My experience with 2 DUI's 5 days apart in Pennsylvania

In December 2023 I got 2 DUI's within 5 days. 2 different counties. One in Lawrence county and one in Butler county. I was given ARD for my Lawrence county DUI. Butler county DA was floored that Lawrence county DA and judge were willing to uphold the ARD knowing i got DUI # two 5 days later in the neighboring county.

Butler county (DUI #2) imposed a mandatory 30 days in jail or 45 days house arrest. (I took the house arrest). When it comes to $$ i didn't have shit. I did hire a private attorney tho. Cost me about $2500 total (not all at once). I was proactive with treatment. Went to IOP on my own while I was on the SCRAM bracelet as ordered to during pretrial. I did not violate anything and passed all drug screens.

In my experience (not saying its like this for everyone) its not about the $$ u have but more about taking action and not arguing about treatment requirements.

Not having priors and showing what career you have and taking action to better yourself before they demand u do seemed to help me tremendously.

All in all I didn't spend 1 second in a jail (not even on the days I got the DUI's) I was allowed to go directly home after the hospital blood draw. I know not everyone has this outcome but if i had to give advice I would say " do what you know is going to be ordered of you to do before you are ordered to do it, show you take full accountability and that you are fully aware you are at the mercy of the courts. NO EXCUSES. You want them to know that you know you did this to yourself and you alone"

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My punishment...

90 days house arrest.

4 months of scram before trial.

Only 6 months of probation.

1 year license suspension (got interlock license after 6 months).

1 year with interlock license. (Just got my regular unrestricted license back 3 weeks ago).

Fines and fees (pay them on-time!!)

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I hate to admit it, but this was the best thing that happened to me at that point in my life. I was killing myself fast. Multiple hospital stays for weeks at a time. I was drinking just shy of a 1/2 gallon of rum Per day

I have been sober and alcohol-free since the day before I was required to get the SCRAM bracelet.

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(yes it was devastating to my body stopping cold turkey and they wanted to hospitalize me for that reason but i pushed through it. Hallucination and one seizure). Never do it the way I did. You should always seek medical help.

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Remember, this is your fault! It's nobody else's fault, not your parents, not the cops, not the bar ect ect..

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I showed them i took full accountability. I showed them I was willing and actively doing everything I could to address the problem to guarantee it would never happen again and thus i feel like I was blessed and only got the bare minimum as far as punishment goes.

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Sorry, my rant is over.

Just sharing my experience.