"Driving" Under the Influence in Illinois
It should be no surprise that the courts and the legislature like to "fix" the law so that catches the "bad guys" fairly or not. DUI law is a prime example of this.
If you didn't know the law you would assume that to get charged with a DUI you would have to be driving. Well, not so (in Illinois). There have been a couple of cases decided by our very imaginative judges that demonstrate how far they are willing to stretch the language in order to make a DUI stick.
Case #1: A girl, naked, sleeping in a sleeping bag in the back seat of her car with the keys stuffed in the bottom of the sleeping bag. Police find her, wake her up, she fails both field sobriety tests and the breathalyzer. Ok what is your ruling, was she driving under the influence?
Case #2: A man pushing a car, with the drivers door open, keys in the ignition (to unlock the steering wheel), motor off. Police stop to ask him why he's pushing the car and he replies, "So that I'm not driving under the influence." He fails the field sobriety tests and the breathalyzer. Ok, what is your ruling, was he driving under the influence?
The law says that to be DUI, a person must be in actual physical control of a vehicle. The courts have interpreted that to apply in both cases. No surprise here, the state is going to do whatever it can to make every DUI stick, whether that is the right thing to do or not.
Ray Flavin
