As I’m sure most of you have heard by now Hines Ward was the winner of the first Steelers player to get arrested this summer contest. While I am usually not surprised when athletes get in trouble, this was a bit of a shock. I guess he just struck me as smarter than your average NFL player. Oh well.
Jeremy Clark is an attorney and a Steelers fan. He also runs the Lounge Legal Department which needs to be called on due to Hines Ward’s recent trouble in Georgia. Take it away, Jeremy…
I’m sure you’re not reading this for my player insights, that’s why we have Ryan, JJ, Adam, and Ted. So here is my initial analysis of the Georgia DUI laws.
First, like a typical lawyer, I need to lead off with a disclaimer: I am not licensed to practice law in the state of Georgia, nor do I typically practice criminal law in Pennsylvania. I have been trained to read laws and explain them to people (and have the student loans to prove it) so that’s all I am doing here.
Under the Georgia DUI statute (O.C.G.A. § 40-6-391) it would appear that Hines is probably not in too much legal trouble. PR trouble is another matter. While all the media sources I have read state that this was a “drunken driving charge,” the Georgia law that seems to apply is concerned with “Driving under the influence of alcohol, drugs, or other intoxicating substances….” So it is possible that Hines was doing more than throwing back some brews, but let’s just assume that he didn’t go Santonio on us and that he was in fact drunk.............
Read more @ http://www.steelerslounge.com/2011/0...ed-dui/#more-5