The Indy Star has an article entitled Attorney accused in fatal DUI crash about a 26 year old attorney named Terry Record who was apparently involved in a drunk driving accident that killed 46 year old Jimmy R. Cash. Record worked for the Indiana Department of Health and was active in Republican politics. He was also at least nominally a contributor to Indiana Barrister, though I can’t think of anything he wrote there. The story I expected was a matter of young guy goes out with his buddies to have a good time, has too much to drink, and the nightmare occurs. But, the Star story suggests, at least, that Mr. Record had his wake up call back in October:
[O]n Oct. 7 Indianapolis police found his car overturned on College Avenue near 22nd Street after it had struck another car. Record was not at the scene, and later he told a police officer the car may have been stolen after he left a Broad Ripple bar early that morning, taking a cab home, according to a police report.
His supervisors questioned him.
“There were some inconsistencies,” Symons said. “Based on those answers, we decided it wasn’t appropriate for him to work for us any longer.”
No charges were filed against him in that incident. The incident on Sunday night leading to the fatality took place after Record had, according to his account, “four medium sized drinks”. Witnesses on the scene reportedly indicate that he ran a red light. Record told officers that the pickup truck’s driver caused the crash, police said, and stated: “I hope the guy has insurance to fix my car.†Presumably he was not aware that the pickup truck driver was deceased at the time he made that statement.
I’m certainly not against education programs and encouraging people to drink less because of these incidents, but I also tend to think that these tragedies are also arguments for better mass transit and, perhaps, the neighborhood bar. Of course, our society has a puritanical streak that dislikes solutions that may seem to endorse sinful behavior. But still, the drinking is only one-half of the drinking and driving equation. Who knows if there was anything at all that could have prevented this situation. I don’t really have any intent to pick on Mr. Record. He’s in for a long tough road without me piling on. I just felt compelled to comment because the plight of young white male blogger lawyers resonates with me for some reason.
Update Apparently Mr. Record later changed his story about the hit and run in October. I ran across this new information at Advance Indiana, linking to an Indy Star article.
Indianapolis police found Record’s Chevy Blazer overturned and abandoned about 3:30 a.m. Oct. 7 on College Avenue near 22nd Street. The Blazer had hit a parked vehicle.
Hours later, responding officer Andrew Hannaford said Monday, Record called him and said he had taken a cab home after his sport utility vehicle had been stolen when he left his keys at a Broad Ripple bar.
Record’s story later changed. He attempted to report the vehicle stolen but instead admitted to Detective John Guilfoy that he had been driving the SUV and left the scene of the crash, said Ilnicki, a supervisor in the department’s hit-and-run division.
He was never charged with the hit & run.
And, idle thought, completely irrelevant to the story — Mr. Record was driving a Chevy Blazer in October followed by a 2000 BMW in this week’s wreck. He was briefly a Marion County deputy prosecutor, then an attorney for the Indiana Dept. of Health. I was a government attorney for a few years. The pay isn’t that great. So, I’m thinking either gifts or outside sources of income for the vehicles. Like I said, not relevant — I’m a collection attorney, so I’m always sensitive to whether income and lifestyle match up.
This was posted in the comments, but Gary Welsh at Advance Indiana flagged an item from WTHR suggesting that Record, or at least his vehicle, was suspected in another hit and run in December.
Joh Padgett at Monticello has some interesting thoughts about the fact that Record was leaving Brad’s Brass Flamingo. He says that:
The Brass Flamingo is a well known nightspot amongst Republican politicians and local law enforcement officials who socialize together regularly at the club formerly owned by reclusive millionaire Brad Hirst, who may still have tenuous connections to the club.
Unfortunately, if he’d gotten drunk and then tried to take a bus, he’d have been arrested for public intoxication. If it had been a neighborhood bar and he’d walked home, same problem. And yet no one wants inebriated folks driving home. Apparently the only solution is to go with a friend that doesn’t drink and drives your ass home – which is great if you’re a movie star, but for the average joe most of the time your friends will go out drinking with you, but not just to watch you get plastered.
Yeah, back in the day, I really enjoyed my friends when I was drinking with them. But, frankly, they were just a bunch of rowdy jerks if I had to watch them get drunk.
Terry was a contributor at the Hoosier Review website a few years back.
How strange that he wasn’t charged with the earlier hit and run, along with making false statements to law enforcement. Obviously he was given a free pass he didn’t deserve–and which didn’t serve either him or his victim very well.
