It goes without saying that in some professions, a person is held to higher standards than in others. For example, doctors and lawyers are often in the public eye and when they get into trouble with the law, many people believe that they should face the same kind of punishment as the general public. There is also a persistent belief that they are often let off easy or do not face the same kind of punishment. The Mercury News reports that DUI is the most common offense among California police officers.
The most common behavior to land police officers on the other side of the law is driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs. When studying a list compiled by California of about 12,000 law enforcement officers or applicants that were convicted of a crime in the past decade, a discovery was made. That discovery was that close to half of the cases were for DUI or a related crime.
The records show a variety of different accidents. Such as the one where San Joaquin Sheriff’s Deputy Mark Pineda drove his car into a ditch outside Sacramento and then ran from the scene. Juan Cebellos, a police sergeant in San Jose, was involved in a car crash and refused sobriety tests. Jimmy Torigoe hit two other vehicles while driving with a blood-alcohol level nearly three times the legal limit. He kept the job until he was convicted of another DUI in 2015.
The case against a Contra Costa County District Attorney’s inspector George Driscoll was especially tragic. Driscoll had spent the day drinking vodka from a soda bottle before being involved in a crash that seriously injured Roxanne Steward.
It took four months for charges to be filed against Driscoll. More than a year later, Driscoll took a plea deal for felony DUI. It was another year before Driscoll was sentenced. He was sentenced to 90 days in jail and three years of probation. Ultimately, he never served any time behind bars.
