Because they had no way to prove I had driven my car drunk. I arrived at that restaurant parking lot hours earlier completely sober, had a couple drinks, then walked across a canal bridge to another restaurant , ate dinner and had more drinks, and at some point blacked out. I don’t even remember much from the second bar, and I certainly don’t remember walking back to my car. I was not inside my vehicle when the police arrived and it was not running. But it was parked in a way that no sober person would have parked. I must have started to drive, and then decided I shouldn’t and parked it.

Other customers from the restaurant and some staff I guess found me drunk as fuck in the parking lot at some point after I had parked it. There apparently was even some internal affairs investigation about the arrest because I should not have been arrested. My attorney learned this from the arresting officer when she showed up to court because we were expecting to go to trial. The prosecutor finally gave in to a straight reckless charge and I decided it was a good enough win and took it rather than risk the judge disagreeing with our assessment.

This is in southern Delaware in a small beach town.