Michigan Judge Not Charged With Drunk Driving
Back when she was a candidate for a circuit court Judge Seat, Julie McDonald was arrested about eleven o’clock in the morning on September 8th 2018 in Royal Oak Michigan. Ms. McDonald was originally stopped after a police officer said he saw her throw something out of her driver-side window and then turn onto a busy roadway without using her turn signal.
The police officer then observed that Ms. McDonald’s eyes were "watery and bloodshot” and he smelled "alcoholic intoxicants." She was given a breath test at the police station that registered a 0.08 blood alcohol content. Many of you probably already know that it is illegal to drive in Michigan with 0.08 or greater blood alcohol content.
What happened with that charge, stayed tuned because it gets very interesting.
Just yesterday the Detroit Free Press is reporting that the Michigan Supreme Court ordered that Ms. McDonald as stated above who was arrested last year for suspected drunken driving take a 45-day unpaid suspension from the bench.
Was the suspension for the drunk driving charged she was charged with, no!
We do know that she was charged with operating while intoxicated but believe it or not that charge was later dismissed and she admitted to careless driving and littering, a civil infraction. Apparently a Royal Oak city attorney who was handling this case stated her case was treated like any other.
Ms. McDonald did agree to pay in excess of $2,000 in court fees and costs in exchange for dismissal of the drunken-driving charge. A District Court Judge also ordered Ms. McDonald to undergo daily testing for alcohol use, perform 40 hours of community service and attend Alcoholics Anonymous and Mothers Against Drunk Driving meetings.
Really, have any of you been pulled over or know someone who was pulled over and blew a .08 BAC able to plead down to a careless driving charge? This may be true but I have not known anyone who was given this lesser charge.
She was able to plead down due to the fact that these blood alcohol test have a margin error of .004 percent.
As I stated above, this may be how these cases are handled but I have not heard of anyone being able to plead down as Ms. McDonald was able to.
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