Discussion on Irena’s Law And How To Avoid a DWI

One holiday season, two realities: twinkle lights and hayrides on one side, blue lights and court dates on the other. We invited Wilmington attorney Jimmy McGee to bridge that gap with clear, practical advice on DWI stops, sobriety tests, and the choices that keep you and your record safe. What starts with local traditions and community pride quickly shifts to street-level safety, mental health strain downtown, and the legal nuances that matter when a casual dinner meets a roadside flashlight.

We unpack why Wilmington sees so many DWIs—highways that double as main streets, beach traffic year-round, and overlapping patrols from city, county, and highway units. Jimmy explains North Carolina’s key standard: it’s legal to drive after drinking, but illegal to drive while appreciably impaired. He breaks down the stop from the first signal to the last question: pull over safely to the right, have license and registration ready, be polite, and know you don’t have to perform field sobriety tests that often trip up even sober people. We talk probable cause, checkpoints, and how video and officer reports can make or break a case.

Then we zoom out to the details people miss: IPAs and high-ABV beers that add up fast, 14 percent wine poured generously, body weight differences that change breath results, and the messy reality of THC and medications under DRE scrutiny. The theme is consistent—knowledge beats guesswork. We also spotlight the human side of defense work: empathy, clear communication, and treating every case like family. If you’re local to New Hanover, Pender, or Brunswick, Jimmy shares how to reach his Princess Street office and why quick action matters.

Whether you’re planning a party route or prepping a legal playbook, this conversation gives you the tools to make smarter decisions. If you found it helpful, subscribe, share with a friend who needs a ride-or-call reminder, and leave a review so more folks find practical, local guidance when it counts.

Transcript

Welcome, Guest Attorney Jimmy McGee

SPEAKER_00 0:03

When people are released from jail, they have the responsibility to appear in court. But some of these people choose to go on the running to go back on the mobile. And that is when these guys come into the picture. So step back and listen to the Off the Hook podcast with Chad and Rob.

SPEAKER_04 0:25

Very fine people on both sides. On both sides, baby.

SPEAKER_00 0:29

These are real stories, but the names have been changed.

Holiday Traditions And Local Spots

SPEAKER_04 0:35

What's going on, guys? Uh Rob here. I'm Chad, and what's up? Hey, look who we got next to us. Mr. McGee. Mr. Jimmy McGee. He's a really good attorney here in town. Yes, he is. He's our DWI go to. All right. So how's it? Thank you for having us. Oh, absolutely. We love you, man. I'm glad you're be here. All right. So we know it's Christmas time. Merry Christmas, everybody. Because we say Merry Christmas, sir. So, all right. So, one, I called you yesterday and told you about a crazy story I had over the weekend, and you're and you didn't answer, but you called me back, you're like, hey, I'm leaving Mike's farm. Yeah, we're doing the Mike's farm. How was Mike's farm, bro?

SPEAKER_03 1:11

That's really cool. Gets you in the spirit. If you haven't ever been, if you you guys haven't checked it out, it's a good, it's a good uh they've got a real good patriotic hayride at the end of it after you have dinner. There's they have a show, and if you want to go to that, and then some shops and stuff like that, but it's just a good Christmas atmosphere.

SPEAKER_04 1:29

Man, I re I really want to go. I've never been. Yeah. I I keep saying we're gonna go. And it was cold.

SPEAKER_01 1:34

Have you ever been? I my wife and kids have. I missed that trip, but this year we went to Johnson's Nursery, which is a great place off. Where's that at all? In Willard, right off. So you go up 40 and it's you just take the exit to Willard, and it's he's right off the highway. Okay. Great show. Uh, you actually uh throw snowballs at at um elf's and you do a hay ride. Oh, right, man. And they have S'more's Pit, they have beer and wine out there and and food. Uh they do wood up. I can see I can see Jimmy out there giving giving cards out here. It was a great place, uh, and I recommend highly recommend to get it. Willard, okay.

SPEAKER_04 2:13

Man, I we gotta try that, man. I I hell, I'm like behind here. Of course, my kids all grown now. My two boys are grown. And yours is getting just about getting there. And yours gotten big. Last time I was in court for something, and you came in with your boy.

SPEAKER_01 2:28

Mine are 10 and 7, fifth and first grade, uh, but they're really into the spirit. We have an elf uh this morning. We woke up and they went to find the elf, and he had his arms through a piece of toast, and it says it's cold outside, but it's toasty in here. Well, who came up with that one? I tell you. So there's some good stuff out there. Uh, we have fun at Christmas time.

Australia Shooting And Gun Policy Debate

SPEAKER_04 2:53

Cool, cool. All right, so let's get into let's get into some top news here. So uh I'm gonna start off by the Australia shooting. Oh, yeah, yeah. The Australian shooting. Okay, so this is crazy, and it's it's horrible. Nobody wants to see it happen. I think everybody's seen the video of the guy like jumping on the guy that has the rifle. Yeah, and then and then on top of it, I saw this morning, oops, sorry. I don't know who that is. Oh no. Um, I'll call you back later. All right, so all right, um, so I was reading this morning where Australia came out and said, Hey, we're going to have trick or stricter gun laws than you already have. Then you already have. And I was like, hold on. You already banned guns in Australia.

