I am a probation/parole officer in North Carolina. This is how one of my offenders could not fully grasp the consequences of drinking before court.

In August of 1995, Allene Rhodes was caught for Driving While Impaired. She was found guilty in District court but appealed the judgement to Superior court. In April of 1996, at the age of 61, she appeared for Superior court. The District Attorney, the Baliff and everyone else around her could smell the alcohol she had been consuming prior to this. When the judge was notified of this, she ordered that a state trooper take Ms. Rhodes to the magistrate’s office to perform an intoxilizer test.

Back then in North Carolina, the legal limit was .10 BAC to be legally drunk. She was well above this when the trooper administered the test. The trooper took her back to the court room and told her to sit in the jail box and await the judge. As he approached with the intoxilizer report, the judge called for a 15 minute recess. As everyone was leaving the court, Allene looked to her right and to her left, then took off as fast as her 61 year old legs could take her. By the time the trooper had noticed what was up, she was already out the door of the court room.

He took off after her, but by the time he reached the front steps, she had jumped in her truck and was driving away. As she left, the trooper looked at the truck, then looked at the newly administered intoxilizer report. He looked up once more and smiled as he took out his citation book and began to write her another ticket for Driving While Impaired. Her address and physical information was on the original report for Superior court. He later drove out to her residence, where he found her alive and well and arrested her for the crime.

Needless to say, she did not appeal this case when she was convicted.