Tough day for my daughter

[Ms Grumpy]

I am conflicted on how I feel right now. Let me tell you what is going on.

I have a daughter who 4 yrs ago got a DUI. She then moved out of state for a couple years and was in an abusive relationship so I went and persuaded her to move back to Michigan. Well in late June, she got her second DUI. She was on her way home from a concert and someone called the police on a car swerving all over the road. When the police caught up with her she blew a .2+ (extremely drunk) and spent the night in the drunk tank.

Last month she had her preliminary court date and had asked the court to move her case to another city so that she could do sobriety court near to her home. She had been told that if she agreed to the plea agreement that she could get 14+ days in jail which could be postponed til a later date for her to make sure that her daughter was taken care of, $2500 fine, lose her license for a period of time (they were told there was the possibility of a restricted license because she has a child and she needed to work), do required AA meetings 3 days a week and drug test when her color was called.

Well today was her sentencing court date. Her attorney did a great job but the judge was hearing no part of my daughters sob story. She sentenced her to the $2500 fine, lose her license for 2 years, her car was to be disabled for 90 days starting the day that she gets out of jail, AA meetings 5 days a week, drug testing 5 days a week and 12 days in jail to start immediately.

When the judge told my daughter she was going to jail my daughter turned to look at us with a look of shock. Now here is where I am going to sound like a really mean mom. I am glad that the judge threw her in jail, this young lady has had so many people bail her out everytime that she got into trouble that she needs to get a reality check. The part of her totally losing her license for 2 years is going to be hard with her daughter who goes to school and has dance class. And the court ordered AA meetings are understandable except how is she going to take her daughter to a sitter and get to the meetings. And the same goes for her testing, which without the transfer to another city, is 10 miles from her house.

I am just numb right now. I have spent the past week dealing with this and it has been difficult. I am happy that someone took the time to report a drunk driver, and I am relieved that no one was hurt, but she is still my daughter. I want her to learn something from this, but deep down in my gut I am not sure that she will.