SPEAKER_03 3:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 3:42

How are you gonna make anything more stricter? I I don't understand.

SPEAKER_03 3:45

Yeah, I mean our our our buddy down the street here, our Australian friend, he comes down and he talks about his uh his mates back home, and they he says they uh they they have to bury their guns. Yeah, they'll put them in tubes or something and bury them underground, and that's how they conceal it.

SPEAKER_04 4:00

Well, it's unfortunate. And and I believe that the Islamic terror stuff, I it's just it's just coming coming to light now. And it's it's horrible. People are dying, like you can't, you know, can't figure this out, man.

SPEAKER_03 4:13

So that was all over a Jewish thing, right? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:16

It's horrible. Well, I I had a professor in in law school that would always say guns don't kill people. People killed people kill people. And he would say that I I heard it once a month, you know. And and uh it it is true. I think uh you it doesn't matter what the laws are, if you have somebody that has mental health issues, uh there can be problems. Yes, right.

SPEAKER_04 4:39

Mental health is one of the biggest issues, is the biggest issue in America now. England doesn't have guns, but they'll kill you with a knife. Right, in a heartbeat. And there was another one you brought up, uh, another shooting you brought up to me. Oh, Brown University. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:52

What the hell?

SPEAKER_04 4:53

Yeah.

Mental Health, Street Safety, And Policing

SPEAKER_01 4:54

I did a comparative law class out in Scotland. I w I went and we did criminal law, and they had more violent uh robberies, things like that with knives. And I think one of the issues that you probably had were people think if a guy has a knife, I can maybe defend myself and I can they're not gonna get my wallet, but it some of the crimes were just really vicious. People were attacked and uh, you know, stabbings, and and they had a lot of problems with that. Um, but I don't know what the solution is. I think more money at mental health probably is what my but what I would agree with.

SPEAKER_04 5:32

Right.

SPEAKER_01 5:32

And you know, that's the problem with Wilmington. We we've got a lot of people walking around here, and we don't we we do not have the facilities out there for them, and you know, we're just feeding them, but not taking care of them as far as there's there's one guy here, he's out here screaming.

SPEAKER_04 5:48

Yeah. Well, I mean, he ain't bothered nobody, but he screamed like he was screaming the other day, but he's always out there reading the Bible. Which I it then again, I'm like, all right, so it's not a bad thing he's doing that, but he's is kind of being he'll stay there for hours and hours and get loud.

SPEAKER_03 6:04

We have one lady that sleeps in the uh as you come into our office off to the side here. Yeah, she wasn't there this morning, but it might it was really cold last night.

SPEAKER_01 6:13

Yeah, really feel for them. That's one thing I was thinking about when I was driving downtown today is you know, where are some of these folks that that are regulars we see on the street every day down here downtown each week, and uh really feel for them. And I hope uh that there's some help this way, uh, you know, coming soon, hopefully.

SPEAKER_03 6:32

Yeah. Well you one second, Jimmy. You have mentioned something about uh, you know, knives and um isn't in in North Carolina at least the equal force if someone pulls a knife on you. Stand your ground. You have you have the right to pull a gun if they pull a knife on you?

Stand Your Ground And Local Legal Team

SPEAKER_01 6:47

I'm not totally correct on that, but that would, you know, I do more drive and lawn pair. That would be a Josh question. Josh in my office handles more of the young, he's a young guy. Josh is great. He's got he's gung-ho, he's winning cases out there, and he really cares about uh people, and he is doing a lot of our failing stuff, our drug stuff, and uh all the like the assaults this time of year. Uh a lot of people spend a lot of time with each other, and you have domestic boyfriend, girlfriend, or husband, wife, whatever. And we get a phone call.

SPEAKER_04 7:26

We gotta have Josh, we're gonna have Josh on the phone. Yeah, he's a great guy. I like him. Okay, he's new. Like he's called me and go, hey man, what can you do? What can I? I'm like, and and I'll help him. You know, I'll tell him, well, hey, this is what I can do, or hey, it it's not gonna be worth it, you know. Hey, I'm trying to help, you know, the office out as much as possible.

SPEAKER_03 7:45

Right.

SPEAKER_01 7:46

And man, I I love having that working relationship with him. No, no, no. And then thank you guys. Anything he can learn, but he really, he, he really is is doing a great job. Uh and the clients like him because they know he cares. He he puts himself in a position as if he's charged with the crime. I've always taught him that. And that's what I've always tried to do. It's take it like it was my case or my mom's case, dad's case, you know. What are you gonna do? You're not gonna leave them hanging, you're gonna do the best you can for them. That's what you need to do.

SPEAKER_02 8:18

There you go.

Venezuela, Sanctions, And Coast Guard Ops

SPEAKER_04 8:18

Well, all right, so we'll we're gonna come back to Josh in your office. But so the second thing I wanted to bring up was Venezuela. I've been talking about this every week. I've had to. Okay. All right, so I've been I've been like I've been studying hard. I dude, this is like, I don't know why it's grabbed my attention, but it's interesting to me because you just see how governments work and how the world's going right now, you know. So, you know, of course we've been down there, standoff with Maduro. Hold on. So, did you know that there was a presidential election in Venezuela before we got down there?

