Drug Addiction Treatment and DUI
We’ve talked recently about those who get out of legal consequences for their actions by focusing on their alcohol and drug addiction issues. Here’s another case where a man is getting out of jail early pending trial in order to enter inpatient drug rehab. Because of his particular crime, however, people are very upset about the decision.
DUI and Drug Addiction
Mistakes made under the influence commonly end up in court. Damage to private and public property, disorderly in public, physical assault, breaking and entering, carjacking, armed robbery, murder and manslaughter are often bad choices that resulted after making the first bad choice to get loaded. When DUI is the issue at hand-especially when the DUI ends in the death of an innocent pedestrian or another motorist-public opinion makes it more difficult to get a reduction in sentence for attending drug and alcohol rehab.
A Jackson Hole, Wyoming, man, however, who was driving under the influence of prescription drugs and killed a motorcyclist, is being released pending trial to enter a residential drug and alcohol treatment program. The fact that it is an inpatient drug addiction treatment center is important, because he is not technically being released on his own recognizance but still under 24-hour surveillance. However, some locals are concerned that this is too lenient and sends the wrong message.
DUI and Drug Rehab in Jackson: The Specifics of the Case
According to Amanda H. Miller at Jackson Hole Daily: “Ninth Circuit Court Judge Curt Haws, who came from Pinedale to fill in for Judge Timothy C. Day, signed an order overriding Day’s earlier order that Nathaniel A. Hubbs, 31, be held for community safety without bond on a probation violation charge.
“Haws revoked Day’s order and connected the bail in the probation violation to the felony case, which was bound over to the district court last week.”
Hubbs was already out on bail and on probation when he got arrested for DUI-a charge to which he pleads not guilty-and the first judge said that the bail did not apply to the DUI charge. The new judge, however, overturned that decision, which has quite a few people upset.
Dick Mulligan is Hubbs’ attorney. He says that he will file a motion to lower the bond and to have Hubbs released into an inpatient drug rehab.
Teton County Attorney Steve Weichman likely will not object to these motions, though he is asking that it be stipulated that Hubbs not be in possession of or use any of the prescription drugs that allegedly caused Hubbs to get into an accident and also that he not be in contact with any of the doctors or pharmacies that supplied him with those drugs.
Weichman says: “I have a renewed awareness of a defendant’s right to release. I’m also grateful the Wyoming courts have a lot of power to fashion release terms.”
What Do You Think?
Is it okay that Hubbs could end up in drug rehab instead of jail while awaiting his trial, currently set for next February? He is accused of killing 54-year-old Martin Burbey when his GMC Yukon drifted into oncoming traffic last month and could end up serving 20 years in the Wyoming State Penitentiary if he is found guilty. Does the crime and the severity of injury to the victims of that crime matter when it comes to determining whether or not drug rehab can be used to reduce the sentence?
