Driving Under the Influence of Alcohol

June 3, 2013

DUI in Los Angeles News of the Weird (Part I)

As someone who’s been arrested recently for DUI in Los Angeles, you’re probably not in a “joking” or jovial mood. But you might find it helpful to reflect on the following stories (culled in part from a Funny or Die article from 2010 called “The Six Weirdest DUI Arrests Ever Made”) not only to “feel better” about what you’ve been through but also to understand that crazy, strange stuff happens to everyone.

With that preamble, let’s dive into this catalogue of curiosities…
Weird DUI #1: DUI on a horse, of course!

Several years ago, Colorado police got a shock when they saw local man, Brian Drone, riding a horse through a local strip mall. Turns out, Mr. Drone had consumed a few alcoholic beverages before hopping on his steed, and officers arrested him. This makes sense. We don’t want people to drive DUI in Los Angeles (or anywhere) because they might lose control of their vehicles and cause injuries, property damage, etc. A DUI horse rider could easily wreak havoc and destroy a mall. Probably in the days of horse-drawn wagons — before the emergence of the automobile – “RUI” accidents were all too common…
Weird DUI#2: DUI on a Barbie car – going 3 miles per hour!

Our second ridiculous case comes out of England, where 40 year old Paul Hutton, a Ex-Royal Airforce Aeronautical Engineer, got arrested by police after driving a “souped-up” electric Barbie car at 3 miles per hour near his Essex home.

Mr. Hutton had been showing off for his four children (ages 11-17). He later admitted that he had been a “complete twit” for hopping in the car while being twice the legal limit. (The legal limit for DUI in Los Angeles, as you might remember is 0.08% BAC, per CVC 23152).

Mr. Hutton told the court in Colchester: “I was very surprised to get done for drink-driving, but I was a twit to say the least… I’m in the third year of my electrical engineering course, and it was a little project [I was doing] with my son, who’s doing a car mechanics course…When [the car] was done, I couldn’t resist the temptation to take it out.”

The magistrate who heard the case said that the Barbie car DUI was “most unusual…I have never seen the like of it in 15 years on the bench… The vehicle is not even capable of doing the speed of a mobility scooter and could be outrun by a pedestrian. Taking this into account, we feel we can impose a sentence of a conditional discharge for a period of 12 months.”

Of course, not all Los Angeles DUIs are trivial matters – or laughing matters, for that matter.

For astute, thorough, and ethical assistance with your case, look to Mr. Michael Kraut of the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers. Attorney Kraut has a Harvard Law School education, and he has worked as a City Prosecutor (Senior Deputy District Attorney) and as a highly regarded LA criminal defense lawyer.

May 29, 2013

Pasadena DUI Quiz (Part I) — 10 Cases (Made up or Real)?

by Michael Kraut

Pasadena DUI arrests can get dramatic and colorful. But you probably think you can “tease apart” fact from fiction. Well, let’s test your mettle. Here are 10 DUI items – 5 of which are made up, 5 of which actually happened. What’s true? What’s made up? (Answers are at the bottom).

Good luck!

1. Waxwing birds became wickedly intoxicated, after they ate fermented Scandinavian berries. Dozens of these perished as they “flew DUI” into local windows.

2. Two men in England broke into a dolphin sanctuary and wrestled down a dolphin and road it around while under the influence of alcohol. Local police in Kent arrested them and charged them with the local equivalent of DUI.

3. A hipster unicyclist in Brooklyn intentionally consumed an entire bottle of Vodka before performing a street act on his unicycle on a busy street. Several police officers watched him do this. Instead of arresting him, they clapped and cheered with the other passersby.

4. A man commandeered a Christmas float while under the influence of alcohol. He smashed into a second float, battled officers, and hit another float before police apprehended and arrested him. In addition to DUI, he got gobsmacked with three dozen criminal charges.

5. As part of a hazing prank, 12 freshman rushes at a University of Mississippi frat crammed into a Dodge Dart. Police saw the swerving vehicle on a local campus road and pulled it over. The unlucky freshman driver had a BAC of 0.38% — over 4.5 times the legal limit for DUI in Pasadena.

6. In Uruguay, it’s legal to drive under the influence of alcohol. In several other countries, the offence is a capital crime. Unlike here in Southern California, where a Pasadena DUI without injury is generally a misdemeanor, in some parts of the world, you can literally be put to death for DUI driving.

7. Nearly 20% of all currently serving members of the United States Congress and Senate have, at one point in their lives, been charged with driving under the influence.