SPEAKER_01 8:56

I did not know that.

SPEAKER_04 8:57

And the woman that ran won, legitimately won the presidency, right? Well, Maduro said, no, I'm not stepping down. This is my government. A dictator, right? Hey, all you damn Trump haters out there, this is what a dictator is. Okay. So he doesn't step down, and she's afraid for her life. So the US goes into Venezuela, gets her, sneaks her out through 10, this is what this is what's been reported, through 10 security, military security checkpoints. How do you get her through 10 unless the people there, the military is helping us? So I I think the people there do not want him, majority of. And everything you're seeing, him dancing on TV and and saying, no war, no war, no war, whatever. I think it's all bullshit. It's all it's all free.

SPEAKER_01 9:54

Well, I think you you you see some things. I've traveled a lot to Central America. One of my hobbies was surfing, and over the years I've always gone, and and I really like the people down in Central America. And one of my friends, he he was a retired lawyer, uh, and he retired down in in Panama, but we go to his place in Panama. They had John F. Kennedy Elementary School down. And the people loved Americans because Noriega, when he was in power, would send the soldiers, and the soldiers could just come into your house, do whatever they wanted, and come over there, and they were messing with people's wives, everything. It was really a bad situation. When the U.S. helped out, Panama got rid of Noriega, who was a drug dictator. Drugs were, you know, uh, he was running drugs and other things there. And uh, I think there is a similar situation that that we're kind of finding out about, and it's coming to light. And I hope we do get the, you know, get more just.

SPEAKER_04 10:55

You we you know we seized the oil tanker off their coast that that that was leaving Venezuela, right? So it was going to Iran, selling Iran-sanctioned oil. Now, the oil in Venezuela is different than the oil in Iran. The oil in Venezuela, Central America, is thicker. So it's used to make diesel fuel. What fuels everybody's military? Diesel fuel. So of course, they sent oh dude. So I'm kind of like, I was I was I like this part, but when how they seized it, as they used like the the Coast Guard special forces, because Robbie's going into the Coast Guard. So I was like, oh, this is cool, you know, and I had to show them because I was like, hey man, you're you're going into this, so this is cool. So they took, they're the ones who took the tanker over. Wow. And it was going to Iran. Now, Russia has also tried to send cargo ships into Venezuela to bring supplies to them, and they have been turned around multiple times. So they're they're cutting the lifeline off to Venezuela.

Liberal Meltdown Clip And Pop Culture Bits

SPEAKER_01 11:58

I've seen a lot of pictures in the intercoastal that people are posting on Facebook of some of these more amphibious boats I didn't know we had. And I think a lot of that, their training and all that for an exercise possibly in Venezuela, but that we have created a bunch of equipment that we've never seen. Yeah. And us being near Camp Lejeune and all that, I think, you know, it's uh uh we're gonna see a lot of neat things come to light as far as equipment that the US has. Uh and uh it'll be interesting to see.

SPEAKER_04 12:33

I do know that uh Camp Meg just got like a$50 million upgrade to their to the that's where boot camp is for the Coast Guard. So when Robbie goes to it in another year and a half, he's gonna go through the new the new part of it, which is gonna be cool. I it's gonna be interesting. So all right. So next on the list of things is our uh liberal meltdown of the week segment. All right, here we go. So I did it a couple weeks ago, I did this uh this meltdown here, and it was done to some music. Well, this is another this is another part of the video where it does music. Alright, so ready? I'm gonna start this thing off here. I don't like it.

Sponsor Shoutout: NCBAA

SPEAKER_03 14:29

I'm about to buy it, by the way. Dog and heavy metal spring though. Like that's that's awesome for the right.

SPEAKER_04 15:15

Wow. He is he is a perfect.

Meet McGee Law: Roots And Focus

SPEAKER_03 15:27

Oh god. Man, it is speaking of that, Rob Reiner's in the news. Oh yeah. Bad time too. All right.

SPEAKER_04 15:41

All right, guys. Oh, that was good. That was awesome. Okay. All right. It is a little loud in our phone. But it's funny as hell, though. Uh, but yeah, yeah. Did you yeah, Rob Reiner died, and uh Dick Van Dyke just turned a hundred years old. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:59

He passed away. No, he's still King Van Dyke. He's out in his yard doing yoga. I thought I just read an article about how he he he sings and dances along with his wife, and he he always there's a positive guy right there. Yeah, I like him. He's got a positive uh guy. I like his um he's always been a positive guy.

SPEAKER_03 16:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:19

Good for America. Uh, but uh I'm glad. Uh happy birthday, Dick Van Dyke. I watched a lot of his stuff.

SPEAKER_04 16:26

So before we introduce you and you learn a lot about Mr. Mr. McGee here, we gotta get into it real quick to our sponsor, the NCBAA.

SPEAKER_03 16:35

Thank you guys at the NCBAA for supporting us and what you do for the Bell Agents Across North Carolina.

