SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A husband caught cheating on his wife drove drunk legally to escape his angry wife and lover, a California jury found.
The 60-year-old Ukiah man was caught driving with a blood alcohol content of 0.11%, the Mendocino County District Attorney’s Office said in a Feb. 4 Facebook post. In California, it is illegal to drive with a BAC higher than 0.08%.
After a four-day trial, a jury found he was “not guilty of driving a motor vehicle under the influence of alcohol and not guilty of driving a motor vehicle with a blood alcohol .08 or greater,” the district attorney said.
The defense argued that the man’s driving was legally justified, the district attorney said.
After the man’s wife caught him cheating, “his driving was necessary to allow him to escape two angry women,” according to testimony presented, the district attorney said.
The prosecution argued that the “law of necessity” should not and has never been used in a situation like this, but the judge allowed the argument to be heard, the district attorney said.
Under a necessity defense, the district attorney said, the defendant must prove a number of conditions, including that “he acted in an emergency to prevent a significant bodily harm or evil to himself or someone else” and that others would have deemed it necessary, too.
He must also prove there was “no adequate legal alternative” and that his driving with a blood alcohol greater than 0.08% “did not create a greater danger than the one avoided,” the district attorney said.
Lastly, the defendant must prove he did not “substantially contribute to the emergency,” the district attorney said.
Mendocino County is about 160 miles northwest of Sacramento.
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