News You Can Use: Necessity is a valid defense in a DWI case, even when you’re driving a golf cart.

The rationale behind the defense is based upon the public policy that “the law ought to promote the achievement of higher values at the expense of lesser values, and [that] sometimes the greater good for society will be accomplished by violating the literal language of the criminal law.” “[I]f the harm which will result from compliance with the law is greater than that which will result from violation of it, [a person] is justified in violating it.”

The Court went on to hold that, despite some irregularities in the way it was raised by the defendant, it was available in the following unusual circumstances:

Defendant and Heather lived in close proximity to [a nearby bar called] Bones. There were “paths” that connected the house with Bones, and it was possible to travel between the house and Bones without ever travelling on any public roadway. Defendant and Heather had utilized the paths on multiple prior occasions, either by walking or by driving the golf cart. The purpose of utilizing the golf cart and the paths was to avoid driving a car, and further to avoid the use of public roadways, after consuming alcohol. Bones attracted varied clientele, and had become “kind of a rough place” where there could be “fights and it was just very unpredictable.” Deputy Legan testified that he had known Bones “to be an establishment that serves the biker crowd.”

Defendant and Heather arrived at Bones’ parking lot in the golf cart at approximately 9:30 p.m. on 1 March 2014. Heather testified that they planned on returning home “[t]he same way we came. I knew I probably would be driving the golf cart home, but just the same we came through the back path.” Heather testified that she would probably drive home because it was likely that Defendant would drink more alcohol than she. According to Heather, as the night progressed the atmosphere at Bones “became intense; it became kind of mean. It just wasn’t a place I wanted to be in anymore.” Heather testified that while at Bones – a period of less than three hours – she consumed “more than four, less than seven” alcoholic drinks, and that she did not eat anything during that time because she had eaten dinner before leaving the house that evening. Defendant and Heather decided to leave shortly after midnight, 2 March 2014, and Heather went to the restroom while Defendant went outside to wait for her.

When Heather walked out of Bones, she noticed Defendant was in the parking lot arguing with “several guys” that she did not know. There were at least three men with whom Defendant was arguing, and there may have been as many as five. The arguing was intense, involving shouting and cursing, and Defendant eventually punched one of the men (“the man”), who was in his “late 20s, maybe early 30s[,]” causing the man to fall to the ground. Defendant later described the man to Deputy Legan as “the baddest motherf_cker in the bar[.]” Heather further testified that when the man “got up he was extremely red-faced and he pulled a gun from his waistband” and “[r]aised it in the air.” Heather testified that Defendant did not have a gun and, that as far as she knew, Bones did not have security guards or bouncers. Heather testified: 

It got very, very chaotic at that point. There was a woman [who] was next to me who was – she said “you need to get out of here. He’s crazy.” [Defendant] had turned around and was screaming at me “go, go, go, go, go.” We got going. When [the man] pulled the gun I just wanted to get out of there. …

The parking lot was packed with vehicles and people, which prevented Defendant from driving around the back of Bones toward the path they had taken from the house earlier that evening. … When asked on cross-examination whether she believed it was safer for them to drive the golf cart through the parking lot and onto the road instead of running away, Heather stated: “The golf cart can go faster than I can go. It was a split-second decision and it seemed the only option.” …

She stated: “We went along the road along the clump of trees and then on to the dirt path and that’s where we were pulled over.” …

A map of the relevant area, introduced for illustrative purposes, shows that the distance from the north end of the parking lot to the dirt path was just over 500 feet, or approximately one-tenth of a mile. …