SPEAKER_04 16:41

Absolutely. I talked to Chris uh not Christie. I talked to Julia uh Henderson. Yeah, yeah. I talked to her uh a few days ago. And they're uh they're about to set in stone the conference where it's gonna be at um here very soon. So right now it looks it looks like it's gonna be here, so it's gonna be awesome.

SPEAKER_03 17:01

All right, and uh maybe we'll pop up and do another podcast.

Why Wilmington Sees So Many DWIs

SPEAKER_04 17:04

Oh yeah, we d don't wear where we are and the band's plan, so that's gonna be fun. Uh uh, it's like a country at the beach type theme, I think. So it's gonna be awesome. I can't wait to see it. All right, so Mr. McGee here owns McGee Law Firm. And how long you like how'd you start? Where'd you go to school at and all that good stuff? You you you take us down that path.

SPEAKER_01 17:28

I went to UNCW, uh Go Seahawks, 10 and 1 basketball. Uh you go out to the uh games, we need your support, especially during the holidays. The students go home, but they uh that we seem to pack it, you know, even during the holidays, during Thanksgiving. Big support of the Seahawks, so um go hauls. Uh saying you'll see me, my wife and kids. Uh, we we always go to the games and and give support. I know UNCW uh supports a lot of stuff in the community. A lot of the stuff I think I saw them out at Jimmy's bike drive and all that. He he does a good thing there. I saw that. And um, but yeah, UNCW. Um I went there for undergrad. Uh I was a marketing major there. Then I went, decided I want to uh stay in Wilmington, I wanted to help people, and and uh I went to Campbell University, uh, the Camels, which we're in the CAA too, uh, so I don't lose when we play each other. But um, anyways, I went to Campbell Law School and I always wanted to uh start my own law firm and that's what I wanted to do, and and I did that, I want to say, in 2001 and been doing it ever since, and uh trying to help people and really have focused a lot on driving while impaired cases because we are a place that is uh we have a college here and we have a lot of people that come on vacation. I try to keep them off of probation. Uh one thing I always do. That was our little thing. And uh, you know, we got a lot of young professionals and stuff, and and I have uh always loved Wilmington and the beach. I've been at Reichsel Beach for my majority of my life.

What To Do During A DWI Stop

SPEAKER_04 19:09

Is it true that Wilmington is the number one hotspot in North Carolina for DWIs?

SPEAKER_01 19:14

I would say we are probably the number one. If you did the numbers and for population, we would be the the bigger riders here. Uh you you state highway patrol is very active here because if you kind of think about it in schema things, Market Street is uh 117. And then the highway trooper, the troopers, the highway patrol, they they patrol that, and you know, they may investigate a speeding or an accident, and they smell alcohol, and then and then the discussion gets out there, and uh and possibly they have a DWI arrest. Then you have uh they also work college, uh College Road is Highway 40, and that's a highway that goes you know to Carolina Beach. And then you have 7476 that goes through Wrightsville Beach. So you will see a lot of lot more patrol in Wilmington because you got the highway patrol uh that is that is active there, and then you have the city beach, the city um uh beach patrols at Carolina Beach and Wrightsville Beach. And and then you then you also have the the county that that also goes to the beaches and they help work a lot of um we do a lot of cases at the beaches where people are underage drinking or what have you and and uh or a fight at the bars and and they will a lot of times have the county patrolling rights of beach to help out at night late with with issues there that they have and crowd control because the beach only has so many um police officers and they have to kind of go, you know, do the roads at night and all that, because we get a lot of visitors every every summer at the beach. So every little place becomes a big place in the in the summertime.

SPEAKER_04 21:01

Explain to us after all right, so explain to us. I I'm gonna do it like a two-part thing here the how the step is from going from a DW uh when you get if you you get stopped. And then what you should do, what you should do during the stop uh what to tell the audience.

SPEAKER_01 21:22

Well, it here's what's different about a driving while impaired case. It is legal in North Carolina for you to go have a drink at a wedding or dinner or what have you, or a friend's house, and then drive down the road. But it is not legal if you are appreciably impaired your mental or physical faculties. Okay. Uh appreciable is this word that the the laws come up with and it means recognizable.

SPEAKER_02 21:48

Right.

