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Fire Chief Arrested For DUI
September 23, 2010
An Escambia County district fire chief has been placed on administrative leave after being arrested on drunk driving charges.
John Robert Robert Levins, 30, of Molino, was arrested over the weekend on the DUI charge by the Florida Highway Patrol. He was released from the Escambia County Jail on $500 bond.
Levins is the district fire chief for the Ensley Station of Escambia Fire Rescue. He has been placed on administrative leave until further notice, according to an Escambia County spokesperson.
According to Escambia County Circuit Court records, Levins was charged with having a blood alcohol level of .15 of higher.
Comments
28 Responses to “Fire Chief Arrested For DUI”
Afraid I have to disagree with the comment that it takes a lot more than two or three beers to be over the limit. One will do it just fine. Until it works its way out, in about an hour.
Takes more than “two or three beers” for a husky lad to be over .15 – a LOT more, this is clearly a young man that shouldn’t have been driving.
Using the Lemmings Argument (gee, everyone does it so blah, blah, blah) that rationalizes away every bad behavior and relieves anyone and everyone of all personal responsibility, why, he should have just been let go right on the spot! “There, there laddy, let’s not be letting that happen again!” (with a fatherly pat on the shoulder)
It’s sad that he is a volunteer fire chief, a position of responsibility, a family man. What’s more sad about this is a person that is in a position of responsibility and respect made a poor decision, as have many others before him. Instead of deciding to drive his vehicle, he should have called a friend, or a CAB.
What’s still more sad is that someone at the place where he had “two or three” (yeah, right!) didn’t see that he was impaired and suggest a different way, a different choice, and insist on it.
A good thing would be that he take his licks, learns from it, and overcomes the circumstances in it to be the man he ought to be, but isn’t yet.
God help him, his family, and help us all.
At David Green – Thanks for the levity. Really enjoy your PNJ articles.
■tax payer for 65 years on September 26th,
so today’s your birthday? if so, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, and even if not, Thanks for the taxes; somebody’s gotta pay for all of this.
Come on people, what is your IQ? I am fed up with the words Volunteer Fire Fighters…..they all get paid and they live in the tax payers new fire departments,eat better meals than we do in those wonderful kitchens and get free transportation to drive to pick up their children from school and buy their groceries. Take a look when no one thinks you are looking! Surely if they are driving while drinking they should NEVER be able to come near our tax paid fire trucks again. I know for a fact they have been told if they get a call after drinking they can ride the trucks on the call. It is time to do some house cleaning. Some people wear a uniform and think they can get by with breaking the law, most of the time they do.
I say this story matters to me because volunteer or not if he is the chief then he has a truck that I help pay for with my mandatory fire tax. Has the truck been taken away also?
So many people here act like they have never had 2-3 beers with meal, at an event, out with friends! Getting a DUI doesnt mean your plastered, it means you are legally over the limit designated by law! On any given Friday or Saturday night, at least half the population goes out for the evening and has a couple drinks and gets home safely! Don’t judge people, the cost for getting a DUI is unbelieveable, attorney fees, loss of license, DUI school, counseling or AA meetings even if you are not a drunk/or alcoholic, fines, record, loss of respect, embarrassment! Being over the legal limit does not = killing someone with a car! If you have ever had a drink and driven, you are just lucky you did not get arrested! Anyone from a grandma to a teenager and everyone in between can be arrested if you speed, get hit by someone else, have a flat tire, change lanes without signal, and on and on! If you judge-you will be judged! DUI happens to very very good people all the time! Could be you tonight, or next Saturday night! Bad things happen to good people daily!!! Don’t judge!
My point earlier is that John Levins is a volunteer fire fighter in Escambia County. A DUI is a DUI and just that, does it make a difference that he was a volunteer? Yes because if he wasn’t a volunteer our local media would have one less not so important story to report on. I feel that North Escambia only reported the story because the basis Channel 3 covered it or pushed by someone else. How many other taxpaying residents went to jail the same night for DUI as John? Did any of the others arrested for DUI volunteer for a not for profit organization? I will agree with the others that the ending was fantastic because no one was injured or killed. I will also agree that deputies, police officers (only because they are suppose to up hold the law), and elected officials should be held to a higher standard than then general public. John was an everyday normal law abiding father, husband, and friend that made a very bad mistake.
In an earlier post someone tried to compare John’s DUI to the volunteer that dropped the dogs off. Are you lacking reading comprehension? The firefighter in the dog incident, was acting as a public servant at the time the incident took place. He was called to assist a motorist then later he possibly committed the crime that he was charged with. There is a paid crew and a volunteer crew that responds to the emergency calls in the Ensley Fire district, John was not involved in either of these crews at the time of his arrest.
It irks me when the media attaches an irrelevant title to a story at whatever cost to have a news story. This incident is not a story worth the space it was written in. Take the time to look around, does it really matter that he volunteered his free time to help you in a time of need.
I know John and his wife, I have known them for years. He made a mistake, bad judgement. I am sure that several of the people who have replied in this thread are just squeaky-clean saints…ahem. I don’t agree with drinking and driving at all, but you know what? It’s done, stop hurling the “holier-than-thou-I-am-such-a-perfect-person” attitudes around and get off of your proverbial soap-boxes already.
REGARDING:
“All drunk drivers are no different no matter who you are. Your neighbors kid. a friends husband a firechief. a mother a grandmother a football coach they all get behind the wheel of a machine that will kill and drive”
Picturing the officer knocking on the door and saying, “You’ll be pleased to know your son was killed this evening by an upstanding citizen who was DUI. We are sorry for your loss but know you will be comforted by the knowledge of how fine his killer was.”