8. The term “Three sheets to the wind” was coined by Teddy Roosevelt. When the ex-President toured the Amazonian jungle, he witnessed native tribesmen play a drinking game with three colorful sheets. The rest is history.

9. In Virginia beach, Virginia, if you let someone else drive your car while that person is under the influence, you can get a DUI charge, too, even if you were just standing and watching!

10. For reasons that scientists have yet to understand, lefties are far less likely than righties to get arrested for DUI, even accounting for the fact that there are fewer lefties in the population.

Need help with your Pasadena DUI defense? If so, connect with the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers today. Attorney Kraut is an ex-prosecutor and Harvard Law School educated attorney with a fantastic track record for helping clients like you put up a robust defense.

1. T 2. T 3. F 4. T 5. F 6. T. 7. F 8. F 9. T 10. F

May 27, 2013

Beverly Hills DUI Quiz, Part II — 11 More Cases (Made up or Real)?

by Michael Kraut

Hopefully, you’ve taken our first Beverly Hills DUI “true or false” quiz. If not, skip back to the previous post to do so. Today, we’re going to test your knowledge of DUI trivia yet again by giving you another 11 scenarios and letting you guess which ones are true and which are false.

1. Police have arrested people for driving under the influence:

• on motor scooters (driving at 6 miles per hour);
• on pink electrical Barbie cars (driving 3 miles per hour);
• on skateboards;
• on lawnmowers;
• on adult tricycles;
• and on tiny pocket bikes!

2. After consuming a dozen beers, an Amish man “got behind the wheel” of a horse-drawn buggy and promptly got arrested for driving while intoxicated. He apologized, calling himself a “bad amish.”

3. During a party at Kappa Delta Sorority in Missouri, a 20-year-old woman consumed 20 “non-alcoholic” beers for her birthday and then got behind the wheel of a car. She was pulled over by police and tested to have a BAC of 0.06% — a BAC spike driven entirely by the small amounts of alcohol in the supposedly “non-alcoholic” beverages! (For reference, the legal limit for Beverly Hills DUI is 0.08% BAC, per CVC 23152.)

4. Out in Indiana, a man who was severely under the influence of alcohol hijacked a plane to show off to his girlfriend. He was so out of it that he missed the runway and had to make an emergency landing in a field of soybeans. Unsurprisingly, he was arrested.

5. One of the earliest Barnum & Bailey Circus attractions featured a stuntman, whose act involved drinking a flaming bottle of rum while riding a lion bareback. During one show, the stuntman caught the lion’s mane on fire, prompting the big cat to throw him off its back, killing him in front of a packed house. Curious fact: The stuntman was a former police officer!

6. Like something out of “A Fish Called Wanda,” a man hopped into a steamroller while significantly under the influence of alcohol. He then proceeded to ram the steamroller into a nearby car, in an attempt to flatten it. Police stopped him and arrested him for DUI.

7. The highest blood alcohol concentration for anyone ever stopped for a DUI in Southern California (or elsewhere) was 1.67% BAC. The woman lapsed into coma, but she miraculously recovered from a BAC level more than three times what’s normally considered a lethal BAC level.

8. Out in Spain, a disabled man who had a yen to visit a local house of prostitution drove his mechanical bed down the streets, while under the influence. Police stopped and arrested him.

9. If you bring any amount of alcohol into the state of Utah — unless you are a licensed dealer of said alcohol — you can be arrested and charged with a crime.

10. The winner of the 1994 Iditarod Dog Sled Race in Alaska had his championship crown stripped, when race officials discovered that he had been drinking whisky while driving his dogs through the finish line.

11. In Soviet Russia, Joseph Stalin’s KGB ran a secret program that encouraged agents to drink vodka and then drive around the streets of big cities, like Moscow and Leningrad, to terrify the populace and make people crave the “law and order” of the regime.

Hopefully you enjoyed these DUI curiosities. If you need assistance dealing with a recent Beverly Hills DUI charge, please connect with the experienced, highly capable team here at the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers. Mr. Kraut is a former Senior Deputy District Attorney for Los Angeles (a high level prosecutor) who worked in that capacity 14 plus years. He and his team can help you construct a vigorous defense.