Field Sobriety Tests: Rights And Risks

SPEAKER_01 21:48

Okay. And and so they're not looking at you falling out of the car, but they're looking at have have you lost the normal function of your mental or physical faculties. And that's what that's what they're so these tests that a lot of times, and that we'll get into that, that the tests are trying to show the officer's trying to say, hey, look, this at normal, this is what he's doing here. I've got these certain clues. I have probable calls or a fair probability he could have committed the crime of driving while impaired. The first thing when somebody comes to my office or are they, and I always recommend get somebody who knows what they're doing doing this, that that has done has the experience that's gonna talk to you. Have you come in? We I like to have them come in if they're local. Uh and uh one of the things is we got to find out what is the story, what happened. Uh, the good thing out there now is there are police videos, there are drive and while impaired reports that are are written by these police officers. And that's the one thing that we're gonna try to get and kind of try to figure out what happened. Uh the one thing with the DWI that for the officer to pull you over or investigate something, they have to have reasonable suspicion that you have violated a trap a chapter 20 offense. So if your registration's out and you haven't got it fixed in a couple months and you've gone out there having a couple beers, you get pulled out. They can pull you over for that. That's okay. All right. Uh you haven't paid your insurance. These police officers nowadays they have software that can run your tag and they can find, oh, he's revoked or what have you, and then pull you over. So, you know, so that's one thing, you know, they just have to have reasonable suspicion. We're not a probable call state where reasonable suspicion, which is just a little more than a hunch, that you've done something that has broken a traffic law. Once they do have you pulled over, one thing that officers are always looking for in a DWI is how quickly do you stop for them? Do you go a mile down the road? Do you pull over in a reasonable fashion? If you're getting pulled over by a police officer and had something to drink, pull over the right hand side. Don't go and do change two lanes, go over the left hand side, stay in the middle of the road. They're looking like, oh, he stayed in the turn lane. He could have just gone into the Scotchman over there and gotten everybody off the road and had an encounter, right? First thing they're gonna do, they're gonna come up, they're gonna ask you for your driver's license. I always say first divide attention test if they do ask for driver's license and your registration is it that's they're asking for two things held in two different positions. You want to get that down and right because you fumble your driver's license or something, then the conversation starts. Hey, you know, keep I want to get you out of the car or what have you, and start asking about things. Right. They're always gonna ask you, you know, I smell alcohol, and and you know, you've been drinking. That's where it gets a little iffy. There's no good answer to, you know, uh, have I been drinking or not, right? Um but it is legal to have something. You could say, yes, I yes, I I did, but am I free to leave? I think that would be a good question. I haven't done anything wrong. Am I free to leave?

SPEAKER_04 25:09

Yeah, I went through a roadblock one time and a guy, it was State Highway Patrol, not too long ago, a couple years ago. And uh he goes, Hey, hey sir, I already had my stuff ready. And I hadn't been drinking. Yeah, but uh, they were looking for it because it was a little, it was getting a little bit late. And I handed him my stuff, he goes, he goes, Where are you coming from? I'm like, the jail. And he goes, What for? I said, I'm a Bosman. He goes, Where are you going? I said, home. He goes, Where's home? I was like, on that driver's license that says right there. That's on Swan Blade, right around right around the corner. That's where I'm going. And he was like, All right, have a good night. He was like, but he was like, he was not nice.

SPEAKER_01 25:47

Well, and you know, the majority of our our folks here, I will say, I've got we have great law enforcement around here. They're good to work with. Uh, you know, you're always you've got a lot of officers. You're always gonna have, unfortunately, you could have one bad egg, but if you're hiring, you know, 800 people to be on the sheriff's department, I mean, they do their best to get all good people. That's what they do.

SPEAKER_03 26:09

Also, how you know how many people have been smart asses to them, you know, over the period of time that they've had to deal with? Same thing with the jail.

Checkpoints, Probable Cause, And Strategy

SPEAKER_01 26:16

It's like, you know, and Rob can be a smart ass. There may be a little more to that. No, I know. No, but I mean, you know, one thing, and we were talking about uh police officers being able to to actually come and have an encounter with you. One one thing that was around that I had a ton of before, which we don't really have anymore, is checkpoints. There aren't a lot of checkpoints. There's not the booze it and lose it bus, I think, was up in Jacksonville, and my friend, he used to run that. And I think uh he quit with them, and and I think they're looking for somebody to run that. I think they had to jump the jump the battery on it, hadn't been used and so on. But you know, that that's one thing that should probably be out there uh sometimes because you want your family safe and all that. It's the holidays. But but you do, you know, it but that's um that's one thing that that if you have a valid checkpoint, that is one way that the police can encounter an individual and they've done nothing wrong. Right. Okay. I like those cases because I always thought they need to show a little more to have probable cause to rest somebody. And that's the second kind of part of a DWI. You always talk about can they pull you over? Then you kind of talk about do they have, does that officer have probable cause to arrest yet? And and you know, they're gonna ask you the questions. I you you do not have to do those tests. I think you'd be crazy to give them some kind of evidence by doing the one-leg stand or the walk and turn test or the eye test. I mean, I've given them a million times in my office. I put my foot down, give them the instructions. I think I have pretty good balance and and I've I've messed up. And they're looking for these nitpicky things because they're really getting you in an awkward position. I think I know what Chad's about that that that set you up to fail.

SPEAKER_03 28:14

You know, it's something it just it's just something that struck me while you were saying that. I remember um Wild Bill. Bill Paragoi. Bill Paragoy.

SPEAKER_04 28:23

Did you know he's you you know he's back in he's working for the uh DA's.

SPEAKER_01 28:28

Yeah. In Lumberton. No, no, he's uh PD's office. He's doing um death penalty cases.

SPEAKER_04 28:32

Yeah, in Lumberton.

SPEAKER_03 28:34

Oh, really? He's busy. Well, I remember a long time ago, he he talked about uh DWIs and he said that that whole set that whole thing they have you go through, those are not normal movements of the human body.

