It was only a five-mile drive home. What was the big deal?
For township resident Mike Teaney, that cruise home after a friend dropped him off at the Independence Township Park and Ride near I-75 and Sashabaw Road’should be no problem. He’d had too many drinks, he knew it, and he already had one DUI two years earlier, but nothing came of it? he hadn’t even lost his license. He even stopped drinking for a year afterward.
No problem.
‘I had some community service’that’s it,? said Teaney, 46, and father of four. ‘I’d never been a guy that drank every night. But that night in 2005, me and a buddy were out celebrating the adoption of my two kids’I had five scotches over four hours? time? ‘you’re fine to drive,? my friend told me.?
Driving north on Sashabaw Road near Stickney Road’Teaney glanced in his rearview mirror and saw the blue lights of the Oakland County Sheriff’s patrol car.
‘The deputy asked me to count from one to 38. I went past the number,? he said. ‘I then blew in the Breathalyzer’it was .13, the limit is .08. They arrested me and hauled me off to jail and I kept thinking, ‘My wife is going to kill me and I told the deputy, ‘go ahead, shoot me.? I almost robbed my wife of her husband and the chance to have children,? Teaney said.
‘I was a selfish brat, I never considered the repercussions.?
Judge Dana Fortinberry of the 52-2 District Court, gave Teaney a choice: Jail, or Sobriety Court.
‘I chose Sobriety Court’anyone that thinks jail’s a picnic, think again’after my second DUI, I came out of the county jail with a black eye after I sat in the wrong place. There’s tough dudes in there.?
Although the next year in Sobriety Court was tough? the results were life-changing.
On Nov. 7, five individuals, including Teaney, were recognized at the 52-2 District Court Sobriety Court graduation ceremony at the Old Town Hall in Ortonville. Judge Dana Fortinberry and Judge Kelley Kostin joined Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard for the gathering.
‘They are a good group of people,? Teaney said. ‘They try to help people. It was an easy choice for Sobriety Court’but it’s also very rigorous. I got in trouble twice for drinking. Still, 90 percent of my friends say I’m not an alcoholic’they have a problem. Be honest to yourself, and ask yourself, ‘Has my use of alcohol hurt my job? My relationship? You may have a problem. Go to an AA meeting, it’s not how it is in the movies.?
The program requirements include regular breathalyzer tests, random urine screens, regular meetings with a probation officer, Alcoholics Anonymous attendance three times a week, counseling and 80 hours of community service. Participants must also pay all fines and costs of the program on their own.
The 52-2 District Court in Clarkston handles about 550 drunk driving cases per year, more than 200 of which involve repeat offenders. The goal of the program is to identify high-risk substance abuse offenders and divert them to a comprehensive and structured rehabilitation plan, focusing on promoting ongoing sobriety, personal responsibility and productive citizenship.
To be eligible for the program, defendants must be residents of the jurisdiction and be arrested within it; have an OWI conviction (alcohol or drugs) with a prior; must never have been convicted of a violent crime; and must not currently be under felony supervision for any other offense or participating in another sobriety court. Probation officer Mark Mathur notes that Sobriety Court works because it is treatment-based. Although the 52-2 District Court Sobriety Court program is relatively new, drug courts began showing up across the country in the early ?90s. Nationally, sobriety courts average a 75-percent success rate? with participants not re-offending or being terminated from the program.
Mathur currently oversees 30 participants in the Sobriety Court program. Although none have yet graduated from the 18-month program, Mathur has had to terminate only one participant, who picked up a new drunk driving charge three days after entering Sobriety Court.