Hotel Guest at the birth place of Bill Wilson arrested Christmas Eve 2012 for DUI at 378 Village Street, East Dorset, VT 05253

Driver facing DUI charge at AA founder's home claims wife at wheel

December 28, 2012
By Laurel J. Sweet

A Marlboro man 
accused of driving drunk onto the lawn of the historic home where the late co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous was born 
insists he was sober — and that he wasn’t even driving when his wife took a wrong turn on Christmas Eve.

Donald Blood III, 55, is due to be arraigned Jan. 14 at Bennington District Court in Bennington, Vt., on a charge of driving 
under the influence of alcohol. But Blood, who admits he has struggled to maintain sobriety for years, told the Herald last night not he had not a drop of booze to drink that day, and it was Kathleen Donaghy, his wife of 32 years, who was behind the wheel of their Ford F-150 pickup when they mistook a snow-covered opening in a fence at the Wilson House for the entrance to the historic hotel’s parking lot.

Donaghy, 54, said she only turned in where her GPS told her to, and claims the gaffe got her and her hubby eighty-sixed from the inn.

“They kicked us out,” she said. “I felt like Mary on Christmas Eve saying, ‘What am I supposed to do?’ I said I was sorry. My goodness, you would have thought we were having a whooping time, doing doughnuts. If I wanted to spend Christmas there, why would I be disrespectful to their property?”

Vermont State Police said in a press release they went to the inn in East Dorset, Vt., shortly before 7:30 p.m. Monday to investigate a “suspicious incident. Upon arrival the police learned Donald Blood had driven his vehicle on the front yard of the establishment, thinking it was a parking lot.”

Blood was arrested, cited and released. Troopers did not say why they thought Blood was intoxicated.

Blood, on long-term disability for an arthritic hip replacement, said he 
refused a Breathalyzer and plans to fight the drunken-driving rap. “I don’t know how they can prove anything,” he said.

“I’ve been a member of AA about 18 years,” Blood said. “I was going up there with my wife. I said, ‘Why don’t you go in and see where we can park and I’ll get our things out of the truck.’ All of a sudden this guy came out screaming and yelling about us parking on the lawn.”

A spokesman for Wilson
House, the birthplace of Alcoholics Anonymous 
co-founder Bill Wilson, where AA meetings are still held weekly, declined to comment yesterday.

Source:http://bostonherald.com/news_opinion/local_coverage/2012/12/driver_facing_...

Of course as an example of how AA divides families, here is a response by someone claiming to be his daughter.... I have to wonder if Al-Anon was involved in this outburst.

This is a bunch of lies. The man that drove on the lawn is my father. My Mother in my 28 years of being alive has never driven my Dads truck. The only reason she is claiming she was driving is because my Dad has prior DUIs and does not have a license. However he drives all of the time. My Dad is not on long-term disability for an arthritic hip replacement, He has been hospitalized dozens of times over the past 10 years and all of his illnesses and ailments from the alcoholism. My Mom claimed “we wanted to be there on Christmas” that is only because they have two Daughters and two Grandsons that they don’t have a relationship with because they have chosen alcohol over their family time and time again. The last time I saw my parents was when they visited two weeks after I had my 18 month old son, I asked them to leave my house for being drunk in front of my children and I had to threaten to call the police because they were refusing to leave. My father also has not been “a member of AA about 18 years” he was kicked out of my parents’ house in 2004 by my Mom for his alcoholism and was sober for a few years that’s when he was a member of AA, we found out he started drinking again a few years ago when he got a DUI in New Hampshire. I am writing because I have no doubt my father was drinking and driving that night. My mother is not a credible witness as she is an alcoholic and a pathological liar and that this whole fabrication was made up by her as their attempt to save face. They are very lost people who keep making excuses for their problem, and even this incident wasn’t rock bottom for them. It’s very sad and I am extremely worried because if he gets away with this incident, I am certain that he will eventually kill somebody with his drinking and driving.

Please read the rest of the comments.....