SPEAKER_01 28:46

No.

SPEAKER_03 28:47

So that was kind of like his spiel to show that you're asking me to do something that my body's not naturally doing.

Alcohol Percentages, Wine, IPAs, And THC

SPEAKER_01 28:54

Well, a good example would be they have you do the walk and turn. You have to have your arms by your side, your right foot in front of your left foot, and you get in this and this instruction stage, and then you're to do heel to toe for nine steps. Do this turn that's different, like keeping your foot on a little set set of small steps and you return. However, the if the let's talk about the guy who walked across the Grand Canyon. Remember that guy, he had the elk skin boots, he was not going heel to toe. He had a uh pole or some kind of stick out there with his arms like this, you know, so he could balance and walk across it. He wasn't going heel to toe with his arms outside. If he would have done that, he would have fallen to his death. Right. So that that is one thing they put you on that. In 80, 1981, in California, uh a psychologist, Margaret Burns, came up with these tests. I mean, you know, I come from a background my granddad grew up Mount Olive, and then he went, you know, he had uh he went to uh med school and Carolina didn't even have a med school, and he would die if he heard. You do these tests, and we can determine if you got mental or physical faculties. I mean, this it really doesn't make sense. Uh, you know, you've got people that are uh doing holding their leg up for 30 seconds with their arms by their side, blue lights are going on, all that. You got we're in Wilmington, it's blowing, it's raining, and whatever, it's hot, whatever. You're in, or better yet, you're in Wilmington or one of the beach communities, you're in flip-flops, you know, 85% of the year, you know, or I am when I'm not in the suit. Right. So, you know, you're and you're doing the test in flip-flops, or you're going barefoot. Yeah, but you know, there's people that are, you know, that could be overweight or knee problems or things like that, or we're in an we're in an older community now, and you've got somebody that's 70. I mean, the the DWIs that I have are not just 21-year-olds. I have from 81 years old to 16 that are charged with DWI. I don't just represent a bunch of college kids. I the majority of my kid of my clients would probably be in that 30 to 50 range, to be honest with you. So, so a lot of it uh there you people wouldn't realize. Um, but getting back to the test, you don't have to do them. You know, they're not gonna ask you like, hey, Chad, by the way, do you got any knee ankle problem? There's one little thing. Do you think you'll be able to do it? You got a back or knee problem? It's a real quick question. You know, can you do the test?

SPEAKER_02 31:37

Right.

SPEAKER_01 31:37

Well, I think I can, you know, but the biggie is if you, you know, hey, look, my knees are shot, my ankle's shot. I just ran 10 miles or I just did, you know, went and did leg lifts over there or whatever exercise somebody may have done or did CrossFit, and you know, I can't do the test. You know, I said, Am I free to leave? I don't think I've done anything wrong. And it be polite and cooperative. I mean, that's that's the biggest thing. There you go. You see the videos and respect people give, and you watch the video on the liberal thing. I mean, people people need to have respect for people.

SPEAKER_04 32:12

I mean, people that's that's the problem nowadays. Nobody has that no more.

SPEAKER_03 32:16

Yeah, there's so much, there's so much um social media posts about people. I just saw some lady had a had a card. I guess she had it pre-written because she was kind of out of problems. She's just stuck it on her glass, you know, as directions for the police officer.

SPEAKER_01 32:29

There's a way, there's a way to handle that. You you you don't do that. These guys are doing their job. They're uh, you know, they they work hard, they they save a lot of lives, and they're asking questions. You don't you do not have to give evidence uh uh against yourself. And you know, that's one thing you can say, look, I I don't feel comfortable doing the test, or I I, you know, I I I would like to have an attorney there. They say you can't have an attorney there and just say, look, I I would have rather had an attorney or or maybe my husband or wife or girlfriend or friend see this hap happening, you know, and and and and go on with it there. That gives me something to work with. Once you start doing the welcome turn and one leg stand, and then we watch the video and we're like, man, you know, how am I going to defend that? That that becomes a lot harder because they're looking for two or more clues on these tests that I could give both of you guys here today, and and you could, you know, you I could definitely point out possible enough clues that you could be over an 08, and that doesn't make sense because you guys haven't drinked it.

SPEAKER_04 33:35

Man, I do I don't play around in this town like, oh, if like me and Heather go out for dinner or something, I might have like one or two beers, and that is it with dinner. Because I'm dude, I I'm literally petrified of getting one because I know because we do it, we get them people out all the time, and it you know, people make mistakes, okay? It sucks. And then and then I see them come to you, and then like with all the money that's they have to spend to to get it done, it's like the insurance, it just ain't worth it, man. So please take a$20 or$30 Uber ride home. It's not that hard. And I think uh Jimmy would agree with you too, because I mean he don't want to be, you know, but it happens.

