Pity the poor victimized union-busting drunk driver
by David Atkins
lulz:
Remember Randy Hopper, the Republican state senator in Wisconsin who was recalled and defeated in 2011 — and later in the year was arrested and charged with drunk-driving? He and his lawyer are now presenting their defense in the trial: It’s all a political conspiracy by the unions.
The Appleton Post Crescent reports, Hopper and his attorney Dennis Melowski are presenting a case that public employee union members in Fond du Lac County, the place he formerly represented and where he was arrested for alleged DUI, have been out to get him for his support of Gov. Scott Walker’s legislation that eliminated most collective bargaining rights for public employees. (Police and firefighters were exempted.)
Interestingly, though, Melowski did still say in court that Hopper drank as many as three and a half beers at a Green Bay Packers game on October 16, 2011, before driving home to Fond du Lac with his girlfriend, Valerie Cass…
Hopper explained that he refused to take a breathalyzer test at the county jail, because county employees had threatened him in the past. A preliminary test that jail staffers were able to take showed a blood alcohol content of 0.13%, above the 0.08% limit, but this is not admissible as evidence in the trial.
“The day everything broke loose in Madison, I had members of the union in my office who said, ‘If you don’t support us, we are going to destroy your life,’” Hopper said. “We’re going to picket your kids’ schools, we’re going to tear apart your reputation, we’re going to have you recalled.”
Also, according to the Fond du Lac Reporter, Hopper and Melowski targeted the arresting officer, Deputy Nick Venne, for having earlier in the year signed one of the petitions to recall Hopper, and also for having not administered a full blood test to Hopper at the police station.
For his own part, Venne confirmed that he signed the petition, but said this played no role in the arrest — that Hopper smelled of alcohol, and gave other suspicious signs in a field sobriety test.
Was there ever a whinier bunch of supposed tough guys than Republican elected officials? They seem to have a hard time taking personal responsibility for their actions.
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