To the Editor
I have been exonerated. All charges associated with this arrest have been Nolle Prosequi due to lack of evidence, i.e. my low BAC of .03. Obviously, since the State of Maryland has a no drop policy for these charges, there must of been something deeply wrong with my case for them to do so.
I understand that Driving Impaired is dangerous, illegal and harms many people’s lives and my heart goes out to those victims and their families. But for you to be so quick to judge me on my “decisions” is harmful to your mission and your decision to automatically trust the competency and integrity of every arrest and police officer is misguided. It is not up to your site, or your readers, to determine innocence or guilt based on empty accusations. I trust that you will be more conscious when automatically accusing people before their trial. As I said before, I feel your site will have more success if you are responsible when selecting names and reputations to tarnish.
Shawn DeLaVergne
“A wrongly accused man is always vilified by the ignorant masses. Such a man should fire at will, he is bound to hit something.”
(Editor’s Note: A BAC level of .03 while below the legal limit still indicates that the driver had been drinking prior to driving.  While not illegal to do so, based solely on the BAC level, any alcohol can slow response times to challenges in operating a vehicle and lead to injury or death.  Thus all of us should rely upon someone not drinking to drive or wait until the alcohol leaves the system.  Having charges dropped by a prosecutor who finds that a case has been ill-prepared by police, witnesses not available or other decisions based on the information available to a prosecutor does not indicate that the charges are “empty accusations”.  The public relies upon the police, prosecutors and judges to fairly enforce the law and the courts have ruled that the media has the right under the First Amendment to report actions taken by those entrusted with our system of justice.  Since Shawn DelaVergne admits that he was drinking and driving, although under the legal limit, and according to the court records the case was dropped by the Carroll County States Attorney; he should draw the conclusion that he was lucky that he did not cause injury or death to another and that expensive repercussions to his actions were avoided.
The Maryland State Police are extremely competent and well trained; it is up to the decisions of prosecutors as to proceed with a case and does nothing to impugn the validity of the arrest. Anyone who can point to an illegal arrest can provide the proof. As our system of laws allows the readers to have access to all arrests and for the press to report on the actions of our publicly paid law officers, the reader can draw their own conclusions about what all this means. It is a shame that DeLaVergne believes he has been “vilified” by being one of 438 persons listed in the DWIHitParade report of those arrested by the Maryland State Police in April of 2011.  It is also a shame he believes that our readers are “ignorant masses”.  Everyone needs to make good decisions about driving after drinking.)