1. T 2. T. 3. F 4. T. 5. F. 6. T 7. F 8. T 9. T 10. F 11. F

May 24, 2013

Los Angeles DUI Charges for Comedian Kevin Hart – “This Is a Wakeup Call”

by Michael Kraut

Thirty-two-year old comedian Kevin Hart (“Laugh at My Pain”) was arrested on suspicion of Los Angeles DUI on the 101 last Sunday morning. Kevin%20Hart%20DUI-los-angeles.jpg

According to local reports, a CHP officer pulled over Hart’s black Mercedes, after the officer saw Hart driving at over 90 miles per hour – nearly smashing into a tanker truck in the process.

Mr. Hart was put through the paces of a Los Angeles field sobriety test, which he allegedly failed. Police arrested him for misdemeanor DUI, and he posted a $5,000 bond that day. A female passenger in the Mercedes went home in a taxi cab. Hart took to Twitter the day after his arrest with a mea culpa: “this is a wakeup call for me… I have to be smarter & last night I wasn’t. Everything happens for a reason.”

Hart’s arrest prompted snarky responses from fellow comedians, including Damon Wayans. The actor has appeared in multiple movies as well as the TV show, Undeclared.

Driving DUI in Los Angeles

While Hart’s attempt to “come clean” and express regret for what happened is in many ways admirable, prosecutors take Los Angles DUI charges deadly seriously. After all, driving under the influence increases your risk of getting into injury crashes and causing substantial damage to public and private property. The city and state both have great interest in reducing DUI incidences, and violators can be punished with a spectrum of unpleasantries, including jail time, fines, fees, miscellaneous court costs, mandatory interlock ignition device installation, and harsh probation terms. Those punishments don’t even touch on the other scary long-term implications.

A DUI conviction can make any subsequent criminal act much more “punishable” – prosecutors like to bring the hammer down harder on recidivist offenders. It can also spike your insurance rates and damage and disrupt relationships.

The road back may not be easy, simple, or fast. But there are correct strategic paths and less effective ones.

The team here at the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers is extremely experienced at helping drivers like you understand and come to terms with charges and make intelligent decisions going forward. Get in touch with the Harvard Law School educated ex-prosecutor Kraut today for insightful assistance with your DUI in Los Angeles.

May 22, 2013

Criminal Charges for Two Motorcycle Officers Who May Have Lied Under Oath about Los Angeles DUI Stop

by Michael Kraut

Breaking news in a story that has riveted the Los Angeles DUI defense community:

Two LAPD police officers, Phillip Walters and Craig Allen, face charges of falsifying a police report and perjury under oath. The officers were involved in a stop at Highland Park in 2010 as members of a DUI Task Force. A fellow officer, Cecilio Flores, saw a female driver go through two different stop signs, so he pulled her over. Flores said the woman had an odor of alcohol on her and bloodshot eyes – “classic” symptoms of Los Angeles DUI. He radioed Allen and Walters to help him with the stop. (This is technically known as a “hand-off.” In even more colloquial police terms, it’s called a “gimme.”)

Allen and Walters put the woman through a field sobriety test, booked her on charges, and took her to jail. Then Allen started up the paperwork… and that’s where all the trouble began.

According to prosecutor Rosa Alarcon, “[Allen] wrote that he was in the area when they pulled over the vehicle … he didn’t mention Flores.” Walters, for his part, testified at a DMV hearing that he saw the woman driving, when he didn’t.

Walters and Allen said that they both just made mistakes – they didn’t follow procedure correctly. But prosecutors countered that they committed perjury. After the two officers admitted to their errors, Charley Beck, the LAPD’s Chief, released this statement: “I do not believe that their intent was evil, just extremely misguided… the character of our organization is defined by the conduct that we condone. These actions were entirely unacceptable.”

Allen was fired from the force, and Walters remains on suspension from the LAPD. Interestingly – as Allen’s defense lawyer pointed out – “there was no motive… there was nothing to gain” from perjury
Who really knows what happened – why the officers did what they did. But the incident speaks to a broader point, which defendants charged with driving under the influence in L.A. need to understand: DUI arrests often get chaotic. Even observant officers can accidentally (or very occasionally, on purpose) mischaracterize what took place.

The key to building a sound defense, therefore, lies in your ability to examine all relevant evidence critically in context and respond intuitively and appropriately to the charges. That may sound like a tall order. Fortunately, you don’t have to work on this problem by yourself.

The team here at the Los Angeles’ Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers is standing by to assist you with your challenging legal situation and help you feel comfortable, focused, and motivated to fight back and move forward with your life. Attorney Kraut is an ex-prosecutor, whose opinions have been featured in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, KTLA, and other big media.

