A Quick Note From the Road

It was a very regal setting at Olde Stone today: A couple of things as we wind down from our trip to Olde Stone in Bowling Green (put up an 83 from the blue tees...best course I have played in the state) and get ready for the live radio show from Media Day tomorrow: --- The Rod Strickland "arrest" today was a total disaster for everyone involved. It looks as if there may have been a state clerical error that caused Strickland's Kentucky license to look as if it was suspended when it actually was not. The Herald Leader wrongly reported on Twitter for a few minutes that Strickland had a DUI. And because of the initial false reports, Strickland's name was dragged through the mud, potentially incorrectly. A lose/lose for everyone involved. But you know what the kicker could be. From my very rudimentary understanding of what happened, I think the Lexington police may have made a mistake in the actual arrest of Strickland. Last year, the Kentucky legislature passed House Bill 463, which changed a number of provisions of Kentucky criminal law. Among those changes, was a restructuring of what crimes an individual can be arrested for. Prior to the bill, if someone was driving on a suspended license, they were eligible for arrest. But following the passing of that bill (which I believe went into effect last summer), driving on a suspended license was not one of the crimes for which one could be arrested. There are a couple of minor exceptions to the new law which I would not think would apply (risk of officer health, danger to flee, etc), but in general driving under a suspended license is now not an arrestable offense. So let's assume for sake of argument that there wasn't a clerical error and Strickland's license was suspended. It would see that the police still under the new statute are not allowed to arrest for such an offense. Without the arrest, it is simply a citation, Strickland either deals with the punishment or the clerical error is found, and everyone goes on their merry way. More importantly for Strickland, the entire story likely never makes the news. I don't think anyone in the media has asked the police for comment on the new law and how it may have affected the arrest and as far as I know, no one has even looked into the issue. But I think there is a very good argument that not only was Strickland's license potentially not suspended, even if it was, the arrest was improper and against the new Kentucky statute. We shall see how it plays out. UPDATE: A couple of you in the comment section make the point that a DUI suspended license is different than a regular suspended license and that this could be the difference. However it is not clear to me that this would be a "DUI suspended license" as there are reports it was due to some reporting requirements in Tennessee. Plus I am not sure that difference exists in the first place, as I don't see that in the House Bill 463. However, I certainly defer to people who know more about it than I do (which could also include commenters). I guess we shall see as I am sure that someone will ask the police this tomorrow. Either way, enough law for one night..."Louie" is about to come on. And with that, law dog retires for the night and leaves you with this gem from Kige Ramsey that I referenced today on the radio show. I hadn't seen Kige in quite a long time until today and it was great to see the King of YouTube Sports. Here is one of his finest hours...an interview with Joe Crawford and Ramel Bradley for the ages: