The Night I Was Arrested (continued)

After kidding around with the portable breathalyzer we all decided it was getting late and time to head home. While my wife was busy talking with our friends I had already gone next door to the Hampton Inn and got us a room for the night. My wife and I walked out of the bar and went next door to the hotel. I remembered that our car was still parked in $8 stadium parking lot. For those of you not familiar with Camden Yards, that particular parking lot is in a bad part of town and I did not want to leave the car there overnight. I told my wife to go up to the room while I walked back to the car, so I could move it to the hotel parking garage.

I made the walk over to car. By now it was the last car left in the lot. I am certain if I left it there all night, it would not have been there in the morning when we returned. In retrospect, it would have been less costly to have our car stolen than to be arrested for DUI.

I did not feel like I was so drunk that I could not drive my car the short distance from the parking lot to the hotel parking garage. The drive went very well until I got to the vicinity of the hotel on Pacca Street. I was in heavy traffic at a stop light and needed to get in the far left lane to make a left turn. I drive a 2008 Pontiac Solstice with tinted windows. These cars have terrible blind spots , so as I was trying to get into the left lane I did not see a motorcycle coming up on my left side. As I pulled into the left lane the motorcycle struck my car and the driver fell off the bike.

I stopped and got out of the car and noticed the driver of the motorcycle was wearing a Baltimore City Police uniform. This all happened next to the outdoor patio at Pickle’s Pub, so several people who witnessed the accident ran over to see if the police officer was ok. He was trying to sit up but people were telling him to lie down and wait for the ambulance. One lady who had way more to drink than I did that night walked over to me and asked me if I was ok and if I had been drinking. I ignored her and walked over the police officer laying on the ground to see how he was doing.

By this time, the ambulance had arrived along with several uniformed and plain clothed police officers. A plain clothed officer with a badge around his neck came over to me and asked if this was my car. I responded, “yes”, he then asked for my license and registration. Of course, the next question was, “have you been drinking tonight?”, I did not want to lie, so I responded yes. The officer walked me over to a nearby sidewalk to conduct a field sobriety test. I wish I would have known that I was not legallly obligated to take that test. I felt like I had passed the test just fine but the officer told me he did not like the way my eyes looked.


More to follow…