Published Feb 7
Atlanta03
1 Post
I am in therapy, but after the death of my child I struggled with my mental health. Unable to cope and wanting to escape my pain, I drove to an isolated location and took an entire bottle of my anxiety medication. I woke up in the ER. A police officer stopped to check my parked car, found me unconscious, and saved my life. In addition to being placed on a 72 hour hold for my suicide attempt, I was shocked to learn I was also being charged with operating a vehicle while under the influence of drugs.
My lawyer explained that Virginia's DWI law doesn't require a person to be driving the car in order to be charged. The only requirements needed is sitting in the driver's seat while impaired, with the key fob in the car since it is a push ignition. I am at a loss as to what to do. I only did it in my car because my sister has been staying with me and I did not want her to have to find me. I was told my suicide attempt was reported to the BON already, so now I need to report the DWI charge. It seems from my reading on here that I may also need to enter Virginia's monitoring program if I want any chance of keeping what happened off of my public record; that's what my lawyer advised me to do anyway.
Does anyone have any insight into what may happen next? I am still really depressed and having a DWI charge and possible jail time hanging over my head doesn't help. I realize I did this to myself though and what I did was wrong. Any advice is appreciated.