The Iowa Court of Appeals has rejected the arguments of a man who claimed he had “self-medicated” himself after a motorcycle accident and should not have been convicted of drunk driving. Keith Orvis smashed his motorcycle into a semi in Waterloo on August 30th, 2003. A woman on the back of the cycle was thrown off and suffered a serious head injury. Orvis was convicted of drunk driving, a third offense. Orvis maintained he hadn’t been drunk at the time of the crash, but afterwards as emergency crews worked on his companion he sat on the curb and drank. Orvis argued in his appeal that he wasn’t allowed to show a picture at his trial that showed a bottle of vodka stowed on the back of his bike. Orvis says he carried the vodka so he could medicate himself if he got into an accident. The Court of Appeals has rejected his complaints about his attorney and upheld the conviction. The ruling notes there’s “substantial” evidence to suggest Orvis was an “impaired driver who simply ran straight into the truck without even attempting an evasive maneuver.”
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