Ok Let’s start the story off on the right foot - A friend of a friend [Woman, 37, single-mom] was out with friends after a long week of work. She is a very hard working analyst for big company X. She is out with friends enjoying happy hour, happy that she has the weekend to herself [young one is with dad]. She lives in a nice home, in a nice neighborhood, in a nice little town.
The night ensues and she is getting quite drunk. She decides its a good idea to start drinking diet soda so she can still drive home. Even though home is only right down the street from this pub in a restaurant, she still wants to bring her car home instead of walking…
Well an hour goes by and she says goodbye to her friends and walks out to her car, which is parked in a chruch parking lot across from the pub. She walks across the street and decides that the night is nice, [full moon] and she will walk home instead of driving. She is a little too drunk anyway to drive and she thinks she is making the right decision.
She does however, have to stop at her car to grab her coat with her house keys in it.
She approaches her car, opens the back door and ducks in to grab her coat. At this time, two head lights turn on from a car resting in the corner of the church parking lot. Then she see’s blue and red lights turn on, on top of the vehicle - obviously a policeman. The red and blues are not flashing, just on. The car pulls up next to her and the two policemen ask her what she is doing, and she explains to the policemen that she is going to grab her coat and walk home.
The patrolman in the passenger side steps out and asks her for her driver’s license. She gives it to the man and waits. He says he has no problem if she walks home, he can see from her license she lives but a few blocks from home. He does however ask her if she can move her car to the parking lot of the restaurant because the church has a posted sign that no one can park there over night.
She complies and proceeds to move her car. As she is going from one parking lot to the next across the street she clips a garbage can and it rolls onto the curb. She proceeds across the road, parks her car only to have the patrol car next to her again. This time Patrolman number 2 steps out of the car and proceeds to give her a field sobriety test - which she passes. She is getting nervous. She does not understand why the other patrolman is letting this happen, and acting like they didn’t have some sort of arrangment for her to walk home.
The patrolman #1 decides to place the woman under arrest for DUI because she hit a garbage can coming out of one parking lot to the next with their permission.
Obviously the woman gets more than slightly dissillusioned and angry, but she keeps her cool. She pays a fee, leaves the police station the next morning at 4am and walks home.
This is the story my wife hears this morning from a coworker.
Does this woman have a case for a lawsuit?
Who the heck do you sue and how in a case like this?
WTF, is up with the cops?