Sam Hunt Drunk Driving Court Delay is Not a Good Look

Look, we all make mistakes, and Sam Hunt is no criminal, unless the offense is high crimes and misdemeanors perpetrated against the institution of country music. But he did screw up, and big time when he went driving down the wrong side of a principal highway in Nashville early in the morning on November 21st, eventually getting pulled over and blowing a .173, which put him twice over the legal limit. He also got rung up for having some open containers in the car.

But he did the mea culpa on Twitter a couple of days later, saying he made a mistake and it will never happen again. And we sure hope it doesn’t, because all jokes aside, somebody could very easily have died in the incident. Nonetheless, you do your walk of shame out of the jail while the luring media gawks, have your mug shot splattered all over the internet by opportunistic bastards like Saving Country Music, pay your fine, do some community service or whatever since it’s a first offense, and move on. We all screw up.

But it was a little strange when Sam Hunt did not show up to court on January 17th like he was supposed to in order to commence the legal process behind the charges. Now you may be wondering why Saving Country Music is reporting on this aside from Sam Hunt being a favorite punching bag around these parts, but this situation is kind of strange, and there’s been some outright false reporting on the matter that deserves to be cleared up.

The always-shady Radar Online reported on January 17th that the reason Sam Hunt was not in court was due to the case being “…bound over and transferred to a higher court” which is “usually reserved for serious felonies.” The story also quotes a Davidson County court clerk as saying, “A prosecutor will work with a grand jury to decide whether to bring criminal charges or an indictment against a potential defendant.”

This sounds like something major might be going down—that Sam Hunt could be in much more serious trouble than we all originally suspected. Perhaps the recklessness of the incident would result in more serious charges, or he had priors nobody knew about. Now, I’m not saying that some Davidson County Court clerk didn’t say these things to Radar Online, but what the same clerk office told Saving Country Music about the Radar Online reporting was, “That’s not true.” And doubled down when pressed on the issue.

“There was just a continuance,” the Davidson County Clerk said. “There’s been no disposition for the case yet. He just got it rescheduled. Nothing has been decided about the case. He hasn’t been to court yet so there is nothing about the case at all.”

Now Sam Hunt is scheduled to appear in front of Judge William Higgins at the Davidson County Criminal Court on March 17th for a trial. But as the court clerk explains, “Just because you’re having a trial doesn’t mean your having a trial by jury.” In other words, this doesn’t mean Sam Hunt has plead not guilty and is fighting the charges.

Nonetheless, delaying the court proceedings is not a good look for Sam Hunt. His mugshot and DUI details have been recycled through the news cycle once again due to the pushed court date. We don’t know if Hunt will try to be like your boozer uncle who works in sales that tries to fight the DUI on a technicality to keep a clean record, or if his lawyers just needed a little more time to get their ducks in a row. But Sam Hunt’s already admitted he’s responsible. He just needs to plead guilty, pay whatever debt the court decides he owes to society, and go back to making bad country music.

Going back and forth with the courts, and asking for continuances just smacks of not taking the situation seriously, or his sense of guilt seriously, which some criticized Hunt for when he fit his apology under the 280-character Twitter limit, and he first said it happened on a Thursday night instead of a Wednesday night (or morning). But you know, things can get cloudy.

Anyway, perhaps all this resolves on March 17th instead of January 17th. But a guy like Sam Hunt has way bigger penalties to face in the public eye than whatever punishment a county court can hand out for a first offense DUI if he monkeys around with this mess and tries to be above the law. He needs to just take his medicine, set a good example for the kiddos, and move on.

READ: Details of Sam Hunt DUI Arrest Result in Continued Fallout

 – – – – – – – –

Editor’s Note: I would ask folks not to assume what is being asserted in this article, and instead let the article speak for itself. Radar Online posted that Sam Hunt’s case was “…bound over and transferred to a higher court” which is “usually reserved for serious felonies,” and that, “A prosecutor will work with a grand jury to decide whether to bring criminal charges or an indictment against a potential defendant.”

All of this is false. Nonetheless, the fact that he delayed his initial court appearance resulted in dozens of stories about him “missing” his court date, and sent the matter back through the news cycle. That is “not a good look” as the title asserts. The article also clearly states as a quote from the Davidson County Clerk, “There was just a continuance,” the Davidson County Clerk said. “There’s been no disposition for the case yet. He just got it rescheduled. Nothing has been decided about the case. He hasn’t been to court yet so there is nothing about the case at all.”

© 2023 Saving Country Music