We’ve Made Their Reservations And Called To Confirm Them
There’s a special place in Hell for these women.
Practicing the virtue of Mercy toward their families and because their cases have been or will be determined by criminal courts, we won’t name them, but there’s a special place in Hell for them.
We’ve made their reservations. And called again to confirm them.
After her justly deserved Florida prison sentence, the first can upgrade to an almost-eternity Purgatory sentence – if she spends the rest of her life in Mother Teresa-like humble service to the poorest of the poor.
Harsh?
Think…
The Thursday, June 2 Miami Herald reported:
“[A]round 1:15 .a.m. on May 30 [she] sped past Miami Police officer A. Fernandez in her blue 2019 BMW 330i… at what an arrest report described as a ‘very high rate of speed.’
“As Fernandez followed, he saw [her] strike a pedestrian and keep driving.
“The impact was so violent that the victim’s hair was later found on both the windshield and inside the car.
“Despite the officer activating his lights and sirens [she] didn’t pull over. She finally came to a stop at a red light at Beacom Boulevard, where two cars were stopped in front of her, according to the report.
“When the officer walked up to [her] driver’s side window, he immediately smelled a strong odor of alcohol on her breath, according to the arrest report. Her eyes were bloodshot and watery, and she was alone in the car.
“She was taken into custody.
“While sitting in the back of a patrol car, police say [she] spontaneously said, ‘It was just a homeless person that I hit and it is just an accident.’”
What?!?
Wait!!!
“Just a homeless person…”!!!!???
The woman she killed was 41-year-old Kathryn Kipnis.
The same Miami Herald report continued:
“’A shining light has been taken out of this world by the incredible irresponsibility of this defendant, and that Katie was an amazing person and so deeply loved,’ Kipnis’ cousin, Rachel Kipnis, told the judge [William Altfield] via zoom in a subsequent bond hearing.
“During bond court, prosecutors added that officer Fernandez had to drive at 100 - 110 miles per hour to catch up with her at the 30-mph speed limit.
“At 3:45 a.m. the day of the crash, Miami Fire Rescue performed an emergency blood draw on the defendant, even though she refused to give consent, according to police.
“Traffic homicide Detective A. Mena, who helped with the investigation, noticed what looked like fresh vomit on the driver’s side of the car, the arrest report read.
“… When the rescue personnel arrived for the second [blood] draw, the defendant refused to cooperate with officers during processing. As officers tried to help her stand, she resisted bracing her body.
“She also refused to get into the rescue truck, locking her knees and resisting.
“On Monday, police received the toxicology report. These are the results per police:
Blood sample taken at 3:45 a.m., about two hours and 30 minutes after the crash, showed a blood alcohol level of 0.162.
Blood sample taken at 6:02 a.m., nearly 5 hours after the crash, showed a blood alcohol level of 0.112.
Blood sample taken at 7:08 a.m. showed a blood alcohol level of 0.088….”
A Web site sponsored by the University of Toledo Counseling Center cautions that “the liver metabolizes alcohol at a rate of 0.015% per hour, so this is the rate at which your BAC decreases after it reaches peak. This rate is constant, regardless of gender, size, or body type. Nothing can speed this up…”
Simple calculations indicated that, at the time she killed Katie Kipnis, the driver’s blood alcohol content (BAC) level was at least 0.192 – well more than twice the [0.080] legal limit for driving.
As professionals with decades of counseling experience with teens and adults with substance (including alcohol) use problems, we turned to YaleMedicine, a Web site of the Yale School of Medicine:
“Like many other substance use disorders, alcohol use disorder is a chronic and sometimes relapsing condition that reflects changes in the brain. This means that when people with the disorder are abstaining from alcohol, they are still at increased risk of resuming unhealthy alcohol consumption, even if years have passed since their last drink.
“People who have AUD may continue to use alcohol even though they know it is causing social, health, economic, and possibly even legal problems in their life.
“It is important to remember that AUD is not due to an individual’s lack of self-discipline or resolve. Rather, it is a brain disease that can be inherited. Long-term alcohol use can produce changes in the brain that can cause people to crave alcohol, lose control of their drinking and require greater quantities of alcohol to achieve its desired effects. It can also cause people to experience withdrawal symptoms if they discontinue alcohol use.”
In the simplest terms: Alcohol Use Disorder is a disease of the brain. Full Stop!
[As we write this, we’ve just finished a conversation with a thirty-five-year-old Marine with two – not one but two Master’s degrees and really, really smart – and were surprised that he didn’t know this stuff.
So, stick with us for a few paragraphs ‘cause, before we rip into the Miami driver, ya gotta know the science.]
Ninety percent of alcohol is metabolized by alcohol dehydrogenase, an enzyme produced by liver cells and women have 40% less of this enzyme in their livers than men. In the simplest terms, that means women may become impaired – “drunk” - far more quickly than men and with fewer drinks. (The remaining ten percent is metabolized through sweat, breath and urine.)
