According to QCOnline, Alderman McGivern pleaded guilty to the drunk driving charge in exchange for the open container violation being dropped. His blood-alcohol content was 0.171, and you have to keep in mind that it was only measured after he was arrested and taken to jail. His lawyer probably recommended he delay the breathalyzer test as long as possible to allow for a lower score. Apparently he was plenty drunk. I'll link to the article, here, but it will probably be unavailable by the time anyone clicks it.
According to the article, he was sentenced to 120 days in jail, which he will have to serve 2 of. Two days in jail may seem easy, but if you've ever had a tour of our jail you'll know that its not. However, the article also says, "Mr. McGivern will have to arrange with the jail when he will serve his time, but he also could serve his sentence at his home." So nevermind the 2 days in jail thing, I guess. He'll also get a year of unsupervised probation and have to take some alcohol classes. Judging from others I've seen go through this, the whole process will end up costing him quite a few thousand dollars for a first time offense.
Now I guess we just wait to see if Alderman VanFossen's score is higher or lower! Maybe we should start doing breathalyzer tests on anyone walking in to turn in their petition to run for office.
12 comments:
Ah so Mr McGivern is saying he didn't have an open container. Right. And Santa came down my chimney last month.
I don't think he's saying that. It says in the article that he admitted there was scotch in the cup. He's just pleading guilty which saves the county the cost of a trial, and in exchange they drop one of the charges.
McGivern could have pleaded guilty two both charges. Wonder how he explains this to his children.
Oh, give me a break. Tell me you wouldn't do the same thing!!
I would hope that anyone - but particularly community leaders which should include our elected officials - would stand up and admit their failures. There shouldn't have been any need for a trial to convict Mr McGivern of both charges, he (or any of us for that matter) should have spared the county that expenditure by admitting to the simple honest truth.
Before you ask, being as we're all merely human I don't expect anyone - elected or not - to volunteer their wrongdoing without first being caught. Maybe in some distant future when we're willing to admit guilt when caught red-handed, then we'll be ready to start volunteering our mistakes.
Yet another case of our stellar prosecutor giving plea deals in spite of what most people would call an open and shut case. Does anyone else wonder if the reason the criminals aren't scared of the justice system in our area is because they know they'll get a deal? I was joking with a relative called for jury duty not to worry, the person would get a plea deal and she wouldn't need to serve. Guess what! They got a plea deal.
Slang:
Do a McGivern:
Say you are going to take responsibility for something and don't.
Do a Davis:
Law enforcement official who gets their friends off the hook.
Doesn't anyone watch Law ans Order? What is surprising is that he didn't have to plead to the lesser charge to get rid of the bigger charge.
Four days home confinement. Geez. Must be a real blow. I wonder if he is required to stay away from the scotch for those four days. This will come back to haunt McGivern when he tries to run again.
Being a boozer and worse never hurt Teddy Kennedy when it came to running for office.
I can think of someone with an even higher position with a DUI in his past.
McGivern has shown nothing but remorse concerning this incident, I think it's about time people leave behind their personal attacks against him and move on. It is very rude attacking his family and questioning the intgrity of a person I bet most of you have never met. Agree or disagree with him, he is not a bad human being. (Nor or any of the past, present or future council members.) It is one thing to disagree with someone, but the blatant hatred I see is very unnerving.
Post a Comment