For DUI, Personal Costs Are High

"I've been through hell these last seven months," said Johnson, who fled Vietnam at age 6 with her mother and sisters.

Nearly a year after her arrest, she has admitted she made a mistake, yet she still can't believe her single drink was excessive.

Charles Lieber, director of the Alcohol Research and Treatment Center at the Bronx Veterans Affairs Medical Center, said women and Asians have a limited ability to tolerate liquor. Compared with men, women produce less of a stomach enzyme that breaks down alcohol. Many Asians also lack a second enzyme that rids the body of alcohol toxin, meaning a single drink can cause flushed skin and elevated blood alcohol levels, he said.

Johnson's difficulties were magnified when she missed a court date because of a misunderstanding with her attorney, she said. A bench warrant was issued for her arrest, and she wound up in jail. It was "the worst experience of my life," she said.

In jail, she used her hands to drink water from a sink atop a steel toilet unit. Her bologna sandwich came with a thumbprint. She would call home to get the time because there was no clock in the cell.

"I was there for two days. I cried for two days," she said recently, still stunned at the turn of events. "I'm a mother of three. I'm in the cell with people who did fraud, with people who steal cars, robbed a 7-Eleven. Everyone is together until their hearing. Here I am, I just missed my court date, but [I'm] in there with drug dealers."

Eventually, Johnson pleaded guilty and paid $365 in fines and fees. Her license was suspended for a year, but she is allowed to drive to and from classes she is taking to become a nail technician, and to transport her children to school. Johnson also paid about $4,000 in attorneys' fees at a time when she and her husband had purchased a new house and had many bills.

"My husband thinks I threw away $4,000," said Johnson, who believes her arrest contributed to arguments that ultimately led to their separation.

Nobody in her family drinks alcohol, she said, adding to her feeling of estrangement.

"They look at me like I'm an alcoholic," she said. "Everyone looks at me like I'm a criminal."

Some first-time offenders said they drank too much because of an emotional crisis, then were caught driving while in that condition.

Lawrence P. Robinson's girlfriend had just ended their 14-year relationship. Robinson, 53, was devastated and on antidepressant medication. He went to a bar and drank four small glasses of white wine, he said, then headed home in his Nissan Maxima. Robinson said he had his cell phone pressed to his ear, weeping as he begged his girlfriend to take him back. He was about two miles from his house in Herndon when police stopped him for driving erratically, according to court records. His blood alcohol level was 0.14.

Robinson pleaded guilty and paid $465 in fines and fees. He is permitted to drive to jobs for the cleaning company he operates. But shortly after his conviction, he lost a secondary job. And his DUI made job interviews awkward.

"It's embarrassing for someone my age to tell a prospective employer that I had a conviction," he said.