There has been quite a bit in the news lately about Jim Irsay, the owner of the Indiana Colts who was recently pulled over in his Toyota Highlander and arrested for a DUI and possession of a controlled substance. What is unclear is if the copious media coverage on Irsay’s arrest is because he was found with over $29k in cash and a bunch of prescription pills on him or because he is a billionaire owner of an NFL team yet still rocks a goatee and drives a Toyota Highlander. All of these things are very big mysteries.
Moola Makes All the Difference
But in regards to his billionaire-ness, one of the articles points out that Irsay’s case shows that drug addiction doesn’t discriminate, that no matter how much money a person has it doesn’t immunize them to the same problems suffered by “somebody on a street corner, somebody with a needle in their arm.” But while someone like Jim Irsay may abuse drugs as much as the commonly thought-of drug addict, having access to an abundance of financial resources certainly does lessen the consequences.
Every one of the pieces in the Indy Star states that even if Irsay is convicted, he will most likely not do any jail time since he is only charged with four felony counts of possession of a controlled substance and a misdemeanor charge of operating while intoxicated. I mean, c’mon guys, it’s not like he killed anybody. Jeez!
But even if he had, it probably wouldn’t have made much of a difference. It certainly didn’t in the Ethan Couch case, when the 16-year old from Forth Worth, TX was sentenced to 10 years of probation after killing four people while driving drunk. Couch’s attorneys earned their presumably high paychecks by successfully arguing that the teen suffered from “affluenza,” a condition where the perpetrator is apparently not responsible for his actions because a privileged upbringing deprived him of the ability to understand right from wrong—a condition, I would like to point out, only further validated by a sentence of probation for a quadruple homicide.
I can’t say I know much about the law—though I have seen every episode of Law and Order SVU at least 12 times—but the running theme here is that when you’ve committed a crime, having a good lawyer makes all the difference. And if there’s one thing someone like Jim Irsay or Ethan Couch has over, say, someone like me, it’s that they can afford a fancy mouthpiece to find loopholes and newfangled terminology (like affluenza) to convince a jury that no matter what they did, they aren’t responsible.
But Does This Apply to Rape?
That’s why I am curious to see what transpires in the Darren Sharper case, the former NFL star who’s has been accused of raping four women by way of Ambien-laced cocktails. As of now, the sticking point seems to be whether the sex was consensual or not, with Sharper’s attorneys arguing that none of the alleged victims had traces of Ambien in their system. Unfortunately this is probably due more to the half-life of the powerful sedative than Sharper’s innocence. Because either way, all four women claim to have woken up and seen Sharper naked on top of them or one of their friends and none of them claim to have consented to sex with the former Minnesota Viking.
In the End
So even with all the media hoopla about Jim Irsay not receiving special treatment because of who he is or how much money he has, it still seems like a man who admitted to knowing he had a prescription pain medication problem back in 2002—and publicly stated it was an issue that had been “successfully dealt with”—should be facing a bit more consequences for DUI and possession than one year of probation, random drug testing and an assignment to attend drug or alcohol awareness classes. As it also seems unjust that a boy who might be under 18 but is of legal age to acquire a drivers license is only looking at 10 years of probation for murder. Is it just me or does it feel like we are somehow counteracting the resources we’re pouring into treatment by not taking a harder stance on personal responsibility—no matter how much money the person has—when it comes to the criminal consequences of drunk driving?
Photo courtesy of Josh Hallett from Winter Haven, FL, USA (Lucas Oil Stadium – Indianapolis Colts) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
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