Driving Under the Influence

April 18, 2012

How to Never Get Arrested For DUI in Beverly Hills Again

You recently got stopped for DUI in Beverly Hills.

Perhaps you ran a light while cruising Wilshire at 2 AM following a raucous industry party. Perhaps you had one-too-many wine coolers at the Sunday Beverly Hills Farmers’ Market and hopped behind the wheel of your Beamer…while a police officer saw the whole thing unfold. In any case, you are pretty frightened about what might happen — not only with respect to your driving privileges (e.g. will you lose your license or not?) but also with respect to your freedom, your car insurance, and your life in general.

After all, it wasn’t as if your life was smooth sailing before the DUI. You probably had tons on your plate – with respect to your business, your family, your recreational activities, possible health issues, etc. Now, on top of everything else, you need to get a handle on your Beverly Hills DUI.

Here’s the reality. There is no “one size fits all” defensive posture that’s appropriate for all defendants. Depending on circumstances, you may be smart to plead not guilty and fight tooth and nail to show that the Beverly Hills DUI breathalyzer test that you allegedly failed was miscalibrated. In other cases, it makes sense to cooperate with prosecutors and try to get your charges pled down. In other cases, you may need to construct an elaborate, thoughtful defense, particularly if you injured somebody or got arrested on multiple charges, such as resisting arrest, hit and run, etc.

While an experienced Beverly Hills DUI criminal defense attorney from the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers (9107 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 450, Beverly Hills, California 90210 Phone: (310) 550-6935) can certainly help you establish and follow through on the right strategy for your needs, you also want to be looking at your long-term future. Sure, you want to “get through” your DUI related drama. But you also want to fix any underlying habits or behaviors or other structural problems in your life that caused you to get into trouble in the first place.

Researchers at Harvard have shown that people who “pre-think” their challenges and problems can often protect themselves against bad behaviors or habits. For instance, let’s say that you have a tendency to “get a little loose” at industry party events and drink more than you know you should. This “getting a little loose” can cause you to lose your judgment and do stupid things like get behind the wheel after a party. If you wait until the party to deal with your impulses, you are probably destined to wage a losing battle. On the other hand, if you know that you have this proclivity, you can create “if / then” statements to guide your behavior. Just like airline pilots need to be able to react instinctively – push the orange button, not the blue button, if the plane is crashing – you also need explicit instructions to help you avoid another Beverly Hills DUI.

For instance, you can construct “if thens” to the effect of:

• “IF I go to an industry party, THEN I will be sure to name a designated driver before I RSVP.”
• Or: “IF I feel myself “getting a little loose’’ at a party and I don’t have a designated driver, THEN I will immediately turn my keys over to the bartender at the party and insist that he call me a cab when I am ready to leave.”

If you can figure out the right “if then” treatments for your particular issues and then essentially memorize them, you should be more likely to make better, safer decisions the next time you are tempted to ignore your better angels.

Connect with a Beverly Hills DUI attorney at the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers now for immediate assistance with your case.

April 16, 2012

Life After a DUI near USC or UCLA

by Michael Kraut

Perhaps you were stopped for driving under the influence near UCLA on Westwood Boulevard after munching on one-too-many late night warm Diddy Reese cookies and sipping on beers with friends. Or maybe you were stopped on Vermont near USC for speeding and reckless driving after a frat house party. In any event, the lapse of judgment or reason has created massive havoc in your life. How might your UCLA or USC DUI arrest – and possible conviction – impact not only your freedom and ability to drive but also your academic and professional future?

The college years (and graduate school years) are times of experimentation. After being confined by your parents’ rules for so long, you can be tempted to “push the envelope” and test the limits of your school and society. Some experimentation is natural – and even healthy. Some rules were, indeed, made to be broken. But not rules like California Vehicle Code Section 23152 (a) or 23152 (b) – the laws that cover misdemeanor Los Angeles DUI.

If you are convicted of violating these CVC codes, penalties can come at you from many directions:

* You can lose your license for up to a year.
* You can be compelled to attend alcohol school and adhere to strict probation terms.
* You may have to spend substantial time behind bars.
* You may be compelled to install something called an interlock ignition device (IID) in your vehicle – this device prevents you from driving your car unless you can blow a “sober breath” into a breathalyzer like device.
* You may also have to pay court costs and fines and fees.

And those are just the direct costs of a Los Angeles DUI!

