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Sunday, May 5, 2002
Life Sentences: PHIL GRIEGO, 53, Convicted Twice of DWI
By Leslie Linthicum
Journal Staff Writer
San Jose
Phil Griego's days went like this: Up in the morning, bleary-eyed and regretful. An argument with his wife and a 45-mile drive from his home in San Jose into Santa Fe. An hour or two behind the desk at the title company he owns, then lunch at 11 a.m. at one of his favorite bars — the Bull Ring, the Palace Bar or Tiny's.
He would start with beer. After six or seven, he would switch to Crown Royal and Diet Coke and drink 10 or more of those. At 6 or 7 p.m., he would drive the 45 miles back to San Jose — drunk, every time. "I'd have a couple more drinks at home, and I'd get up in the middle of the night and have another one."
Everybody knew that Griego, a successful businessman and a longtime state senator, was an alcoholic. Except him.
After his truck slipped into an acequia early one February morning in 2000, Griego was charged with DWI. He fought the charge, saying someone else was driving. He was convicted and served no time in jail.
And he continued to drink. A year later, Griego was swerving on Interstate 25 when he was stopped and arrested.
Griego isn't sure what happened over the next 48 hours, but it has led to a new life.
He remembers his daughter bailing him out of jail and driving him home in stony silence. When Griego got home, he asked his wife, Janey, "What am I gonna do now?"
"You're just going to have to deal with it," she said.
The next day his daughter sent over a friend, a recovering alcoholic and a born-again Christian.
Something clicked during their meeting, and Griego finally admitted he was not in control of his drinking. Instead of going to the bar that day, he went home. The next day he drove to Good Friday services in Albuquerque and raised his hand when the preacher asked if anyone was ready to be saved.
It has been a year since Griego accepted the DWI charge, spent three days in jail and agreed to installation in his truck of a device that locks the ignition if it detects alcohol on his breath.
"That barking dog is always going to be there," Griego says. But he attends Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and has not had a drink since his arrest. He has lost 54 pounds, his diabetes is under control, and he is in the office every afternoon and loving it.
"To come home in the evening and talk to my wife, not argue. To ride my horse in the mountains and remember it. Today is a whole new world. My life is too good right now."
"There were times when I'd black out, and I'd wake up at home and say, 'Geez, how did I get here?' ''