A “standard drink” is generally considered 12 ounces of regular beer - typically around 5% ABV (alcohol by volume), a 5-ounce glass of table wine, or 1.5 ounces (a shot glass) of distilled spirits at 40% by volume. (Alcohol “proof” is twice the ABV.)
According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, alcohol enters your blood stream with the first sip and hits your brain – “kicks in” - within about 10 minutes. Obviously, your body absorbs alcohol and it goes to your brain more quickly when you drink on an empty stomach. Twenty percent of alcohol is absorbed in the stomach and then it passes to your small intestine, where the rest is absorbed into your bloodstream.
Now a critical consideration: Blood alcohol concentration (BAC) peaks about one hour after you drink on an empty stomach. However, it will continue to climb with each succeeding drink and will, generally, reach its peak approximately 60 - 90 after the last drink.
Typically, females have less body water to dilute alcohol, resulting in a higher BAC; they also produce less alcohol dehydrogenase and generally have higher body fat levels and fat retains alcohol.
Blood alcohol concentration (BAC ) - alcohol per volume of blood - is a commonly used measure of intoxication – drunkenness. For parents, spouses, friends – everyone, the Web site www.calculator.net/bac-calculator - offers a simple, five-clicks way to determine BAC with corresponding summaries of the behavior (“appears normal” to “High possibility of death”) and degree of impairment (“Subtle effects that can be detected with special tests” to “Breathing, Heart Rate”) as the numbers go higher.
It's a great tool. We recommend it.
When confronted with his www.calculator.net/bac-calculator results after the previous night’s drinking, our Marine friend realized it was time to quit or risk leaving his kids without a father. Not an acceptable option!
In May 2023, 24-year-old Illinois woman (again, we won’t use her name) just weeks from graduating from Bradley University was sentenced to 14 years in prison after she killed Paul Prowant and Andrea Rowewicz in a DUI accident; her BAC level was 0.264 – more than three times the legal limit - and she showed no remorse, instead asking if she would be able to make her classes the next day.
Fox5 Atlanta News reported that [East Peoria Officer Jeffrey] Bieber
“…appeared to grow frustrated after [she] repeatedly told him she had to go to school the next day.
"’You want me to be honest with you. You’re going to jail. You don’t have a bond. You killed two people tonight. I don’t think you understand that,’ Bieber snapped at [her], who was sitting in a hospital bed, after the April 10, 2022 crash…
"’Did you understand what I told you, that you killed two people tonight?’ Bieber asked.
"’Yes, I’m just wondering when I can go to school,’ she replied nonchalantly.
"’You’re on body camera being completely careless about killing two people tonight. You could care less. That’s sad and pathetic and horrible all at the same time,’ Bieber told her.
"’Can you say that as a cop?’ [she] asked.
“’Yes, ma’am, I can,’ he replied.
“As the officer waited with [her] for a nurse to perform a DUI kit, she danced and sang in the hospital room and talked excitedly about an upcoming trip to Las Vegas for her birthday…
"’It’s going to be so fun,’ she gushed. ‘I’m going to start off with two Long Islands.’ [A Long Island ice tea typically contains a combination of vodka, gin, tequila and triple sec with sour mix and cola.]
"’You haven’t had enough of drinking already?’ asked the officer.
"’We’re talking about Vegas. There is no limit in Vegas, right?’ she said, laughing.
“The student also told him that she couldn’t wait to join the ‘DUI Club’ and asked for her phone, so she could text all her co-workers since, she said, they all have had DUIs, according to the police report.”
Time for the counselors to step back and the priests to come forward.
The eighth chapter of the Gospel of John opens with the story of Jesus’ encounter with a woman caught in adultery and the religious leaders seeking to “trap” Him with a question about whether she should be “stoned” as the Mosaic law demanded. Jesus bent down to write in the dirt at their feet; theologians hypothesize he was tracing the words of the law.
Goaded by the teachers of the law, He responded, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” Again, He stooped down and wrote on the ground, presumably outlining the sins of the individual teachers who
“…began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there.
“Jesus straightened up and asked her, ‘Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?’
“’No one, sir,’ she said.
“’Then neither do I condemn you,”’ Jesus declared. ‘Go now and leave your life of sin.’”
Because it is too easy to stand in judgment of the two women responsible for the deaths of three people and the transgenerational pain of their families, we will not focus on their alcohol abuse. Perhaps these were the only times it occurred.
We’ll stand in judgment of their blind self-centeredness, their “othering” of their victims – “just a homeless person” and “I’m just wondering when I can go to school… It’s (Las Vegas) going to be so fun… I’m going to start off with two Long Islands….”
In the Sacrament of Reconciliation (Confession) we choose not to focus on “shopping lists of sins and numbers.” That’s too easy for the person in front of us.
Rather, we ask “What is happening in your life? In what direction are you moving? What drives you to treat others the way you do?”
Othering – “just a homeless person - is a sin.
Self-centeredness – “It’s going to be so fun… I’m going to start off with two Long Islands” – is a sin.
The reservations are made.
They both face many years in prison in which to change their lives and attitudes in order to cancel them.