Arizona gubernatorial candidate fighting DUI stigma

Posted on October 28, 2013 in DUI Charges

It is widely believed that the rich and powerful are typically treated with kid gloves by our criminal justice system. While there are undoubtedly numerous examples of this in our history, there are also examples of a rich or famous person being arrested, convicted and sentenced just as the average Arizonan would be.

The latest example of this can be found in Arizona gubernatorial candidate Christine Jones. She was found guilty of driving under the influence of alcohol back in 2006. She had to spend a day in jail back then, and is now seeing her candidacy getting scrutiny of the sort nocandidate desires, all due to her DUI conviction.

Jones says she “paid her dues like everyone else” for her mistake. The former Go Daddy executive also says she has not since the incident again gotten behind the wheel after drinking.

The 45-year-old says she learned her lesson after being found guilty and sentenced to 10 days in jail. Nine days of her sentence were suspended, according to court documents discovered by the Capitol Times.

Jones was found to have been behind the wheel with a blood alcohol content of 0.08 percent or more, the documents indicate.

While every single person has made mistakes they later regret, few of us have those mistakes plastered all over the media afterwards. Jones says she changed her behavior after her DUI, and really, that’s all we can reasonably expect of a person after they make a mistake: learn from the experience and change for the better.

But the damage to her candidancy might already have been done by the negative publicity now swirling around it.

This same kind of damage can occur to a career of a person living outside the harsh glare of the spotlight, too. A DUI conviction can make it difficult to hold on to a job, or to land a job in the future.

That’s why it’s so important to enlist an experienced attorney to help you fight a DUI. A person arrested is not only fighting to retain their freedom and driving privileges, but fighting, too, for a future free of the stigma of a conviction.

Source: AZfamily.com, “Ariz. gubernatorial candidate had DUI conviction,” Oct. 23, 2013