Ain’t gonna happen but sometimes folks act like it would.
David for not having to knock
Everytime someone breaks the law and gets caught or hurts someone
they have to pay the price. OWN UP! CLEAN UP!
The problem with this town is….they don’t thing that should happen.
they start talking smack about everybody else because they just
don’t want anyone to pay a price here.
Thats has been the trouble with this town for years…..
Let the kids get away with everything …. that will teach them….
EVEN A DUI …
Let’s don’t let anyone say anything about them and lets don’t do
anymore than slap their wrists…
THEN DON”T BE SUPPRISED WHEN THEY KILL SOME KID!
Fire Fighters are human and sometimes they see more than you can possibly imagine, I know I am married to one who worked in a large city. He did not share all the things that he had seen as some were very sad, some grouesome, and a lot of death. This FF is a young man and he has made a mistake, I am glad he got caught early with DUI and it may help put him back on the right track. If not then he needs to leave his job..
Sometimes we really do need to walk in others shoes before we pass judgement.
All drunk drivers are no different no matter who you are. Your neighbors kid. a friends husband a firechief. a mother a grandmother a football coach they all get behind the wheel of a machine that will kill and drive.Is it going to matter who they kill no dead is dead All should have licences pulled. WHAT IS THE LAW WITH DRUNK DRIVERS IN THE STATE OG FLORDIA AND ALABAMA? if you already have a record will it make a difference. when arrested Also how many times can you get dui with out licences pulled. I think it would be a great idea to put their pictures on bill boards close to some of these bars. We could start with the ones in century and Atmore. Also should make these bars pay for this and the people these drunks hurt. I believe that happen several years ago when 2 young girls died in Pensacola after going to a bar. They were under age. Its all about the money at many of these bars.
First off we all can agree it was a bad mistake, pretty sure John would agree with that statement. Its in the book’s now and John will have to deal with it. What I find amusing is how the rock’s start flying in the glass house. So quick to bash and knock a man when he is down. What am I getting at? We all do and/or done something to affect our ability to drive. Gonna go out on a limb here: talk/text on cell phones (which is illegal), fumbling with radio,GPS, radar detectors because they are going off (surely we would not be speeding on a Hwy like 97) and willing to bet atleast one other person that has deemed John a bad person has gotten behind the wheel knowing they had too much. Anything above can and will cause that same baaaaam. Not saying what he did was no big deal, But let the horse be. John look up you will make it out, if you need a hand with anything GRAB MINE —only a phone call away D.B.
This really is not a very surprising story. Perhaps if someone wanted to have a real eye opener they should look at the number of EMT’s, Paramedics, Fire Fighters, and LEO’s that are currently on the payroll for the county and have DUI convictions. Only reason this made news is because he is a Chief. It’s been going on forever and will continued to be ignored forever.
Oh here we go again.
He is a volunteer so we should over look the fact that he was driving drunk
on our roads and one of us could have been killed and he is 30 and
old enough to know better. He is human and so he will make mistakes
all his life.
Blah, Blah, Blah…..
If you want to be an adult you stop driving DRUNK
That is not a mistake ….thats a CHOICE….
THERE IS THE DIFFERENCE.
and what is OUR CHOICE …. to meet him on some highway like 97 and
BAMMMMMMM!\
Were dead!
This story is a little misleading! John is a volunteer at Ensley Fire Department, the county choose to assign the volunteer station chief’s the name of district chief. He is not on the counties payroll; John has devoted over 15 years of his personal life to the volunteer fire service here in Escambia for nothing other than to help the communities that he has lived or worked in. This was indeed a very stupid mistake that he made; one would think that a volunteer fire fighter wouldn’t make a mistake such as this. John is human and will make mistakes throughout his life as we all will. What organization do you volunteer for…………..does that make you any better? Should the penalty be any different because he has been a volunteer, nope?
Why one would care to include that he has a daughter? After reading the story, it seems to me that he wasn’t the most responsible adult but was a responsible father. You didn’t hear that is daughter was in the vehicle did you?
people are people no matter what they do for a living. All people make bad decisions no matter who they are or what they do. Ex-President Bill Clinton is a perfect example.
WHY IS HE THE ENSLEY FIRE CHIEF AND LIVES IN MOLINO? LONG WAY TO RUN CALLS?
sad things is, this guy does have a young daughter, guess he was think about his family or the consequences when he got behind that wheel. lucky this lil girl didnt lose her daddy!
REGARDING:
“And cant believe a fire fighter would actually get behind the wheel knowing hes almost double the limit”
That’s so sweet. I wish I couldn’t believe it, but after former Sheriff Seely did and former school superintendent Jim Paul did. . . .
David for illusions of justice
Just wondering if dropping off stray dogs or a fire fighter getting a DUI. I know the 1 that dropped off the dogs lost his. And cant believe a fire fighter would actually get behind the wheel knowing hes almost double the limit.
at least if there were a wreck from his DUI, he would already be there to work it
well sir, what a good example you are setting for our young people. Do you have children, think about them when you take another drinnk and drive.
Well said Terri!
You are right Robert about law enforcement,fire fighters and others being held accountable for their actions,just like the rest of us.But your last statement is erroneous,they are not stupid,they are breaking the law and some pretty smart people break the laws all the time. .The same laws most of them are bound to uphold for our safety. We tend to hold law enforcement,fire fighters and others to a higher degree of behavior,and we should.They should be above reproach as a public servant.
OPP’S
thank you for putting this story out….Firefighters, ems and law enforcement personnel are no different than the public..but they know what the effects are of DUI’S and because of that alone Any Fire, Ems of leo caught drink and driving are just stupid!