Want court's mercy? Don't show up drunk.
Sometimes, you have to state the obvious. Common sense says people arrested for drunken driving who want to enter Chester County's Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition program, a prison alternative, shouldn't show up soused for the meeting that begins the enrollment process.
Sometimes, you have to state the obvious.
Common sense says people arrested for drunken driving who want to enter Chester County's Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition program, a prison alternative, shouldn't show up soused for the meeting that begins the enrollment process.
First Assistant District Attorney Patrick Carmody felt the need yesterday to add two sentences to the county's written requirements for the "DUI-ARD candidates."
The reason? In the last month, three or four applicants had shown up inebriated for that start-up meeting in court.
Chester County's revised form states: "The defendant should not drink any alcoholic beverages on the day of the ARD hearing. If the probation officer deems it necessary, the defendant must submit to a portable breath test and/or drug test on the day of the ARD hearing."
Previously, probation officers lacked authority to perform the tests until applicants entered the program, said Christopher J. Murphy, the county's chief of adult probation.
Murphy said that, in the past, it was not unusual to see an occasional tipsy applicant, since some people arrested for driving under the influence have chronic drinking problems.
Several in a month, however, had the earmarks of a trend - one Carmody said he was eager to avert.
Under ARD, a state program whose requirements vary from county to county, nonviolent, first-time offenders are promised a clean slate if they complete the program, which generally includes community service and treatment programs.
Carmody said probation officers had reported their suspicions about alcohol consumption to the District Attorney's Office, which tested the applicants and scratched them off the acceptance list.
"You would hope," Carmody said of the new language, "you wouldn't have to memorialize common sense."