Randy Cassingham's Blog

In this day and age there is no guarantee that he IS being humiliated by this! He could be laughing it up with his buddies down the bar, or even negotiating a guest appearance on JACKASS!

Whatever one may be thinking about the gentleman here, who evidently was not thinking, the Fashion Police would probably let him go. Look how color-coordinated he is. The partially-consumed Budweiser's label matches his bikini as though it was designed to be an accessory.

First, they better drop the public indecency charges, unless they plan on arresting lots of women wearing similar outfits.
Disorderly, well, I wasn't there, but it just sounds like he was drunk, already included.

That's the charge that needs enforcing (open container laws are a silly variation of ZT); I have no sympathy for those who endanger the lives of others, disease or no disease, and we can't assume he's humiliated (as the previous poster noted) or that he's learned anything.

There are lots of us who drink responsibly. Some of us have the self control to limit our drinking to the first hour or two of the festivities, during which we consume no more than 3 drinks (not enough to get you to the legal limit), then switch to coffee or soda so we can be sure most of the 0.06% we might have peaked at is far behind us by the time we leave. Or in other circumstances, we don't drink at all.

At his height and weight, to get to 0.174%, you have to drink nine beers in the space of about an hour.

Randy, as an emergency responder who has seen the damage drunk drivers can do to innocent victims, do you honestly think a few stupid pictures on the Internet should be the end of his punishment? If he was a first-time offender, I'd tack on 30 days in County, 2 years of probation, mandatory AA twice a week, and periodic random urinalysys to make sure he had no alcohol in his system. If he was caught drinking during probation, he'd serve 2 years in the state pen.

You know what? WA state is throwing the book at some of those drunk drivers who manage to get caught without getting into accidents.

One young man I know had 3 DUI's in a month and managed to get this all done to him:

And after his AA meetings and his Agape meetings and his PO meetings he still goes out and gets drunk. He thinks he doesn't have a problem. It is so sad.

You are presuming that publication of the photos is a form of humiliation for this guy. Judging from the lack of humiliated expression on his face while taking the pictures, it is entirely possible he secretly enjoys having these pictures widely available, which means it's not an implied punishment.

Although I do have to agree with the previous posting about what constitutes public indecency. In most jurisdictions, poor/revolting taste is not the same as indecent. So, I vote for as much as the law will allow for the DUI charge. If he goes before a judge who wants to shame offenders into compliance, I hope the Judge makes sure this guy is not a "shame junkie" before trying that technique. Is the outfit he was wearing sufficient probable cause for a psych evaluation before sentencing?

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The only thing I presume is ...the guy was still drunk when they took the booking photos.... -rc

Here in my part of California, 1st violation gets you 48 hours in county (and you pay for the accommodations), court costs, odd and sundry fees totaling $5,000 minimum, unless one is stupid enough to get an attorney also. Suspended 30 day license, restricted 6 month license. How do I know? My daughter has a 23 yo friend who was real stupid, stopped pulling out of a bar, when she swerved because she dropped her CELL PHONE and blew a .08 - legally drunk in Calif. None of them goes ANYWHERE without a designated NON- drinking driver, NOW.

This "guy" deserves so much more because he shoulda known so MUCH better! The people of his community relied on HIM for their protection, volunteer or not. I have no compassion for ANY drunk driver with any excuse -- I grew up with parents who drove drunk and scared the living daylights out of me. Fortunately I lived to tell the story.

As far as Double Punishment I don't think so. Being arrested is a matter of public record. I'm sure he is being humiliated by these photos but where do you draw the line? We've seen lots of celebrity arrest photos. Could they claim having just the photos on the internet as punishment enough?

I'm sure the defense will bring it up during sentencing and the Judge can consider it so I'm not concerned.

I agree with the public indecency comment; it seems very subjective. I'm sure that few would even have thought of charging him with that in a beach town.

That's a "very skimpy" bikini? Would probably be considered about normal at virtually any beach.

For any single event, one can, by simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time, go from a single criminal charge to many charges. And then you have civil charges, which can sometimes occur with little or no regard to the results of a police investigation or criminal trial, even if a criminal jury says that you can't possibly be guilty. I'd say that this (if it IS punishment, as others have noted), is not criminal punishment, which is for breaking the law, but rather his unofficial civil punishment for public lack of self-control. One does not need to break the law in order to become a public laughingstock.

Randy, would you have asked this question if the guy had managed to hurt or kill one of the kids?

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You're asking if there should be discussion, as I've initiated? Sure. -rc

Mason is the next town over from where I live. Around here, most of the roads are 2-lane if you fall off the interstate. Unlike when I was a volunteer firefighter, here in Ohio all the departments I'm aware of require some formal training before signing anyone on, but one would think a dose of brains might be considered a requirement also ... right? (Well, not necessarily in Ohio) Combine an on-call vol with a volume of alky inside, with a narrow mostly full of blind spots 2-lane road or narrow town streets, and it is a recipe for disaster. Even if the idiot made it to the scene in one piece, I sure as hell wouldn't want him handling a hose or ladder or any power equipment anywhere near me at even a trash can fire.

Is public knowledge and vision of what he did adequate punishment? No way! Just because he gets to have a siren and fancy flashing headlights and red and white lights blinking atop his pickup, doesn't mean he should get preferential treatment by the law. Special treatment, Yes ... make an example of him so no other vols, who could endanger those around them regardless of circumstances, think drunk driving and raising hell around kids is the way things are done.

They should have added the Felony, "Inciting to Panic" available in Ohio; I know I would have panicked if I were a kid who saw a drunk cross-dresser headed toward me, or the parent of a kid in that park.

But the real life story is that I doubt we'll ever hear about any trial, let alone that he got a sentence stiff enough to sober him up. The good ol' boys in this part of the mid-west are very forgiving of one of their own.