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One thing lost in some of the details of Tony La Russia’s arrest is that his test results, which exceeded the legal limit only slightly, probably came HOURS after the actual arrest. /1
It takes time to conduct Field Sobriety Tests, gather information, and effect the arrest. It’s possible the arresting officer even had to clear the scene (tow for the crashed car) before transporting TLR for arrest processing. /2
Once at the station, it takes time to fill out paperwork and get to the point where a breath test can be legally conducted, as a fifteen minute observation period is required AFTER reading the required legalese. /3
Once he refuses a breath/urine test, if the circumstances dictate, a search warrant can be (and was) obtained for a blood sample. This requires further paperwork and finding a judge to sign off on, IN PERSON. Again, this takes time. /4
Once all this is done, TLR had to be transported to a hospital for the actual blood draw. By this point, even under the best of circumstances, two or more hours have probably elapsed. A typical person’s intoxication goes down about .015% every hour. /5
That would put TLR at around a .12 at the time of his arrest under even the smoothest circumstances. Now, perhaps AZ has a more streamlined process than I’m familiar with, but these laws are fairly consistent across the US. /6
So what we have is a second time (that we know of l) DUI offender who tried to leverage his status to evade justice, is unrepentant for his mistakes, and was well past a point where one could consider this an innocent mistake. And the White Sox hired him knowing this. \\7
Long story short: fuck Jerry Reinsdorf for inflicting this upon the franchise and the fans. /8
