On Monday, June 22, 2026, former New Orleans City Councilman Jared Brossett was scheduled to appear in court in the city to face charges for his 4th DWI, which occurred during the Memorial Day Weekend. Brossett was found asleep behind the wheel of his car. Officers said it took them 10 minutes to bring him to consciousness and he admitted he had been drinking earlier in the evening. Brossett refused to take a field sobriety test and he was arrested and taken to jail.
One DWI is bad, but people make mistakes. Two DWIs is very bad because a lesson wasn’t learned from the first DWI. In most states, including Louisiana, a 3rd DWI is a felony with mandatory jail time. The question is: why was Jared Brossett not sentenced to prison after his 3rd DWI?
As of the writing of this blog, I have no information about yesterday’s scheduled court appearance by Brossett. No media outlets are reporting any results of the scheduled court appearance.
Obviously, Jared Brossett has several problems. He appears to have no problem drinking and driving and he does not seem to learn any lessons from his 4 DWI arrests. And if Brossett was arrested 4 times for drinking while intoxicated - can you imagine how many times he was drunk behind the wheel without being arrested?
I agree with Louisiana making a 3rd DWI a felony with mandatory jail time, but why was Brossett never sentenced to jail? Did he receive special treatment because he was a former City Councilman? At the time of his 4th DWI, I believe Brossett was working as the Director of Public Affairs at the Downtown Development District. The DDD was quite forgiving to offer Brossett a position after being arrested for DWI 3 times. Did anyone help or influence the case against Brossett?
As I mentioned on my talk show on WWL yesterday, I know a few people who were arrested on DWI charges in recent memory, but every one of them learned their lesson and would no longer get behind the wheel of a car after drinking. There is a point beyond which society should no longer be sympathetic of those arrested on DWI charges and after a 3rd DWI there should be serious consequences so an individual does not commit the offense of drinking and driving a 4th, 5th, or 6th time. When we make mistakes - we are expected to learn from those mistakes and if we fail to learn from those mistakes then action must be taken.
When it comes to drinking and driving - there is simply too much at stake. I have openly talked about my past and how I got behind the wheel after drinking at one club and then driving to another club where I had another drink or two and then driving home. I am so fortunate that I was never arrested and no one was ever hurt or worse. I was one of the lucky ones and you may have been lucky, too.
In the mid-80s, when my generation - and younger - was partying and there were a number of popular clubs in New Orleans and Metairie - we drank and drove before the awareness of drinking and driving became highly publicized. All of us who were fortunate enough to have had nothing happen while drinking and driving should feel so lucky that we would never tempt fate again. That has been my steadfast rule. And today, there are so many options to drinking and driving - Uber, Lyft, and taxis. Even for those who don’t plan to drink very much but end up intoxicated - call ride share and don’t drive.
There’s a lesson to be learned from the public outcry to Jared Brossett’s arrest on a 4th DWI charge. There’s nothing wrong with partying and drinking - the only problem is drinking and driving.
