Man nets arrest during girlfriends traffic stop | News, Sports, Jobs
WAILUKU – A Kihei man who became belligerent when police arrested his girlfriend for drunken driving last year was ordered to pay a $100 fine and to perform 100 hours of community service.
“It wasn’t your fight to begin with,” 2nd Circuit Judge Rhonda Loo told Matthew Wilburn, 25. “It was your girlfriend who was driving your truck. She’s the one who got pulled over for DUI. It had nothing to do with you.”
Wilburn, who was a passenger during the Nov. 22 traffic stop, was cooperative at first and stayed in the truck, Loo said.
“Later on, you became belligerent,” Loo said. “You started swearing. I lost count after 15 words that all rhyme with duck.”
She said police officers explained what was happening and told Wilburn he could call someone who was sober to pick up the truck.
“They were doing everything to tell you what was going on, but you just kept swearing,” Loo said.
Originally charged with first-degree terroristic threatening, Wilburn had pleaded no contest to a reduced charge of disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.
Defense attorney Sam MacRoberts said Wilburn had ended the relationship with the woman and was now “redirecting himself to surfing, to physical fitness.”
“When he does those things, he keeps himself occupied,” MacRoberts said. “It keeps him from drinking.”
“I’m extremely embarrassed by what happened that night,” Wilburn said in court. “I think about it all the time, wish I could take it back. I can guarantee you that nothing like this will ever happen again.”
Loo denied Wilburn’s request for a chance to keep the convictions off his record and placed him on one year’s probation. He was given credit for seven days he previously spent in jail after violating bail conditions by missing appointments with the Maui Intake Service Center.
Loo noted that the woman driving Wilburn’s truck had a blood-alcohol level of 0.149 percent, nearly twice the legal limit of 0.08 percent. “Obviously, she was a danger on the roadway,” Loo said.
When police officers arrested her, “maybe they saved your life,” the judge told Wilburn. “They pulled a drunk driver off the road.”
As a bartender, Wilburn has attended classes about when to stop serving customers after they’ve had too much to drink, Loo said. “You had that background, you had that training,” she said. “You should have cut yourself off that night.”
Wilburn was ordered not to consume alcohol or illegal drugs. He also was ordered to complete anger management classes and to have no contact with DUI Task Force officer Rusty Lawson.
* Melissa Tanji can be reached at mtanji@mauinews.com.
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