Pilot issued DWI for drunk driving on runway...

[FN FAL]

I found out this weekend that a (commercial/cfi) pilot flying for a dropzone I used to be a member of, was arrested at night while driving drunk on the runway.

What do you think happened to the pilot?

I already know happened, because I talked to him personally. I also talked with the staff at the drop zone about what happened and I have known these people for more than a decade.

Anyone care to guess how this turns out?

 

[350DRIVER]

Anyone care to guess how this turns out?

By the tone of your post my best guess was that he got off relatively easy by punishment standards?

3 5 0

 

[EagleRJ]

Public or private airport?

If private, there's not much that the driver can be charged with.

 

[sqwkvfr]

Public or private airport?

If private, there's not much that the driver can be charged with.

Not true......even if he's on private property, he can still be dumped.

I'm not sure what you're driving at here, FN....has the case been adjudicated? Or are you just taking bets on what's gonna happen?

If it happened in the past, how long ago, and (big one here) was it before or after 9-11-01?

 

[FN FAL]

It was on a private owned/public use airport and the judge tossed the ticket. The judge also told the cop to stay off the property unless there is a complaint by airport management. This arrest occured after 9/11 and was probably within the last year, since this is the first time I had heard about it and news travels fast in skydiving circles.

This is the second DWI recieved by that dropzone's pilots and this is the second one that got tossed out in court.

The second case I mention occured on a county highway pre-911 days. The pilot told me about the arrest and I advised him on his FAA reporting issues and I advised him to get a good lawyer, even if the cops, the fat lady behind the counter at DMV and the clerk of courts told him it was futile to fight it.

He did get an attorney and this second earlier case was thrown out as well. Bad police work costs the taxpayers a lot of money.

This most recent case, the one with the jump pilot driving around on the runway after drinking, could have been handled better with some good old fashioned "street sense" police work.

The cop could have realized he was in a grey area on private property and stopped the kid just to find out who he was and what was going on. That usually will tend to get someones attention.

Or the cop could have done what I would have done. Since it's a one cop on duty at a time town, I would have called county for an extra car to come out. I would have then had county come onto the runway at one end of the airport and put the lights on or something similar to create pressure on the driver to leave the scene, while I sat off airport and out of sight at the other end of the runway.

Hopefully, that would have spooked the driver on the runway to go to the other end and attempt to drive away on the county trunk. After that, there is a laundry list of things that could have been used as probable cause for stopping the car. Such as, failure to come to a complete stop before entering the highway, not using a turn signal, and on and on.

But anyway, that's what happened. I know I left a lot of details out when I posted the thread.

 

[Jedi_Cheese]

I know of alot of guys that get off on the private property issue. Also, remember that (usually) a shopping mall parking lot is private property too so they can't touch a car accident there (had friends get off of tickets on that one).

I also know of alot of guys that worked 2nd shift and would bait the cops into trying something by swerving a within the lane and acting drunk. Then they blow a zero and the cops have to let them go b/c they don't have anything else.

 

[sqwkvfr]

It was on a private owned/public use airport and the judge tossed the ticket. The judge also told the cop to stay off the property unless there is a complaint by airport management. This arrest occured after 9/11 and was probably within the last year, since this is the first time I had heard about it and news travels fast in skydiving circles.

This is the second DWI recieved by that dropzone's pilots and this is the second one that got tossed out in court.

The second case I mention occured on a county highway pre-911 days. The pilot told me about the arrest and I advised him on his FAA reporting issues and I advised him to get a good lawyer, even if the cops, the fat lady behind the counter at DMV and the clerk of courts told him it was futile to fight it.

He did get an attorney and this second earlier case was thrown out as well. Bad police work costs the taxpayers a lot of money.

This most recent case, the one with the jump pilot driving around on the runway after drinking, could have been handled better with some good old fashioned "street sense" police work.

The cop could have realized he was in a grey area on private property and stopped the kid just to find out who he was and what was going on. That usually will tend to get someones attention.

Or the cop could have done what I would have done. Since it's a one cop on duty at a time town, I would have called county for an extra car to come out. I would have then had county come onto the runway at one end of the airport and put the lights on or something similar to create pressure on the driver to leave the scene, while I sat off airport and out of sight at the other end of the runway.

Hopefully, that would have spooked the driver on the runway to go to the other end and attempt to drive away on the county trunk. After that, there is a laundry list of things that could have been used as probable cause for stopping the car. Such as, failure to come to a complete stop before entering the highway, not using a turn signal, and on and on.

But anyway, that's what happened. I know I left a lot of details out when I posted the thread.

Nice....I guess the violator wouldn't have a problem with trespassing since he's not interfering with flight ops.

The state were I worked didn't care....private property or not, DUI was prosecutable.....did it many times. We also ran into certain judges who would toss DUIs for ANY reason...didn't matter to them if they were correct or not, they were just good ole boys who didn't like people being dumped for DUI.

I did something kind similar to what you said you would have done...I was out in the county about four miles hunting skunks in the middle of the night bored out of my mind in the dead of winter when I saw a car heading toward town...it was on a road that there was absolutely NO REASON for them to be traveling on unless they were trying to avoid being seen on the highway...it was a low-maintenece road and people just don't do that.

I was wondering what was up and they didn't have their SDCL required license plate attached to the front bumber...but I was four miles out...I followed them back into town and stopped them about 50 feet inside of city limits.

......the stop yielded a felony amount of marijuana, four arrests and a vehicle forfeiture....they'd just came back from a "run" to Minneapolis.

I had some friends who were Deputies in a county with an Idian Reservation....they couldn't arrest tribal members for state warrants on Indian Land.....if they saw someone with a warrant, they'd give chase until said tribal member reached Indian Land...then they'd stop the chase and turn around.

Eventually, they got sick of this and continued to chase 'em through the reservation (which wasn't very big) back onto state land where they'd most often make apprehension and have righteous arrest.