So, saturday night I go to Monroe with a buddy of mine to go to a western club.
Anyways, we get there around 9pm, stay till close at 2am. I have over the entire time 5 beers, I had my last one at 1230.
On the way back through Monroe I am taking a right turn off of Mill street onto Hwy 80, and in the middle of a the turn is a truck swallowing pothole, anyways, when I hit the pothole, it jerks the wheel out of the one hand I have on the wheel. (the other hand was down shifting from 3rd to 2nd).
About a mile and a half down the road, the cop behind me lights me up. Anyways, he asks me to step out, asks if I had been drinking, I replied honestly, did as requested.
He runs plates, license, and the SN on the pistol (which he has in his truck at this point). Comes back, calls up 3 other units......and starts with the sobriety tests. He says he is going to give me 3 tests.
First one is the following the pen thing.
Second one is standing on a foot for 30 seconds.
After the second one, and me not having a problem with any of them, he tells me to go sit down in my truck and call a friend to come pick me up and a friend to ride with him to drive my truck back home as well.
That is the friggin problem I have. First, that means calling people up at 3 in the morning to drive a 45 minutes out to Monroe from Ruston to come get me, finding two sober people at 3am....not easy when everyone you know up here is in college.
I have a problem with the fact that I was very obviously sober, enough so that he never bothered with having me walk a straight line or blowing in a breathalyzer. He wrote me a ticket for improper lane usage. I have a problem with the fact that even though I was more than legally allowed to drive away, I was not allowed to, he blocked in my truck and took away my keys when I was sober and in no way legally forbidden from driving my own damn self back to Ruston.
As far as I am concerned, I was subjected to, from the point after the sobriety tests (I have no problem with him administering those, or running any of the numbers or anything, that is his job and in his place I would have done the same after watching a truck crossing over the bridge where all the bars are and crossing the centerline, even if the truck did not do anything at all wrong after that up until the flashing lights came on) but after the tests, having been proven sober and under the limit, that I was detained and unable to leave.
It took me about 30 minutes to get two people to head out that way, and then told the officers that it would be about another 45 till they showed up, they ended up putting me and my buddy in the back of a car and driving us to the station, while one of the officers drove my truck to the station, they locked the keys up in the front office and locked my pistol in my truck (dont have any problems with that, of course, they tried to escort me into the building and I refused and told them that I was going to watch to make sure that my pistol ended up locked in my truck which they did not seem to have a problem with)
So, if you felt like reading through all of this, any thoughts on what I should do? My current line of thought right now is to call the DA up tomorrow for W. Monroe and discuss the legality of me being detained for no damn good reason after the sobriety tests. I would be willing to drop the entire issue if I can get the ticket dropped, seeing as how even that was caused by the **** poor road conditions in W. Monroe (and almost everywhere else in the state)
Anyways, we get there around 9pm, stay till close at 2am. I have over the entire time 5 beers, I had my last one at 1230.
On the way back through Monroe I am taking a right turn off of Mill street onto Hwy 80, and in the middle of a the turn is a truck swallowing pothole, anyways, when I hit the pothole, it jerks the wheel out of the one hand I have on the wheel. (the other hand was down shifting from 3rd to 2nd).
About a mile and a half down the road, the cop behind me lights me up. Anyways, he asks me to step out, asks if I had been drinking, I replied honestly, did as requested.
He runs plates, license, and the SN on the pistol (which he has in his truck at this point). Comes back, calls up 3 other units......and starts with the sobriety tests. He says he is going to give me 3 tests.
First one is the following the pen thing.
Second one is standing on a foot for 30 seconds.
After the second one, and me not having a problem with any of them, he tells me to go sit down in my truck and call a friend to come pick me up and a friend to ride with him to drive my truck back home as well.
That is the friggin problem I have. First, that means calling people up at 3 in the morning to drive a 45 minutes out to Monroe from Ruston to come get me, finding two sober people at 3am....not easy when everyone you know up here is in college.
I have a problem with the fact that I was very obviously sober, enough so that he never bothered with having me walk a straight line or blowing in a breathalyzer. He wrote me a ticket for improper lane usage. I have a problem with the fact that even though I was more than legally allowed to drive away, I was not allowed to, he blocked in my truck and took away my keys when I was sober and in no way legally forbidden from driving my own damn self back to Ruston.
As far as I am concerned, I was subjected to, from the point after the sobriety tests (I have no problem with him administering those, or running any of the numbers or anything, that is his job and in his place I would have done the same after watching a truck crossing over the bridge where all the bars are and crossing the centerline, even if the truck did not do anything at all wrong after that up until the flashing lights came on) but after the tests, having been proven sober and under the limit, that I was detained and unable to leave.
It took me about 30 minutes to get two people to head out that way, and then told the officers that it would be about another 45 till they showed up, they ended up putting me and my buddy in the back of a car and driving us to the station, while one of the officers drove my truck to the station, they locked the keys up in the front office and locked my pistol in my truck (dont have any problems with that, of course, they tried to escort me into the building and I refused and told them that I was going to watch to make sure that my pistol ended up locked in my truck which they did not seem to have a problem with)
So, if you felt like reading through all of this, any thoughts on what I should do? My current line of thought right now is to call the DA up tomorrow for W. Monroe and discuss the legality of me being detained for no damn good reason after the sobriety tests. I would be willing to drop the entire issue if I can get the ticket dropped, seeing as how even that was caused by the **** poor road conditions in W. Monroe (and almost everywhere else in the state)