[Namron] Fw: [okcountydefenselawyers] Fw: [dwi-defenders] the last sentence is intriguing, too. Harpers has the police report on the python.

[Debbie Johnson]

I thought that following the period police line, you all would enjoy this.
Lady Marion Makkingze
johnsonds at earthlink.net
johnsonds at hotmail.com
----- Original Message ----- 
From: Charles L. Sifers 
To: OCDLA_Members at yahoogroups.com 
Cc: okcountydefenselawyers at yahoogroups.com ; OKLAHOMADUINEWS at yahoogroups.com 
Sent: Tuesday, January 11, 2005 10:11 PM
Subject: [okcountydefenselawyers] Fw: [dwi-defenders] the last sentence is intriguing, too. Harpers has the police report on the python.


Thought the group(s) might enjoy this one.  Was posted by Judge Rod Kennedy (N.M. appellate judge) on another list group.



Wheelchair DUI Case Dismissed

By DUANE BOURNE
St. Petersburg Times

BROOKSVILLE -- A Hernando judge Monday threw out the case against a 46-year-old woman accused of driving drunk while operating her wheelchair.

Judge Peyton Hyslop, in one of his last rulings from the bench, said the wheelchair essentially was the woman's legs and that charging her in this case would be tantamount to bringing DUI charges against anyone who was drunk and standing up.

"While sitting at home in a wheelchair taking prescribed medication, a person could be charged and convicted of DUI," said Hyslop in this four-page ruling.

"A wheelchair-bound person overindulging in alcohol at a wedding, in a restaurant, at a professional football game or in the sanctity of her own home would also be subject to arrest or DUI."

Hyslop said under those terms, an able-bodied totally intoxicated person sitting next to the impaired disabled person "would not be subject to such arrest, and only to arrest if disorderly."

Hyslop's ruling came on his final day sitting as a county judge. He was defeated by Assistant State Attorney Don Scaglione last fall, ending a 15-year judicial career that has been colorful and controversial. Hyslop was viewed as being lenient on the people who appeared before him and Monday, he made one woman's day.

"Hallelujah," Cynthia Christensen said. "It is such a relief for me because I did not deserve that. You are allowed to have a party in our yard and have a drink, you know."

On Sept. 21, 2003, after cooking out and drinking beer with her fiance, Christensen rolled to the front yard of her home on Sealawn Drive, where her wheelchair got stuck in the fine sand.

Christensen fiddled with the joystick, and in an instant, her wheelchair hopped a 4-inch lip at the edge of her yard and collided with a passing Ford minivan.

Months later, Christensen was cited on the DUI charge after a blood test she received at Oak Hill Hospital showed she registered a 0.102 blood-alcohol level. The legal limit is 0.08.

Christensen acknowledged having a few beers while taking her prescription medication. She suffers from degenerative disc disease, osteoarthritis and scoliosis, according to court documents.

The case boiled down to how both sides defined a wheelchair.

In the end, Hyslop determined that allowing the definition of a vehicle to include a wheelchair would violate her constitutional rights to move freely because it would treat disabled people differently from others.

With his departure from the bench, Hyslop will not be around to hear Christensen's other pending case. She was charged with animal cruelty after she was accused of biting the head off a python last May. 

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