A Second Chance

     A Baltimore bus driver with a criminal record was arrested for DUI on Friday February 27, 2015 as she was headed to pick up a group of students for a field trip. Pamela L. Willie, 52, was pulled over after several motorists notified Maryland State Police that a school bus was moving erratically on Interstate 695 and running vehicles off the road.

     During the stop, police officers observed that Willie was impaired and found four containers of beer and liquor--varying from full to partially full to empty--on the bus.

     A prosecutor charged Willie with 23 criminal charges including driving under the influence, operating a commercial vehicle in possession of alcohol, consuming alcohol in the passenger area of a vehicle, driving a commercial vehicle without an appropriate medical certificate, negligent and reckless driving, and driving off the highway. [If the FBI had a ten most wanted list for traffic offenders, Willie would be on that poster]…

     Records show that in August 2009, Willie was arrested on a string of charges including consumption of an alcoholic beverage while driving on the highway, failure to control a vehicle on the highway to avoid a collision, reckless driving, failure to remain at the scene of an accident, assault in the first-degree, and possession of drug paraphernalia.

     In July 2009, Willie was charged on several accounts, including assault in the first-degree, assault in the second-degree, possession of drug paraphernalia, violation of a protective order, and the malicious destruction of property…In February 2003, Willie was sentenced to one year in jail on charges of assault in the first-degree and resisting arrest. She took a plea deal and avoided jail time.

Chuck Ross, "Bus Driver With Criminal Record Arrested For DUI," The Daily Caller, February 28, 2015

Too Drunk To Drive But Not Too Drunk To Fabricate Evidence

     A man poured water onto a freezing road to try to fool police officers into thinking the cause of his drunken car crash was black ice. Twenty-year-old Bryan Byers of Sparta, New Jersey was arrested Saturday February 14, 2015 and charged with drunken driving and other offenses.

     Authorities said he hit a guardrail after running a stop sign in a BMW early that morning. Shortly after the crash, 20-year-old Alexander Zambenedetti, a friend of Byers, showed up in his own car. The two men dumped 5-gallon buckets of water onto the read to create black ice…

     An officer on patrol saw Byers walking in the road and Zambenedetti sitting in his vehicle with two buckets in the back seat around 2:45 AM. Zambendetti wasn't wearing a shirt despite a wind chill of 15 below zero.

     Mr. Byers confessed to the evidence-fabricating scheme.

"Man Created Black Ice To Mask Drunken Driving Crash," Associated Press, February 18, 2015