People generally report practicing yoga for three main reasons. First, for the enjoyment of the practice itself. Second, for its health benefits. Third, they practice yoga for its stress relieving properties. However, there is one professor of yoga and Buddhism who clearly hasn’t taken advantage of yoga as a stress reliever.
Bradley Steven Clough is a 58-year-old associate professor of Buddhist studies and yoga and director of the University of Montana’s Global Humanities and Religions Department. He has taught at University of Montana since 2008.
On September 8, 2018, Clough was arrested following an incident at a Jason Isbell concert held at the KettleHouse Amphitheater. Clough is now facing a misdemeanor assault charge for the incident, where he reportedly punched a bouncer working at the concert in the stomach. Law enforcement documents describe the assault as occurring when the bouncer attempted to remove Clough from the concert venue’s private booths.
Now it has come out that this recent assault incident has led to Clough being charged with a felony probation violation following several documented incidents of driving while intoxicated.
Every day in the U.S. there are around 300,000 instances of drunk driving, but fewer than 4,000 of those drivers are arrested. Clough has had the misfortune of being arrested for drunk driving a whopping five times. His previous convictions occurred in 1997, 2001, 2008, and 2015. The most recent was just a few months ago in July of 2018. Originally Clough would have been charged in July with felony DUI and reckless driving, but his prosecutors swapped those charges out for one count of felony criminal endangerment, to which he plead guilty.
The judge presiding over the case, John Larson, expressed special concern at the time about Clough’s dependency on alcohol.
So wrote Judge Larson:
I think the prospects of rehabilitating you are not good until you successfully address your chemical dependency issues and complete this (sentence)… Your criminal history is becoming extensive…If you are unwilling to accept any help or change your lifestyle, you will be spending a good portion of your life in prison.
The details of the upcoming case are still developing.
When it comes to strict DUI laws, Montana is ranked 40th in the nation. It actually ranks pretty well in criminal penalties at 21st in the nation, but bombs when it comes to prevention. As far as prevention goes, Montana ranks 47th in the U.S., only beating out Ohio, Idaho, Washington D.C. and South Dakota.