11 Convictions, No Problem : Facing a 12th DUI Rap, He Says Police Just Pick on Him

Leaning back in his chair and throwing his arms up as if in defeat, the 52-year-old man arrested on suspicion of his 12th drunk-driving violation said Friday that he’s going to plead guilty and serve his time.

However, Ronald W. Cram insisted during a jailhouse interview that he didn’t do anything wrong and that he does not have a drinking problem.

“I had just gotten home from work, just finished putting away my tools in the garage and was just sitting there drinking beer. . . . I was on my second one,” Cram said during an interview at the James A. Musick Branch Jail.

“What’s wrong with that?”

Police said what was wrong was that Cram had been driving under the influence before he got home Wednesday and his blood-alcohol level was .27 percent at the time of his arrest, more than three times the legal limit. To acquire that much alcohol in his blood, police said, Cram must have had at least a six-pack of beer, not two.

The man was arrested twice before this year on suspicion of traffic violations and was on probation for drunk driving at the time of Wednesday’s arrest. On top of that, Cram was behind the wheel despite his license having been suspended since 1984 for drunk-driving violations.

Cram, a construction worker who has operated heavy equipment such as excavators for some 35 years, has a history of alcohol-related violations that spans decades. His first was as a minor in 1964, for possession of alcohol. His latest, on Wednesday, occurred shortly after an undercover officer spotted him pulling

into a driveway in his friend’s car and took him into custody.

In between, there was a 16-month stint in state prison about eight years ago for drunk driving, Cram said. Then there were the two dozen or so citations or arrests that resulted in 11 drunk driving convictions. Several of those cases involved accidents that left Cram “busted up pretty bad,” he said.

“One time, a gearshift got me in the ribs,” he said. “But I’ve never been in anything with injuries to anybody else.”

Cram was arrested in a pilot program in Santa Ana that targets repeat drunk drivers.

Police said they don’t have any record of Cram being involved in an accident with serious injuries to others, but added that luck was a big reason for it. And sooner or later, his luck is bound to run out, and some innocent bystander could get killed, said Santa Ana Sgt. Bob Clark, who referred to Cram as a “fatal accident waiting to happen.”

Social workers said Cram poses the classic case in which the solution has to begin with the individual.

Authorities have done everything they can, yet Cram finds his way behind the wheel again and again, Clark said. When they revoked his license, he drove without one. When they impounded his car, he borrowed from various friends.

They’ve even tried sending him to numerous alcohol-rehabilitation centers, an effort Cram said was useless because he doesn’t believe he has a drinking problem.

“I’ve been through all that. I know what it is,” Cram said. “I can quit drinking any time. It wouldn’t bother me, but then there’s nothing else to do. . . .

“I don’t drink that much,” he said.

When he is working, Cram said, he limits himself to one or two beers during lunch, then maybe three or four after work.

“Weekends are a different story,” said Cram, who said he usually has his first beer about 10 a.m. and then drinks “all afternoon long” until he goes to bed about 7 p.m.

Born in Santa Ana, Cram said he has lived in the city all his life. He graduated from Valley High School. His father also drank and died of liver cancer, he said. Growing up, Cram said he began drinking at home, “at barbecues and things like that.”

Cram said he has not experienced personal problems because of his drinking, yet personal problems do exist.

The construction worker said he only works on and off, his latest job lasting about two weeks before he again was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving. Cram has been married three times and is separated from his latest wife, but said the rift had nothing to do with his drinking.

One of Cram’s ex-wives stated in court papers in 1971 that he failed to pay child support for their two children. Cram said he didn’t pay partly because he wasn’t able to work. Cram said he has a 17-year-old son from a more recent marriage. Asked what grade the son is in, Cram said he wasn’t sure.

“He doesn’t drink, smoke or none of that garbage, and makes A’s and Bs in school,” said Cram, who said he enjoys fishing and camping with his son.

When he gets out of jail this time, Cram said, he’s not sure what he’s going to do. He said in order to go through rehabilitation, he needs money, which he doesn’t have.

“I can’t go to work. How am I going to get there?” he asked. “I can’t draw unemployment and I can’t retire until I’m 55. I’m only 52. I don’t know what I’m going to do. I really don’t.

“The system is screwed up as far as I’m concerned,” Cram said. “I feel like I’ve been harassed [by police]. . . . They keep coming after me because they know they’ve got a bust.”

Police said they keep coming after Cram because he keeps violating the law.

In Thursday’s story, the suspected drunk driver was misidentified as Roger Cram, another Orange County resident who is not related to the case.

Ronald Cram is being held in lieu of $5,000 bail but authorities are trying to increase that amount to $250,000 to keep the repeat drunk driver off the streets, Clark said.

“I don’t think he can even fathom what he does when he gets behind the wheel of a car,” Clark said.

Times staff writer Tina Nguyen and correspondent Jeff Kass also contributed to this report.