"I didn't feel in any way inhibited," Paul said when asked if he was intoxicated.This news about Escambia County School Superintendent Jim Paul almost brings tears to our eyes. In an interview with PNJ reporter Michael Stewart, Jim Paul has explained that before being arrested for drunk driving, he had consumed only "two glasses of wine."-- School superintendent Jim Paul
Hey, that's not bad. Could have happened to anyone. Just two glasses. And only wine.
Then he fell sleep for five hours in the parking lot of a St. Petersburg gambling casino. Now, that shows good judgment, right? One almost wishes everyone who's had a glass of wine or two would be so safety-conscious.
Unfortunately, before Mr. Paul could finish getting a full night's sleep in his rental car he was rudely awakened by "a drunk" knocking on his car window at 1:30 in the morning.
A drunk, mind you! Gosh darn. Is there nowhere in America a law-abiding citizen can get a little shut-eye without being harassed by drunken bums?
After that, Jim Paul tried to find his way back to his hotel on Clearwater Beach, but he "got lost." Those rental agencies never give you a usable map, don'cha know.
After spotting Paul's rental car "speeding and weaving dramatically," a police officer gave the school superintendent a field sobriety test. Paul says, "He asked me to walk the line, and I thought I walked it perfectly, but he didn't."
So, Jim Paul was arrested. Quite possibly, the officer was impaired and didn't notice how "perfectly" Jim Paul was walking after his five hour snooze.
Oh, but there's more:
Paul registered .128 on an alcohol breath test that was administered, by his account of events, at least five hours after the first of his two drinks. The legal threshold for driving under the influence is .08.Wait, wait... There's an explanation! Ms. Perkins says, "I'm not going to say it is impossible. There are cases where people have liver problems and their liver doesn't metabolize alcohol properly."
An alcohol counselor in Pensacola, contacted by the News Journal, said Paul's account of how much alcohol he consumed before the .128 reading sounds unlikely.
After two hours, a person who drank two 5-ounce glasses of wine, which officials at the Hard Rock Casino said they serve, "should have a blood alcohol level of approximately zero," said Pensacola Naval Hospital drug and alcohol counselor Laurie Perkins.
Paul concedes voters may no longer trust him, but adds that he can regain that trust "by accepting responsibility" for his actions. He's courageously begun to do that by blaming the two glasses of wine, the rude drunk who banged on his window, the confusing highways of St. Petersburg, and the arresting officer who didn't appreciate how "perfectly" Jim Paul was walking.
Once someone takes responsibility for all of these things, he says, "we need to move on."
But first, Jim, please have your liver tested.
UPDATE
01-12 pm
There's good news and bad news for Jim Paul over at Chris Olson's new Pensacola Blog. 01-12 pm
The good news? Olson writes, "I don’t think Paul has a drinking problem." The bad news? Olson thinks Jim Paul is a liar.
1 comment:
This account would be perfectly hilarious if the story itself weren't so perfectly pitiful. Assuming the facts are as presented in the PNJ, the man is indeed very obviously lying, and deludes himself that his story is a credible one by any stretch of anyone else's imagination.
Paul has no honorable choice now but to step down.
Post a Comment