SPEAKER_01 34:18

One thing I think that the world is not where we keep talking about educating people and help is not they're not educated about what's out there. I mean, uh when when Chad and I were probably drinking uh when they came up with the ice house, oh my, there's an ice house. The ice house is probably like a 5.2 or something. It'd be Mickey Mouse and the in the whatever level, you know, whatever percentage or whatever. Nowadays, you got you know all these IPAs that power seven point something. I mean, they have 10 point something. Yeah, and people don't, they're like, Man, I just had like, you know, four tropical lightnets or something.

SPEAKER_04 35:01

I'm like, wow, that's you know what? That tropical lightnight, it tastes like a really bad sauce. What do you think of it?

Client Care, Community, And Success Stories

SPEAKER_01 35:06

No, good, but that guy, his kid goes to our school, baby. I don't like it. I think it's a good beer. He's got it, you maybe need turtle, turtle time. They got a slower, lower octane, probably a little, you know, less, you know, that taste. But but you know, one thing that it's not just beer. Yeah, what about the well? What do you think of those? That's a issue too, but you you had wine. So a lot of folks, the wine craze was out there and they're like, I just had like three glasses of wine. Well, wine's 14%. I mean, that's like you had a six-pack, you know? And oh, and by the way, you have a female that says I weigh 100 and you know, 110 pounds. I make you're three touchdowns down by the time you play down that breathaliser. You know what I mean? Right? It's not like me at 200 pounds blowing in there and had that, had that, you know. So a lot of that is uh the education out there. You they see that NHTA commercial that's out there where the guy gets pulled over and he rolls his window down, and it looks like he consumed all of Jimmy's down at Rightswell Beach. You know what I mean? It looks like he, you know, the the whole keg comes out of the car. It's not. There are all these percentages that you have out there in which you can drink. And then you go to the THC stuff. What they have out there now is you have different uh officers and the different agencies, they'll send somebody to be a drug recognition uh evaluator. Like, DRE. He goes for, he'll first have to go to A-Rive for a weekend, then he goes to school for a week, and he is like trying to figure out what you were on, and they do this test and they check in the dark light and all that, and they check your pupils and all this stuff. We are in that age where I worry more about what do people say? You know, you you told this guy you took a benzo or something like that. That you're telling him you're breaking the law. You're telling him you took a, you know, some kind of Xanax or something like that. Uh we we do have a law where if you had any any uh opiates in your in your blood that that that's per se enough for guilty of DWI, right? You know, so that that's an issue. But you know, you you're talking about THC and some of these other things. The tests were really out there, these walk and turn one-leg stand and everything, to try to find somebody that's under the influence of alcohol. They've come up with some things trying to say somebody's under the influence of marijuana or other things. I think that's the harder thing to prove. I think marijuana, because well, if they got a big old bag of Chick-fil-A in their car. I mean, there they a lot of times the blood test would just say marijuana or whatever. And then I remember when John Carroll would say, well, the federal, and he was a judge that that passed away as a good friend of mine, would be, you know, I think the federal law, he he was federal judge and prosecutor over there, was like 14 nanograms or something. That was the standard they were trying to say if somebody was impaired by by marijuana.

SPEAKER_04 38:12

Uh yeah, but what about you know you got these people who smoke literally every day like when at their home.

Contact Info, Holiday Safety, And Closing CTA

SPEAKER_01 38:18

So, you know, that's where you look at appreciable impairment. You've got the argument, like you said, is cheech and chong. You know who you got, right? Or you know, Snoop Dogg. I don't think he's appreciably impaired, you know, right? Right. He uh he wakes up every day, you know what I mean? And that's the biggie too. And when did you take it? What'd you take? You know, did you eat today? I mean, I don't know. I mean, it it's um uh it those cases are all interesting. That's something I'm learning more and more about that I that I like to kind of hear about and and study. And you know, I'm always about trying to defend my client the best, and you know, learn a lot, you know, you learn a lot of stuff that I never thought it would.

SPEAKER_04 39:00

But I tell you what, I I know Chad and myself, I can speak for both of us, that we have both learned a lot from from you over the years. And uh so tell everybody at home and who's watching how they can get up with you, where you're at and all that.

SPEAKER_01 39:17

We are on Princess Street. Uh we're at 218 Princess Street, and we're you could hit a sandwich to the to the courthouse. We're not very far away from the courthouse. Uh we're right across from Truist Bank. Uh we we'd love to have you come by and see us. We just renovated our office uh and uh put friendly staff. Sometimes my dog's uh there too, so uh you can pet the dog. But uh we're at 218 Princess Street in Wilmington, and we service New Hanover, Pinder, and Brunswick counties.

SPEAKER_02 39:50

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 39:50

And we uh we do traffic, we do DWI and all criminal offenses, uh and and we and we do some personal injury stuff too. That's good to know because we deal a lot with all the police officers here in town.

SPEAKER_04 40:04

But Josh, uh Josh, you got working in your office, is a great guy. I've you know, I've worked with him a few times, and he's he's young, smart, he he's he's gung-ho. So you've got a good thing right there.