May 17, 2013

Victory at Supreme Court for DUI Defendant. Los Angeles Defendants, Take Note!

by Michael Kraut

The Wednesday before last, the Supreme Court issued a big decision in a DUI case that Los Angeles defendants should know about.

Justices ruled 8-1 in favor of a Missouri man, Tyler McNeely, concluding that the police should have obtained a search warrant prior to ordering a DUI blood test on him. Justice Clarence Thomas was the sole Justice to rule that a warrantless blood test would have been Constitutional.

The State of Missouri – and the Obama administration – had asked SCOTUS to endorse a sweeping improvement of rule to allow such warrantless DUI blood tests.

Background on the case
As we reported several months ago, McNeely got arrested in Cape Girardeau County, when a local trooper saw his car swerving and speeding all over the road. McNeely already had two DUI convictions, and he refused to take a breath test.

He also bombed out on the field sobriety tests. If you recently got arrested for DUI in Los Angeles yourself, you no doubt are familiar with what he likely went through – the finger to the nose test, the horizontal gaze nystagmus test, the stand on one leg test, count backwards from 100 by 3’s test, etc.

Corporal Mark Winder of Missouri’s State Highway Patrol certainly had enough evidence to ask for a warrant for a blood test. Instead, he took the defendant to a nearby hospital, where a technician took blood for the test – all while McNeely was handcuffed. The results of the blood test were pretty substantial. McNeely’s blood had 0.154% BAC, nearly twice the legal limit for driving under the influence in Los Angeles, as defined as by California’s Vehicle Code Section 23152. Both a Missouri lower court and the Missouri State Supreme Court tossed the blood test results, because they said they violated McNeely’s Constitutional rights against unreasonable search and seizure.

According to the Missouri court, unless delaying could destroy critical evidence (or cause a threat to someone’s life), the police need to get warrants in such cases. In the latest SCOTUS ruling, the eight Justices who penned the majority opinion did not give guidance about when police should (or should not) seek warrants. Justice Anthony Kennedy – writing separately – said that a future case may give the Court a chance to get more in depth.

What does the SCOTUS ruling – and other recent, important DUI law fluctuations – mean for your case?

The SCOTUS situation highlights the fluidity of local and national DUI law. That’s why it’s important to work with an experienced, up-to-speed, results-proven attorney to make sense of what’s happened to you and to build an appropriate defense.

The team here at the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers is ready to help you. Attorney Kraut is a very experienced, highly respected local lawyer who attended Harvard Law School and who worked for over 14 years as a prosecutor before becoming a Los Angeles DUI defense lawyer.

May 15, 2013

Jury Doesn’t Give a Hoot about Hoot’s defense – Montana Man Convicted of 13th DUI. Burbank Repeat Defendants, Pay Attention!

by Michael Kraut

As someone who’s recently been arrested for driving under the influence in Burbank (or somewhere else in the Southland), you may be facing your second or third (or worse!) DUI charge within 10 years.

The California justice system is not exactly “soft” on recidivists.

As you probably already know, a Burbank DUI conviction – even a misdemeanor one, in which no one got hurt and no other crimes were committed – can lead to jail time, alcohol school, a year of license suspension, mandatory IID installation in your car or truck, humiliation, insurance problems, fines and fees, disruption to your life, and a criminal record.

As you rack up more and more Burbank DUIs (within a 10-year period), prosecutors can choose from a more diverse and brutal catalogue of punishments, including enhanced fines and fees, more jail time, longer probation, longer alcohol school, longer license suspension, and even special punishments.

To illustrate, let’s say you just got your third DUI charge. Under normal circumstances, you probably would only face a misdemeanor – perhaps a few days in jail, fines and a suspension. But because this is your third time, prosecutors could turn that misdemeanor into a felony charge. Now, if you’re convicted, you could face a year behind bars as well as the prospect of being forever stripped of key rights, such as your voting rights.

Convicted felons have a much harder lot in life – trouble finding employment, getting leases approved, and securing housing.

Consider all those consequences in light of a jaw-dropping story out of Billings, Montana.

A Yellowstone County District Court just convicted 54-year-old John Harvey Hoots of his 13th DUI. You read that right. That’s not a typo. Hoots was arrested on July 31, 2012, just six weeks after he had gotten out of prison, after serving a decade for his 12th DUI conviction.

Hoot testified that he was trying to escape from an angry neighbor, when police arrested him for DUI. According to multiple witnesses, Daniel Belmarez called police at 7 in the evening to say that Hoots had “dropped his pants to the ground and exposed himself …a second call to 911 was made about 15 minutes later by Belmarez’s mother, who said Hoots had returned and made a gesture indicating he had a gun.”

