Former Kentucky Men's basketball head coach Billy Gillispie was having a rather joyous day of playing golf and drinking with a friend. Then he was pulled over by a cop and charged with a DUI.
We get more information for Lexington, Kentucky's LEX 18.com:
Former University of Kentucky basketball coach Billy Gillispie was arrested early Thursday in Anderson County on suspicion of DUI.
Lawrenceburg Police said Gillispie was pulled over in a white 2009 Mercedes with Texas tags around 2:45 a.m. on US 127 after someone reported seeing the car driving erratically. Gillispie was arrested and charged with DUI.
Police say Gillispie refused to take a breathalizer or blood alcohol test. A passenger in Gillispie's car, 42-year-old Charles O'Connor, was also arrested and charged with alcohol intoxication.
Police say that when they pulled Gillispie over, he told them that he and O'Connor had been golfing. Officers said they smelled a strong odor of alcohol on the former coach.
Gillispie and O'Connor were taken to the Franklin County Detention Center. Gillispie's lawyer, Darrin Winslow, arrived at the jail at abotu 9:15 a.m. to "take him home, back to Louisville."
This is the third time that the former coach of Kentucky has been charged with a DUI or a DWI. He was charged back in 1999 in Oklahoma with a DUI and in 2003, he was charged with suspicion of a DUI when he was coaching UTEP in 2003, those charges were later dropped.
On some level it is to be suspected that a individual who gets caught driving drunk once might repeat the offense again. However, for a former high-profile college basketball coach, you would think that he would be a little more careful.
This might hinder Gillispie's chance at getting another job due to the ramifications that entail from this charge. How can a coach tell a parent that I will take care of your son, when he has three DUI's? How can he discipline a player for under-age drinking when he has tossed back a couple cold ones himself.
In the end, this should be a learning experience for Billy Gillispie, "Fool me one time, shame on you. Fool me three times, shame on you, Billy."
Billy Gillispie's Wild Ride
