For the record, apparently I was one of the 17 people in the world that honestly believed that Elin was trying to “rescue” him by smashing out the car window. (Yes, I saw the Saturday Night Live skit which cleared it up for me.)
In my feeble, lackluster defense – my first reaction to the news story was that this was a DWI and she was trying to remove him from the car before the authorities came. After excerpts from Steve Helling’s new book, Tiger: The Real Story, were released, the DWI aspect to the case again resurfaced – which provide a small amount of proof that I’m not an absolute moron:
Trooper Joshua Evans submitted a Request for Investigative Subpoena, asking for access to Tiger’s blood results from Health Central Hospital. In the narrative section of the request, Evans wrote, “The driver lost control of his vehicle, crashed and was transported to the hospital. A witness stated that the driver had consumed alcohol earlier in the day and the same witness removed the driver from the vehicle after the collision. Also, the same witness stated that the driver was prescribed medication (Ambien and Vicodin). Impairment of the driver is also suspected due to the careless driving that resulted in the traffic crash.”
Less than an hour later, Trooper Evans received his answer: Assistant State Attorney Steve Foster, head of the State Attorney’s Office Intake Division, denied the request. At the bottom of the form, he scrawled, “Insufficient information provided to lawfully issue subpoena.”
Is this yet another blog to discuss whether Tiger was treated differently because he is Tiger Woods?
Please.
One of the most frequently “complaints” I hear from clients in connection with DWI arrests is that the police officer stopped by client for speeding, but didn’t issue the person a citation. (The argument, so it goes, is that without the ticket the person “must not have been speeding.” As you might imagine, this is a loser.) Every now and then, a police officer will explain the “insult to injury rule” – in other words, I’m impounding your car, arresting you for DWI, taking you to jail, and you’re going to spend around $10,000.00 by the time this is all over. We’ll let the speeding ticket slide and call it even, okay?
I think the Assistant State Attorney in the Tiger Woods case was merely following the insult to injury rule:
- Loss of endorsements with Buick, Gatorade, Accenture @ $40 million
- 20 weeks away from Golf to work on marriage @ $65 million
- Sex life becomes the main topic of conversation for 85% of the planet
How about we issue you a ticket for reckless driving and we’ll call it even, okay?