The police showed up, just as Hoots hopped in a pickup truck to take off. Police stopped him and arrested him, after discovering that he had a BAC of 0.20%. For those of you keeping score, that’s precisely 2.5 times the Burbank DUI legal limit, per California Vehicle Code Section 23152.

Hoots defense rested on “he said, she said” argument. Hoots said that Belmarez threatened him with a gun and that he had no choice but to flee in his truck. Hoots’ attorney asked him: “did you believe that if you didn’t leave their [presence] that Mr. Belmarez would cause you serious bodily injury and kill you?” Hoots replied that he did and that he was “very scared.”

Prosecutors rejoined that Hoot’s claim had no credibility. Even though evidence of his prior DUI convictions – the checkered criminal history – was not allowed, the jury still didn’t buy his story.

Obviously, we can’t really comment about the strategies involved, without delving into the details of the case. But the case illustrates something very important: To build an effective Burbank DUI defense, you need to be credible. Avoid “making stuff up,” not just out of fear of perjury but also out of respect for the law and a need for good ethics.

If you strategically approach your case the right way, you might be surprised by the amount of leniency the judge (or jury) might give you.

Of course, it takes skill and experience to build a strategic case. Fortunately, the Burbank DUI defense attorneys at the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers have that experience, and they are standing by to take your call and help you feel more prepared about what’s going to happen to you next.

May 12, 2013

Beverly Hills DUI Legal Blotter: Big Fight Up in Seattle Over HB 2030 Could Portend the Future of Southland DUI Law

by Michael Kraut

Everyone who cares about the public good wants to stop Beverly Hills DUI recidivist drivers from getting behind the wheel while under the influence and harming others and/or themselves.

The big question is: How do we do that? How do we make our system more just and more equitable at the same time?

This debate is obviously not just a local concern. Across the nation, states and cities are wrestling with questions like these – trying to balance needs to keep roads safe and needs to protect individual freedom.

According to an independent analysis, 40,000 people get arrested for DUI in the state of Washington, annually. Most are first time offenders. But 13% are recidivists. As followers of this Beverly Hills DUI blog know, recidivist offenders can be subjected to ratcheted up punishments, such as longer time behind bars, more alcohol school, stricter probation terms, longer license suspension terms, and on and on.

Dan Satterberg, a prosecutor for King County, hopes that a new DUI bill, HB 2030, will reduce the number of DUI recidivists. He said: “I want to focus on repeat offenders, not try for everything for everybody.”

HB 2030 would create mandatory jail sentences for second and third offenders. A recidivist can get out of serving a six month jail sentence (on second offence) if he wears a special sobriety bracelet and enters a program that would immediately alert law enforcement if he consumes alcohol.

Third offenders would be hit with a year of jail sentence and given an ID card that would prevent them from buying or being served alcohol beverages for a decade. It would also impose a mandatory Interlock Ignition Device (IID) installation after the arrest, but before the conviction.

Washington State representative Roger Goodman of Kirkland heard concerns from critics that HD 2030 may be overly harsh on first offenders. The costs associated are also high, but Goodman says those costs will be funded not by taxpayers but by offenders.

Without looking at the details, what’s nice (at least from a theoretical point of view) is that this law would give offenders choice: jail time vs. wearing a bracelet that can detect alcohol through the skin.

According to Goodman, increased prison time is not the answer. Satterberg spelled out this change of paradigm in DUI prevention/punishment: “The thing now that’s most promising…is that people are talking about DUI because, frankly, the answer is not new laws but in the attitude.”

The ACLU has expressed dubiousness over the mandatory IID installation. The ACLU said that a judge should have probable cause first. Goodman said he took the ACLU’s consideration to heart and said he and fellow legislators would try to rewrite the law before April 28 to address those concerns.

As someone who has been recently arrested for driving under the influence in Beverly Hills, you need insightful legal guidance. Attorney Michael Kraut is a Harvard Law School educated ex-prosecutor with the talent, processes, knowledge and dedication to get you good results. Connect with Mr. Kraut’s Beverly Hills DUI defense team now to set up your free case consultation.

May 10, 2013

Celebrity Pasadena DUI News: Cat Cora Arrest Videos Surface: Host Makes Fun of “Two Nerds” She Hit While DUI

by Michael Kraut

We’ve covered some pretty hairy and scary Pasadena DUI mug shots on this blog.

