Grieving Father’s Felony DUI Reduced to Educational Program
Our firm was contacted by a 59-year-old man who had been arrested by the Pittsburgh Police Department and charged with felony DUI while visiting the grave site of his recently deceased daughter. Our client’s case was serious as he had previously struggled with substance abuse and had been convicted of felony possession with intent to deliver narcotics over 10 years ago, but had since been clean, sober, and active in the addiction recovery community.
Our client’s daughter had unexpectedly and tragically passed away which led to his unfortunate relapse. While grieving the loss of his daughter, our client went to her gravesite and drank as he mourned her death. Our client then left the cemetery and was pulled over and arrested for felony (DUI). Due to our client’s previous conviction for felony narcotics possession he was not eligible for the ARD program. Our client was facing possible jail time, thousands of dollars in court fees and fines, and the loss of his driver’s license because of this felony DUI charge. He consulted with our experienced Pittsburgh criminal defense & DUI attorneys to handle his case. We worked diligently to defend our client and bring the details of the case to the judge’s attention, specifically that our client’s grief triggered his relapse and subsequent charge.
We were able to negotiate and settle our client’s case before the preliminary hearing. To avoid jail time, our client attended a four-day DUI educational program. Our client had also been looking at extended-supervised probation for over a year and thousands of dollars in court fees and fines. We successfully negotiated favorable terms on behalf of our client to a reduced time of only six months of supervised probation and fines of only $1,500 – far less than the normal fees and fines for a felony DUI in Pittsburgh. Our client was able to keep his driver’s license, which was a priority; he needed to be able to continue working to provide for his family, attend recovery meetings within the community, and visit his daughter’s gravesite as he healed in the grieving process.
The outcome of an individual case depends on a variety of factors unique to that case. Case results do not guarantee or predict a similar result in any similar or future case.