Sunday, March 17, 2019

Day 4 - March 16, 2019






As you can see from the photos, the chaffing from the hard, rigid plastic band of the SCRAM anklet has rubbed the back of my ankle almost raw and the cuff/clip has caused quite a bruise. Swelling persists. I added a couple of bandaids to the back to help. So I’m wondering, since the company that leases the monitor advises to call if bruising occurs, what are they going to do? Switch it to the other leg so I have two raw, bruised ankles? No thanks. And it hasn’t even been a week.
I’ve tried to take it as easy as I can at home so that I can prevent as much swelling, irritation and bruising as possible. This really sucks because I cannot imagine what it’s going to be like when I try to work out.
I have found myself increasingly paranoid about everywhere I go and anything I do. I was at Ulta with my daughter and I thought, wow, all it may take is someone I don’t even know to spray something in here near me and I have no control of that. I understand why people that have had some drinking related issues have to wear these, but this is a lot overboard, especially considering I have Intoxalock on my car as well. It’s feels like a play for money.
I’m not some drunk that is trying to find an excuse to get out of my court ordered obligations. I won’t go into super detailed specifics of my case, but I can tell you this is extremely unfair given my circumstances. The night of my arrest for an OVI, I was drugged and sexually assaulted (I believe GHB, the infamous ‘date-rape’ drug). I fled the scene in my car and clipped a car across the street. The police were called. I ended up in the hospital (likely a seizure from the drug I was given mixing with prescriptions I take for a serious medical condition). By the time I regained consciousness in the hospital and told the doctors what happened it was too late to specifically test for GHB, as it would not longer be in my system. Turns out, there no damage to the vehicles, and he never filed a claim with my insurance, but I was cited with an OVI for driving while impaired. Granted, I knew something was wrong with me and I shouldn’t have gotten in the car, but when you’re in danger of being gang-raped by 4 men you don’t really think about the potential consequences.
In the state of Ohio where I reside, you can be given an OVI (Operating a Vehicle while Impaired) NO MATTER THE REASON for the impairement, whether it’s from alcohol, drugs, medical or even emotional impairment while driving. It’s also ‘officer’s discretion’, meaning you can still get an OVI for alcohol impairment even if you’re under the legal limit to drive. The bigger problem comes in when you’re convicted of an OVI for the latter 3 incidences. The law only has one set of parameters for punishment and it circles solely around alcohol impairment only, it does not take into any consideration the circumstances for other types of impairment. How is that fair or even rehabilitative to someone that was convicted for a drug, medical or emotional impairment?
My sentencing? I had to hire an attorney, which cost me $2,500. I was still convicted and had to pay a court fine short of $2,000, probation for 2 years, 180 days in jail with 175 suspended so I served 5, lost my license (I have limited privileges, which cost me $550) for 2 years, car impounded for 90 days which cost $3,400 to get out at the end, ordered to get a dependency assessment which cost me $275 (if he orders additional treatment that will cost additional money), have Intoxalock breathalyzer on my car for 2 years at $100.00/month (plus $200 installation fee & $20 quarterly recalibration fees), and have to wear this SCRAM device on my ankle for 90 days at $420.00/month (plus a $100 installation fee). It sounds absolutely awful, but at this point I get really upset over this and often wonder if I’d rather have had whatever those men were going to do to me that night happen instead since at least it would’ve been done and over with.
Since I don’t have a substance abuse issue it won’t be any problem for me to abstain from alcohol, however, it’s constant terror for me considering something someone else does may trigger an alert on this SCRAM device that could result in a violation. It’s frustrating and downright depressing at times. I try to tell myself that all that stuff on the internet about false positives is crap and since I don’t actually drink I’ll be okay but it’s still very worrisome to be faced with a potential 175 days in jail and losing everything I own in that time over what is really faulty equipment. I find myself running out to my car a bunch and blowing at random times into my breathalyzer (on camera) just so that I can have it on record that I’m 0.00 BAC.
I did notice at one point today, as I was standing close to my nightstand where the home base box is plugged in, as I was organizing magazines next to the box that the digital message on the box changed from a constant ‘monitoring’ to saying ‘reading bracelet’ (or something like that) and the red light on the box lit up. It kinda freaked me out, I was afraid to move, but it only flashed up for a couple seconds and then went back to ‘monitoring’. I don’t know what that was about. I wish there was more in the paperwork explaining all these nuances or something that would alert you immediately of a problem.

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Day 20 - April 1, 2019

Today I’m traveling back home. As I went through airport security, I again tell them I have a device on that I cannot remove, show it to th...