Be honest. Who hasn't cringed when they see those blue lights in their rearview mirror?
But that ticket may be only the beginning of your problem. One woman told 11Alive she was arrested for DUI, even though she insists – she wasn’t drunk.
"I use Uber a lot now," Lauren Thomas said with a laugh. "I don’t even toy with it anymore."
Thomas believes what happened to her, can happen to anyone. Three years later, her case continues to linger, a symptom of a bigger problem.
A judge dismissed her case, along with 26 others in December, arguing the Fulton County Solicitors Office came to court unprepared and unable to call any of its witnesses. Given how long the cases had dragged through system, the judge decide not to give prosecutors any more time. She dismissed them all for "want of prosecution."
But the Solicitor's Office has now filed an appeal in all of those cases but one, in which attorneys had already agreed to dismiss.
Thomas and the remaining drivers now have to hire an attorney to file an appeal and could end up back in court if the judge's decision is overturned.
Part II | 5 years ago, she was left for dead by a DUI driver. Now, Emily Bowman is returning to school.
It all started in May of 2015. Thomas gave a ride to some co-workers hopping between parties. She was driving a new car with automatic lights. So when she picked it up from valet, she didn’t even realize the headlights had been turned off.
"I was in downtown Atlanta, there’s lights everywhere," she explained. "I had three people in the car. We were laughing, talking. I didn’t even think about it."
But police did.
They pulled her over, and after she refused to take a breath test for alcohol, she was arrested for DUI.
"Were you drinking and driving? Were you under the influence," Lindstrom questioned.
"I had had a few sips of a drink," Thomas admitted. "Was I intoxicated? No. No."
But with her word against the officer’s field sobriety test, she lost her license for a year.
It would take another 10 months for the solicitor to announce his plans to prosecute her for DUI. It took another nine to get her day in court. Solicitor General Keith Gammage makes no apologies for the delay.
"DUI’s involve public safety," Gammage told 11Alive. "People who are impaired while operating a motor vehicle on the roads where we live, should be held to the highest standard."
But Thomas' case was just one of 29,000 backlogged cases the new solicitor inherited and promised to resolve. Adding to the problem, after a wave of turnover, the prosecutor's office is still short five full time positions. And instead of the oft-quicker process of bench trials, Gammage said he wants to use jury trials to resolve DUI cases, in order to educate the public and better hold drivers accountable.
For attorney Phil Pilgrim, it's a move "that baffles me," he said. "A bench trial easily can be done, under most circumstances, half a day, whereas a jury trial can take two days or more."
Pilgrim said it's that decision to proceed as such that has backed up an already clogged calendar. Gammage, however, insists it’s a case by case basis.
"I don’t like the term 'always'," Gammage began.
"But I heard it in court today, from people in your own office," Lindstrom interjected.
"A blanket policy that we’ll never do something? I don’t think that would be right minded," Gammage said.
Whether it’s policy, Pilgrim said he believes its having an impact. He said on the day he went to court with Thomas, they’d still not been properly served the witness list for her case or results of her field sobriety tests.
Pilgrim says the delay was unfair to his client and joined the echo of other defense attorneys that day that made the request to have their cases dismissed.
Some attorneys argue the judge had no legal authority to do it and should have continued the cases, instead. Especially given the severity of some of the other offenses involved. That’s why Gammage's office has decided to appeal.
Thomas is now living in Las Vegas, which means if she loses the appeal, she'll have to come back to Atlanta to plead her case. It’s justice delayed, and, in her mind, justice denied. But it's something she said she's willing to deal with if it proves what she believes is already true.
"If we have to go through another year of this, I’m okay with going through it, because I know I’m innocent," Thomas said.
Pilgrim said he did eventually get the documents they needed to prepare for her case. They were filed with the clerk’s office – three months after her case was dismissed.