I never had a problem with getting caught for public intox at IU, despite being intoxicated publicly most weeks. Occasionally an officer on foot would make conversation and observe that we were drunk. After determining we were conscious and would probably make it home ok, they always wished us well and admonished us to stay out of trouble. If I had been arrested, I would have ended up with one of the most easily laughed-off offenses on my record–explainable to any potential employer with, “Yeah, I drank some beer and walked down a sidewalk because I knew I had no business driving.”
You were lucky not to be in Lafayette/ West Lafayette, because here the public intox thing is not laughed off. And I agree with Bil. At least a person walking home or riding the bus is making a conscious choice NOT to drive and put people in harm’s way. As long as they don’t get destructive or abusive, what’s the problem?
Doug,
Did you see where WRTV is reporting Record was suspected in a second hit and run in downtown Indy in December which injured a pedestrian. No charges filed in that case either.
I’m curious as to why Terry’s race makes it easier for you to identify with his plight.
Gary,
Hadn’t seen that.
Josh,
Just one more point in common.
Doug–
WRTV reports that “Record’s vehicle” was also suspected in a hit-and-run of a pedestrian downtown in December, but no charges were filed.
With that, I’ll commence to piling on a bit. It’s a bit unseemly that a good Republican family values, Christian Legal Society, Federalist Society (“Building the Next Generation, Advancing the Rule of Law”) lawyer would plow into someone on the way home from four hours of enjoying beer and strippers at the Brass Flamingo, then refuse the breath test while making the comment about the other driver. Just an observation. I suppose most patrons of strip clubs would probably identify themselves as Christians.
How the hell can this guy flip a car, give false statements, possibly hit a pedestrian in another incident, and never see the inside of a patrol car? It’s going to be someone’s ASS over this, now that someone’s dead. This guy appears to have been spinning out of control for six months or so, and attracted the attention of law enforcement a couple of times, and his behavior definitely got the attention of a previous employer who happened to be a prosecutor. I don’t know if he bipolar, or alcoholic to the point of blacking out, or simply has no regard for his fellow citizens who share the road with him. But I’m guessing we hear a lot more about this guy in the coming days.
Link to the WTHR story cited by Gary.
The new information in that story is:
Part of me thinks I was horribly unsympathetic in that earlier message. I believe most people have driven at least a little drunk at some point. Most people have probably been saved at some point by having a more sober companion point out their drunkenness and the inadvisability of driving. Mr. Record could have used someone like that at some point.
At the same time, he knows the law. Alcohol seriously impairs judgment. So maybe he wasn’t thinking straight the night he flipped car number one. But in the morning, when sober, he had to have had a “what the hell happened to my car?” moment. The decision not to drive has to first be made when sober.
Just a sad story, really.
You’ve got absolutely nothing on the folks over at the Indy Star’s comment thread. *That* is an inflamed mob.
Much has been made in the Indystar feedback comments over the fact that he was driving a BMW. I am sure that the State Department of Health does not pay well at all, but a seven year old BMW is probably not out of his reach.
A telling observation from this week’s issue of the Economist about the source of the great toll of road deaths world wide:
“Dangerous drivers in dodgy vehicles on ill-designed and dismally maintained roads make a lethal mix. Add to that fatalistic attitudes, inadequate emergency services, slack (or corrupt) law enforcement and an often startling array of human and motorised traffic moving at different speeds.”
Our dependence on cars has made us, of necessity, tolerant of people driving when they were in no condition to drive. Take away a man or woman’s driver’s license and you almost literally take away their identity and job. We can call for stricter, and less corrupt policing, but the issue will always creep back.
Bill Browning’s observation about “the neighborhood bar” reminded me that most of us, in the U.S., no longer live around the corner from a bar, or any other sort of business. Never mind public intoxication, try to find a neighborhood bar in our suburbs that you can reach without a car. Imagine the cry if you tried to get a zoning change to open a neighborhood bar in one of our car dependent suburbs.
I’ll suggest that popularlizing living in more concentrated, city style neighborhoods, which mix business and residential uses and which progressively eliminate the “need” for car trips would do more good in the long run than only calling for an end of slackness and upping penalties for intoxication.
Paul–
Obviously the neighborhood bar would have to have strippers…
T-
I very much doubt it. People are willing to let their neighbors see them going into a bar. They are not so willing to let themselves be seen going into a strip joint. I’d guess that strip joints tend to attract a large portion of their customers from people who are from out of town and thus unlikely to be recognized. Such operations will want to hang around convention centers and on the “main drags” where they will be easy to find.
This is a sad story, period. Perhaps Mr. Cash would still be alive if Mr. Record had been charged in the earlier incidents. Perhaps.