SPEAKER_01 40:15

Well we are we always try to thrive on per you know on customer service. Uh and that's why I kind of waited to hire Josh. I knew Josh would be great with with uh the clients, and and our clients mean a lot to us, and and we uh you know doing this what really brings me joy is uh is sometimes I meet people in the worst time of their life. When they've they've been charged with this, they're embarrassed and stuff. Later when I see somebody out or somebody comes to my office and say, I want to thank you, and I'm doing well, or I learn about their family. This is why I do I do this. This is, you know, it's great to get to know people in this town. It's great to to hear their stories and try to help people. And, you know, we don't throw any stones at them or anything like that. We're here to help you, and uh, we know it can be embarrassing. I mean, George Bush had a DWI, and supposedly Cheney had too. So, you know, anybody could get a DWI. So that's and and we try to make them feel comfortable there. Stuff outside that's right, right?

SPEAKER_04 41:22

We've we've met some really good people uh from you know from DWIs and other charges too, but we have met some really good people that we bonded out, you know.

SPEAKER_03 41:30

Yeah, we always like to hear, you know, a success story that, you know, hey, you something that bad happened, but hey, look at you now.

SPEAKER_01 41:36

You know, and and I wanna I want to point out that you guys are important to me. You guys over the years we've call called you guys to go. Uh Rob's done a lot of investigations for us, uh, where they'll talk to Rob, but they wouldn't talk to me in a in a tie because they're worried maybe I'm gonna sue them or whatever and Scotchman and he's getting video.

SPEAKER_04 41:57

Yeah, I'm like, hey man, you probably want to be careful with that. Like I'm giving him, you know, knowing what he's got to do when he goes to court.

SPEAKER_03 42:06

Right.

SPEAKER_04 42:06

So it's is it's helped out uh has helped out tremendously.

SPEAKER_01 42:10

So sometimes remember Matt Lock had his assistant that was so good. Yeah, well, Rob can be that guy. He's really good. So yeah, it's um and and the other part is these guys, if somebody says, hey, look, my friend has been arrested, he's getting ready to go in front of a magistrate, Chad and Rob are gonna answer my text or call. Uh, and I trust these guys. They're gonna show up at a first appearance, they're gonna take care of you guys. I trust them, and I and you know that that's what what um what I like. Their customer service is always great. I've never had any complaints. And they're the guys I would call if I if I had a family member that needed needed help, and um uh they're great. I appreciate that.

SPEAKER_03 42:55

Thank you, Jimmy. I appreciate that, man. Yeah, we right back at you.

SPEAKER_04 42:58

We try we really strive to be more professional than any other bondsman in in North Carolina for sure.

SPEAKER_03 43:07

I feel like we're always fighting the stereotype. I know we are. That's that's that's what drives me is that I don't like that stereotype. Yeah, like we're just you know, but I know we serve a valuable uh service for what we do.

SPEAKER_01 43:18

Like more chains and like gold rings and stuff like that. Yeah, you know, county money.

SPEAKER_03 43:23

You know, I I hate that, man. No, I'm kidding.

SPEAKER_04 43:26

Yeah, but you do a great job. Thanks, man. Thank you for coming on. We've been we've been wanting to get you on for a while, and we finally got you here, and we appreciate you, Jimmy. And look, guys, you at home, you ever get you ever come down here to Wilmington, North Carolina, or Brunswick or Pender, whatever, nearby. You get in trouble, give this guy a call, Jimmy McGee.

SPEAKER_03 43:48

You come down on vacation, you don't necessarily have to leave on probation.

SPEAKER_01 43:51

Not because you gotta get attorney. And it it come by if you've if you've heard this on the podcast or whatever, come by at 218 Prince Street. We have some koozies, our our motto is don't get hammered in court. That's on there, McGee Law Firm. I love it. Give that to your friends, share that with your friends. Be safe this holiday, be safe. Uh have a great holiday. Uh, you know, enjoying the family, but be safe.

SPEAKER_04 44:13

When you go to that Christmas party, whatever you do, don't drive home. Don't do it. Just take that$30,$40 if you've been drinking.

SPEAKER_03 44:22

That's right.

SPEAKER_04 44:22

Yeah, if you've been drinking. I do.

SPEAKER_01 44:25

That's what I do. I override all day long. Be safe out there, and if you need our help, we're there for you. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 44:33

Jimmy, thank you for coming on again. Thanks, Jimmy. I appreciate it. Thank you, buddy.

SPEAKER_01 44:38

Thank you. Thank you.

SPEAKER_04 44:38

All right, guys. If you like what you uh hear, uh you can see us on YouTube. Go and subscribe. And you can see Mr. McGee here and us, our pretty faces. Um yeah, we need all the help you can get, all the support you can get. We appreciate that.

SPEAKER_03 44:53

Ain't that right, Chad? Right on, man. And um, we'll try to drop a uh link to his website on this episode to help him out and to help you out if you need his services. So absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 45:04

Well, until then, I'm Rob. I'm Chad. And this is Jimmy.

SPEAKER_00 45:08

All right, guys. You've been listening to Off the Hook with Chad and Rob. We hope you've enjoyed the show. Make sure to like, rate, and review. And be sure to follow us for notifications for another exciting episode. But in the meantime, you can go to our website at www.offthehookbail.com to see more. So until next time, stay out of trouble, or it'll be you that needs to get off the hook. See you soon!