Phil Spector trial: party like a rock producer
How many drinks does it take to get drunk? That depends, according to defense witness Dr. Robert Alan Middleburg, a toxicologist/criminalist with a list of credits that took 20 minutes to ennumerate Tuesday. Dr. Middleburg had come to the stand to talk about why a urine test is no good for testing how drunk someone might be. (If you want to know, we can explain. Piss tests begone!)
The prosecution decided to throw him a hypothetical about drinking over the course of one night. And looky at the coincidence, the hypothetical mirrored what Spector said he had to drink in a civil deposition (pdf). Some earlier witnesses have filled in pieces of the evening, but this was a complete picture of what it takes to party like a rock producer. Over the course of 6-8 hours, pour into your petite, 135-pound frame:
- 1 daquiri
- 2 navy grogs
- 2 amaretto sours OR daquiris
- 1 shot Bacardi 151
- 1 shot tequila
Doesn't seem too hard. Imagine you had a driver to get you home. Could you keep up?
The actual testimony (in rough transcription) after the jump.
photo by bluhousworker via flickr
Prosecution: Assume for purposes of my question the following facts. Somewhere between 7:30pm-10pm, a person had a daquiri, with a shot of alcohol in it. Assume that that same person consumed 2 navy grogs, each of which contained 3 shtos of alcohol, between 11 and 12. Assume that that same person had 2 more drinks between 12 and 1 (amaretto sours or daquiris), each with one shot. Around 2am this person has a shot of Bacardi 151, and that is 150 proof (instead of the average 80 proof). Would you expect that person around 4 or 5 in the morning to be intoxicated?
Dr. Middleburg: Too hard to say.
Prosecution: Let’s assume that person is male, and weighs 135 pounds or so. And assume that that person ate in the early course of the evening, between 7 and 9. Very simply, around 4 or 5 in the morning, would you expect that person to be intoxicated?
Dr. Middleburg: Can’t answer yes or no. When you talk about a drinking history like that, part of the problem is with the prospective analysis.... We don’t know how fast the drinks were consumed, whether they drank them over 5 minutes or over the course of an hour. You can slip [a drink] slow enough so your body can break it down as you’re drinking it. The rapidity of drinking, how they absorb alcohol, potential pahtological conditions of the individual themselves.... We have to deal with an individual’s metabolic rate – some metabolize slow, some fast. That’s just the analytic, mathematical perspective. Then, in terms of intoxication, how an individual handles the alcohol, what their constitution is, how they handle it, how they respond....
Prosecution: Let’s assume that there’s normal, social drinking going on. Just down to some common sense. (presses the witness) Let’s add tequila at around 3am. Let’s assume an average drinking pattern and let’s assume an average metabolic rate. I’m not asking you to... backward extrapolate.
Dr. Middleburg: Again, you’d have to do the individual experiment with that individual. I can give you an example where that falls flat. I attended a conference where I was aksed to act as an expert, with an actual case where an individual was pulled over for DUI. He passed his field sobriety tests, and was filmed. (Passed twice, but then agreed to take a breathalizer). On the breathlizer, he was .22 to .25 (very high) but he passed his field sobriety tests. It’s often hard to assume how an individual will show inebration....
Prosecution: assume that this person did show signs of inebriation. Given all those parameters, would you say pharmacologically, could they be intoxicated?
Dr. Middleburg: If you combine drinking history with drinking symptoms, the likelihood becomes a little stronger.