It hasn’t been a good year for Billy Gillispie.  The former University of Kentucky Wildcats basketball coach was fired from his head coaching position in March, and then he sued the school for six million dollars for firing him two years into a seven-year contract

Now Gillispie is facing charges of driving under the influence of alcohol — his third drunk-driving arrest in the past 10 years.

Our drunk-driving accident lawyers have seen plenty of people that were injured because of a drunk-driver.  Thanks to organizations like Mothers Against Drunk-Driving (MADD), most people are aware that drunk-drivers are one of the top causes of car accidents.  Unfortunately, people are still arrested for drunk-driving everyday it seems.

Police arrested Gillispie on suspicion of drunk-driving at 2:47 a.m. on Thursday on a highway in Lawrenceburg after dispatchers received complaints of a drunk-driver.  Officer Michael Corley claims to have caught Gillispie going 63 mph in a 45 mph zone and pulled up behind him at a red light.  When the light turned green, Gillispie’s white Mercedes didn’t move for about one or two minutes.  After finally going, Officer Corley pulled Gillispie over in a school parking lot.

According to reports, Gillispie refused sobriety tests when officers smelled alcohol on his breath, and he spent the night in Franklin County jail.

“It was just a routine DUI arrest like the guys do a dozen times a night,” Lawrenceburg Police Chief Tommy Burris said.  “They didn’t even know who he was until he was out of the car.”

This isn’t Billy Gillispie’s first drunk-driving arrest, but it should be noted that he has not yet been convicted of DUI.

Back when he was an assistant coach in 1999, Gillispie was arrested for driving while intoxicated and improper use of a lane in Tulsa, Oklahoma.  He pleaded guilty to reckless driving, and the other two charges were dropped.  In 2003, he was arrested on suspicion of drunk-driving in his first year as head coach of the University of Texas-El Paso.  The charges were eventually dropped due to lack of evidence.

Gillispie might not have it so easy this time.

As DUI accident attorneys, we want to make sure that you know that it doesn’t matter how famous you are; if you drive drunk, you are putting the lives of the other drivers on the road in danger.  As with anyone that consistently gets caught drunk-driving, there is no place on the road for drunk-drivers, and serial drunk-drivers have no regard for the safety of others.  Please, don’t be like them and we can all do our part to prevent drunk driving.

Would you want a wrongful death on your hands all because you didn’t find a designated driver?

Call us now at 1-800-655-6585 or click here for a free consultation with an experienced drunk-driving accident lawyer and find out how we can help you.  We speak English and Spanish, and we look forward to providing smart advice for your case.  No fee if no recovery.

About Michael Pines

Michael Pines is a former insurance company attorney who specializes in car accident injury. While he was an insurance attorney, he learned from behind the scenes on how insurance companies work and how they decided to pay injured people. Now that he works against insurance companies, Michael's inside knowledge has resulted in significant benefits to his clients injured in car accidents.