Jessica Leon passes by the spot on Bayview Road every day, where she stood in handcuffs in the pouring rain getting arrested for driving under the influence.
It’s a daily reminder of a dark chapter in her life, but also that she is doing the right thing now.
Leon has begun to share her experience in hopes of keeping others out of trouble.
Her choice to help others through her experience has drawn the attention of the television program “Good Morning America” and Glamour Magazine.
“It’s kind of funny getting noticed for getting arrested,” said Leon, a successful business woman. “It was a difficult experience for me, but maybe it helps somebody.”
When the phone rang at her Clinton home a little over a week ago and a woman said she was a producer from the popular morning show, coffeeshop owner Leon wasn’t sure if somebody was trying to pull a joke on her.
The producers of “Good Morning America” wanted to interview her for a segment on the program about her DUI arrest a year and a half ago. They also wanted to show how the experience had changed her life.
Glamour Magazine has also come knocking, wanting to use her story for an upcoming article in its September issue. The magazine is investigating a new trend highlighted by the likes of Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan: Women who drive drunk.
But before Hollywood starlets and socialites made headlines for getting pulled over and arrested, Leon had undergone her own ordeal with driving under the influence.
It began on Bayview Road, near Highway 525. It was two days before New Year’s Eve, Leon’s 40th birthday.
There had been a couple of glasses of champagne, a glass of wine over dinner, lots of laughs with friends.
Leon had celebrated with her husband and some friends at a restaurant in Freeland after work.
After dinner the party dispersed. Leon got into her car heading south on Highway 525, heading back home to Scatchet Head. The next thing she saw were the bright blinking lights of a Washington State Patrol car in the review mirror.
“I was going 53 in a 35. I wasn’t really aware of it. I was alone on the highway,” Leon recalled. “I had no idea. I was listening to music.”
But the ticket for speeding was only the beginning. Leon was arrested and handcuffed, searched for weapons and taken to the Langley Police Department for suspicion of driving under the influence.
At the station her breathalyser test showed she had a blood alcohol level of .082 percent — .002 percentage points above the legal limit.
“It took a while because the machine didn’t work right,” Leon recalled. “And I was crying like a baby and worried if my husband was worried.”
What followed was a long, drawn-out legal process that stretched over several months.
“I was surprised at the level of consequences,” she said. “I didn’t realize it would cost me $8,000, all this time, a day in jail.”
For Leon, the experience has been the catalyst for positive changes in her life, she said.
Even though she had only been a social drinker, Leon decided to stop drinking altogether.
“There are people that get five (DUIs) in a row and don’t stop,” Leon said. “I made the decision to have none.”
Even though Leon said she didn’t feel drunk, the law saw it differently.
“Anybody who is buzzed or drunk doesn’t have a very good perception,” she said. “When I was sober and read the police report and read the things I had done during my field sobriety test, I was embarrassed.”
Impairment is not determined by the type of drinks that someone consumes, but rather by the amount of alcohol ingested over a specific period of time. There is a similar amount of alcohol in a 12-ounce glass of beer, a 4-ounce glass of wine, and 1.25 ounces of 80-proof liquor.
Drunk driving enforcement has historically targeted men. However, the number of DUI arrests involving women has increased dramatically over the last two decades.
Twenty years ago, under 8 percent of the DUI cases prosecuted in the United States involved female defendants; in 1997, that number climbed to over 15 percent.
More recent data continues to support the trend.
“In the past five years or so, the number of men arrested has gone down, while the percentage of women arrested has risen by 11 percent,” Leon said.
Driving under the influence is a continual problem in Island County.
According to the Island County Sheriff’s Office, deputies have already made 69 DUI arrests this year.
From January through August of 2006, deputies made 84 DUI arrests.
Law enforcement officials said the numbers have gone down to more vigorous traffic enforcement efforts, and drivers are beginning to realize they will be caught if they drive drunk.
Leon has begun to share her experience in hopes of keeping others out of the same situation – first with friends, then other islanders, and now with a nationwide audience. Leon is also a speaker for the Impaired Driving Impact Panel of Island County.
Sharing her story has helped her cope with the experience, but it was a tough first step.
“When it first happened, I was very embarrassed. I was so ashamed. I felt like a criminal,” she said.
Leon began writing her feelings down and sharing them with close friends. She was surprised how many people responded that they, too, had a couple of drinks over dinner and decide to drive.
“Many of my girlfriends said, ‘Wow, I do that,’” Leon said.
But realizing how much trouble Leon went through made some reexamine their behavior.
Some people also respond to her story because she is so “normal,” not a driver with a police record, an alcohol problem or a irresponsible teenager.
“I own a business in Freeland. I own a house. I am married. I am a college educated woman,” she said. “I am like you.”
Sharing was a healing experience for her and she is glad her trouble may keep others from making the same bad choices.
“I don’t have judgement about people who have a glass,” Leon said. “It’s easy for people to say, ‘I am a convert, now I tell them what to do.”
Making her first appearance at the Impaired Driving Impact Panel of Island County was an bigger leap, though. IDIPIC aims to deter driving under the influence and underage drinking in our communities through education and awareness. Speakers are people who have been impacted by drunk driving, people who lost a family member in a fatal crash, law enforcement professionals who have seen the destruction of DUI crashes first hand, recovering alcoholics and people like Leon, whose life was changed by the experience.
“I was afraid I would be the enemy,” Leon said. “There are people who have lost a loved one.”
Leon pushed passed the embarrassment to share her story. Those who work with IDIPIC know that’s a major step.
“We understand that it will be hard for them, and we do all we can to make it easier,” said JoAnn Hellman of IDIPIC. “We’re there for emotional support and also to let them know if they have a difficult time, even while speaking, they can just sit down.
“We understand and so do the audience members. But that has only happened once in seven years,” she said.
Hellman said Leon’s bravery to face her fear inspired the audience at a recent IDIPIC panel.
“She held me and the audience in awe with her poise, frankness and bravery. I watch the audience when people speak and what I saw that day in some people’s eyes was surprise that said, ‘That could have been me,’” Hellman said.
“It can be tough to share such private things with people one is close to. To do so with a group of people you don’t know speaks of caring, strength and a willingness to take a negative in one’s life and hope it is used to make a positive in someone else’s,” Hellman said.
“I wouldn’t doubt at all that there are people alive in our communities today because they heard the message from one or more of our speakers in their heart. Memories may be stored in the brain but they are felt in the heart,” she added.
For Leon, life has been good since her experience turned her very regular life upside down.
“Since then, I have religiously driven the speed limit. It’s less stressful,” she said with a laugh. “If I pass a police car, I don’t worry.”
She also holds no harsh feelings for the troopers that pulled her over. In retrospective, she said, she should have known better.
“You can have a glass of wine or two – probably. But you don’t know,” she said. “If you can police yourself you probably won’t get in trouble. If you can’t, society and police has to step in.”
Leon said she still enjoys a cocktail and a fun party atmosphere, but her drinks are always alcohol-free.
“Every now and then there is this little sense of deprivation, but it’s counterbalanced by it is worth it,” she said. “If you lie in an Island County cell and think about it, you realize quickly it wasn’t worth it,” she added.
People interested in attending a IDIPIC meeting or want to be potential speakers should check www.idipic.org or call 360-675-8397.
