OPINION: A drinking driver
Former Mayor Mary Lou Makepeace drank wine. Then she drove. Then she got pulled over. Then she didn't go directly to jail, she didn't pass go, and she didn't get a ticket.
Some are outraged, insisting Makepeace received special treatment. They should calm down and consider the facts as presented Feb. 1 in a thorough and balanced Gazette news investigation into a case that begged questions about equal application of the law.
Facts: A college cop stopped Makepeace on Christmas Eve and said the car she was driving had swerved three times. It was 9:15 p.m. and Makepeace was heading home.
The officer noticed her eyes were watery and bloodshot and her breath smelled of alcohol. He asked her about it, and Makepeace said she had consumed "a couple glasses of wine with dinner."
There is no reason to question what she said. A couple glasses of wine with dinner could easily cause a person's breath to smell funny.
Makepeace wisely declined a roadside sobriety test, which most people can't do well when stone cold sober. A roadside breath test - which can be grossly inaccurate and can't be admitted as evidence in court - detected a blood-alcohol content of .077 percent. That's lower than the .08 needed for a drunken driving conviction, but higher than the .05 limit needed for the less severe "ability-impaired" conviction.
The officer who stopped Makepeace recognized her as a mover and shaker in Colorado Springs, and called for a city officer. The Colorado Springs officer called a sergeant to the scene.
Instead of arresting or citing Makepeace, officers allowed her to call a relative, who drove Makepeace and her passengers home.
That was the proper outcome, and the officers involved are to be commended. They resisted any temptation to haul Makepeace into jail, just because she's a former mayor.
They resisted the temptation to overreact to the consumption of "a couple glasses of wine" with dinner.
Drunken driving is a serious crime, and it should never be taken lightly. Drunken drivers sometimes kill innocent people. When caught, they should be punished to the fullest extent of the law. When they kill, they should be treated like murderers.
So why not throw the book at Makepeace, using her to send a message? Because Makepeace wasn't drunk. In order for society to take drunken driving seriously, our criminal justice system must be able to distinguish between drunken drivers and drivers who've had a few glasses of wine with dinner. The two are very different. It's not politically correct to say so, but it's a fact.
Makepeace posed no threat to society after the stop, because she was able to summon a driver to the scene. Furthermore, police had no case against her. She refused to go through roadside calisthenics, which means she provided no evidence against herself. The notoriously unreliable breath test would have played no role, and the statement "a couple glasses of wine with dinner" doesn't add up to drunkenness, or even driving while impaired.
It's great that Makepeace was driven home that night, because it's always good to be cautious. But it's doubtful she was a higher-than-average threat to others on the road.
Statistics of the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration consistently show that people who drink and drive and kill are people who drink a whole lot - not a couple glasses of wine with dinner - before driving a car. A study found that people with blood alcohol levels of .10 and above were involved in an estimated 2.06 million crashes one year, killing 12,892 and injuring 448,630. People with alcohol levels of .08-.09 had 35,410 crashes, killing 1,097 and injuring 20,150. Those with some alcohol in their blood, but less than .08 percent, had 69,400 crashes that killed 2,664 and injured 43,730. More than half of drivers in alcohol-related fatal crashes had blood alcohol levels of .16 or higher. Most car crashes in the United States involved no alcohol at all, and some that involved alcohol were not caused by alcohol. Statistically, it's clear that alcohol causes a dramatic increase in highway fatalities when consumed in mass quantities.
Practically and statistically, former Mayor Makepeace was not a menace on the road last Christmas Eve. Perhaps she swerved, but drivers often swerve when they've had nothing to drink. Local police handled the Makepeace stop just as they should have. They took precautions, but they didn't get carried away. Speculation that Makepeace received special treatment has nothing to back it other than sheer imagination and a shot of class envy.