I don’t drink and therefore have never driven even a little bit drunk, so maybe my tolerance for people being intoxicated is pretty low. I don’t have a problem with someone drinking if he or she is still able to function–not drive, obviously–but function, still be somewhat pleasant to be around, etc. What is the point of drinking until obviously intoxicated, such as slurring words, barely able to walk, becoming mean, using poor judgment, etc.? Is that fun? I’m not being smart-aleck. I just don’t get it.
Wayne County has its fare share of bars “around the corner.” There isn’t anything all that wonderful about having bars near residential areas–at least not here.
It can be very fun — well, actually I can’t speak for the “becoming mean” part. I was almost always a pretty happy drunk, all things considered.
The fun comes from the altered state of mind. It’s not like you’re otherwise normal but you stumble and slur. Instead, your perception of reality is altered.
I don’t have much experience with the neighborhood bar. Mostly my drinking experiences have been at college bars. However, my sister lives in Euclid, Ohio. There seem to be quite a few corner bars/restaurant establishments. Parents don’t think a thing about taking their kids there. Lots of the parents drink, but not noticeably to excess. Seemed like a nice kind of place to have around.
Terry was a douchebag in college and it looks like he’s only gotten worse. So proud to be a fellow alum.
Doug: Hmmm…well I don’t get what is fun about having an altered state of mind. :) Heck, I don’t even like taking cold medicine. Again, I don’t care if someone can enjoy alcoholic drinks without getting wasted. It is the drinking mainly for the purpose of *getting drunk* that I don’t understand. Maybe that makes me an odd bird.
The neighborhood bars here are not particularly kid-friendly. Anyway, I don’t think that kids are allowed in bars in Indiana, unless the bar is in a private club or in an Applebee’s-type restaurant. Don’t quote me on that, however. :D
I respect anyone’s decision not to consume even mildly mind-altering substances, but I will share one anecdote with you.
I’ve been prescribed pain-killers once or twice (most recently after an appendectomy), and, for me, the “buzz” is nothing like that from alcohol. I found Vicodin to be unpleasant. It gave me a muzzy feeling, as if my brain was having to fight through a thin layer of gauze to engage with the world. It was subtle, but it was there and it annoyed me.
I drink alcohol once every several weeks to several months (usually a good single-malt Scotch), and I find its effect completely different. Like Doug, I’m a happy drunk. (Perhaps unlike Doug, I am also a silly one, but then when in a good mood I’m pretty silly sober, too.)
Just sayin’ — not all highs are the same. The stories about heroin’s high are intriguing, but the consequences of using scare me to death. Plus I’m just plain too paranoid to do any illegal drugs, so I never have.
I am an IU alum and knew Terry. He was pretty vain then…so it is no surprise that he was driving a BMW and trying to give off the appearance that he was cool s#it as some big shot attorney (we all know that out of school none of us make a ton of money…that is just the truth) What shocks me is hearing about his last 6 months of these incidents leading up to someones death. I think something is really messed up for him….maybe its the new paycheck and title that makes him act the way he has….but other than thinking he was cool s#it, the Terry i knew would never do stuff like this (but obviously people change). I am truly saddened.
I can see trying to be a cool guy with a lot of drinking as part of the deal. In Bloomington, you can do that without a lot of driving. Not so much in Indy. The November incident doesn’t make me think he was a bad guy — stupid, but not evil. Failing to learn from that despite flipping his car, despite losing his job, despite narrowly avoiding criminal charges; that’s a different story.
Branden: I have had to be on powerful pain meds a couple of times–not fun at all. :(
IU Alum: I’ve read similar comments elsewhere from people who knew Mr. Record in school. Maybe being close to power–but not actually in power–went to his head.
Doug: No charges were filed after the car-flipping incident(and the possible hit-and-run), and Mr. Record seemed to find a new job fairly quickly after being fired. He did not suffer any terrible consequences before, so what was there to learn? Not saying that he should have been under the jail, but some punishment was warranted after the car-flipping incident.
nice job the state was doing there with the background checks (which I think they used to do, but I could be misremembering). Like Doug, I can personally vouch that unless the state went hog-wild and hiked everyone’s salaries since I’ve been there, a lawyer working for ISDOH or any state agency is not making a ton of money. Probably $30-50k. And a beginner lawyer will be at the low end of that range.
If he was suspected in other drunk driving incidents and criminal activity (which making a false police report is), what I want to know is why someone didn’t report him to the bar, which is a lawyer’s ethical duty as an officer of the court. at least they could have gotten him into a diversion program.