Even if you’ve been hiding under a rock over the past decade, you likely still remember Nick Nolte’s grizzled DUI visage from several years ago. He looked like he had just gotten out of bed.

On the other end of the spectrum, you probably also remember Cat Cora’s humdinger of a mug shot from last year. The host of Iron Chef and “Around the World in 80 Plates” got stopped for DUI in Santa Barbara last July, after she bumped another vehicle from behind.

Her unusually gorgeous mug shot likely made the folks at TMZ literally dizzy with excitement over how many website hits they would get. Even though Cora said she only consumed three beers before she got behind the wheel, breathalyzer test results found her BAC to be a whopping 0.19%. Just for comparison: The legal limit for Pasadena DUI is 0.08% BAC, as defined by California Vehicle Code Section 23152 (b).

Maybe Cora miscounted her beers. Or maybe her breathalyzer test had been off.

In any event, she later apologized for what happened in a statement: “I deeply regret my decision to drive that evening, after my designated driver became unavailable. I learned a very important lesson from this experience and take full accountability for my actions.”

That sober, reflective Cora was very different from the Cora that surfaced recently in a video taken right after the crash. The people inside the car that Cora hit shot some crazy footage of Cora, who apparently glibly dismissed their request for insurance information. “Just because I bumped your car?” she asked, indignantly.

She didn’t stop there:

“I’m being videotaped by two nerds who don’t want to go have dinner together … do something exciting with their lives … really … wow … sad.”

This kind of over-the-top reaction is surprisingly common in DUI cases in Pasadena and elsewhere. It’s not that offenders want to get into more trouble or hassle people. It’s that they are scared, confused, and emotionally ginned up. If, like Cora, you said or did “bad things” after your stop, do the right thing now and start researching effective legal help as soon as you can.

Michael Kraut of Pasadena’s Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers is here to help you gather yourself, make sense of the charges, and resolve your stresses, anxieties, and concerns. Get in touch with Mr. Kraut and his responsible Pasadena DUI legal defense team today for much needed peace of mind.

May 8, 2013

Ridiculous Long Beach DUI Exploits: DUI Suspect Ignores Officer’s Pleas to Pull Over…and Heads to Burger King Drive-In, Instead!

by Michael Kraut

At first blush, many of the Glendale DUI stories that we’ve recently reported on sound almost made up – as if they were something ripped from the pages of The Onion (Jim Anchower’s “The Cruise” column, perhaps?)

But sometimes real life is actually more ridiculous than satire.

Case in point: According to the Sandusky Register, a 34-year-old man, Scott Sims, is in big trouble not just for allegedly driving under the influence but also for ignoring a police officer’s order to stop…and instead rolling up to Burger King to order a hearty, greasy meal.

The officer told reporters: “the operator was observed to have his window down and to be placing an order with the restaurant…I ordered the subject two times over my PA system to pull out of the drive-thru line.” Eventually, a Perkins Township officer flagged Sims down. The man confessed that he was “f**ked up” and agreed that “I should have just rode my bike to Burger King, but I was too hungry.”

Sims refused to take a breathalyzer test. He was arrested on multiple charges, including operating a vehicle under the influence, speeding, violating the open container law, and driving under suspension.

Not very good news for Sims.

In the abstract, it’s easy to snicker at this situation – to make fun of what happened. However, if you recently got arrested for driving under the influence in Glendale, you’re probably more sympathetic.

Why?

Because you know – from personal experience – what that incredible stress and heightened emotional state feels like. Even rational, professional people often make grievously bad decisions during and after DUI stops because of the animal-like emotional state that overtakes them.

Consider, for instance, the video footage that just emerged of Cat Cora’s DUI behavior. The Around the World in 80 Plates hostess called the people whom she rear-ended – while DUI in Santa Barbara with a 0.19% BAC! – “two nerds.”

Cora and Sims’ strange responses to their DUIs make more sense when you look at their stories in context. If you peruse the archives of our Glendale DUI blog, you will notice that story after story features a similar plotline:

1. Suspect does something stupid (like drives DUI);
2. Suspect compounds that stupidity by evading arrest, commiting a hit and run, saying dumb things to officers, and so on and so forth.

The question is: Now that you are sober and contemplative, what can you do? How can you respond smartly to your Glendale DUI charges?

Every situation is different, and the team here at the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers is prepared to help you approach your situation systematically and alertly. Get in touch with ex-Senior Deputy District Attorney Kraut and his team now to schedule your free consultation.