The indirect costs are often both more subtle and more damaging:

* For instance, your insurance rates can go up – costing you thousands of dollars over the next few years.
* If you get arrested again for DUI or any other crime, your future penalties can be spiked because of a past conviction.
* You could get into academic trouble.
* Even if UCLA or USC does not explicitly punish you, your “DUI drama” may distract you from your school work, impair your ability to attend classes or attend the job that you need to pay for school, and so forth.

The silver lining to this very dark cloud is that an experienced UCLA or USC DUI attorney can profoundly help you – either by getting the charges dismissed altogether or by getting them pled down to lesser offenses. A good attorney can also help provide guidance and resources to help you understand what went wrong – what were the underlying forces that drove you to break the law or get in trouble with the police.

To achieve your best scenario outcome, you may need to act with some haste and retain a top quality Los Angeles DUI attorney. Consider working with the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers’s own Michael Kraut – a widely recognized and celebrated Los Angeles DUI criminal defense attorney who has been featured on CBS, KTLA News, FOX News, and other sources. Mr. Kraut attended Harvard Law School and worked for years as a prosecutor. He can help you strategize to formulate the most appropriate defense. Call now: Local: (323) 464-6453 Toll Free: (888) 334-6344. The KLG is located at 6255 Sunset Boulevard, Suite 1520, Los Angeles, California 90028.

April 11, 2012

How to Make Your Long Beach DUI Situation Much, Much Worse – Just Do What This Guy Did…

by Michael Kraut

You or a friend or fellow student recently got arrested for DUI in Long Beach or DUI elsewhere in LA (like UCLA or USC). Frankly speaking, you’re pretty scared. You don’t want to go to jail. You’re nervous about the potential of losing your license, having to a transit through weeks or months of alcohol school and probation, and paying massive court fines and fees… when you can barely pay your student loans. While a Los Angeles DUI attorney can help you deal with your legal woes, you also might benefit from some introspection – from looking inside to determine what, if anything, caused you to get in trouble with the law.

Perhaps your Long Beach DUI arrest was a fluke – maybe you weren’t actually DUI and the breathalyzer malfunctioned. Or maybe you were right on the bubble — your arrest was a product of poor planning and slightly “off” judgment. But if you have a tendency to drive under the influence in Long Beach or elsewhere, you need to investigate your habits and beliefs now before they become even greater problems.

To take an extreme counter-example, consider the case of 48-year-old Bradley Noble, who was pulled over in Montana last Wednesday for his eighth DUI charge.

His sentence? 10 years behind bars.

He racked up his last DUI 10 years ago — back in January 2002 — and received a 20-year jail sentence with 5-years suspended. Two and a half years later, he was granted parole. But he was sent back to prison in June 2006 due to parole violations. Finally, near the end of 2006, Noble got released. But his troubles did not stop there. He was caught possessing alcohol on two occasions, in violation of his probationary arrangement. He was also caught driving a car four times since 2006 – also in violation of his restrictions. Sadly, the story ended with Noble’s alleged DUI recidivism. He got hit with a jail sentence of 15 years in prison with five suspended, and he must complete a pre-release program called the WATCH program before he can get parole.

You don’t want to rack up multiple Long Beach DUI convictions for obvious reasons. To that end, it’s helpful (and scary) to know what will happen if you become a convicted recidivist (get convicted more than one time). If you rack up three or more DUIs within a decade, prosecutors can escalate your charges and force you to serve much long jail sentences and pay higher fees and fines. A third Long Beach DUI within 10 years, for instance, can be ratcheted up from a misdemeanor to a felony – meaning you could serve a year or longer jail sentence.

There is no one-size-fits-all solution for your defense – or for tackling the larger psychological, financial, and emotional problems that might have driven you to violate the law in the first place. That being said, a stellar, highly reputable attorney at the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers (444 West Ocean, Suite 800 Long Beach, California 90802 Phone: (562) 531-7454) in Long Beach can help you make massive progress. Attorney Kraut served as a city prosecutor (Senior District Attorney for Los Angeles for 14-plus years) before switching over to become Long Beach DUI defense attorney.

March 21, 2012

Beverly Hills DUI Education: Should Our Educators Take a Hint From Folks Up In Sacramento?

by Michael Kraut

Getting caught for driving under the influence (DUI) in Beverly Hills can be a big, big deal, not only because it can lead to life-changing legal repercussions, like prison time and loss of your driver’s license, but also to massive spikes in your insurance rates that can persist for years and cost you thousands of dollars. And that’s if you are convicted of a standard misdemeanor as opposed to a more severe charge, like a felony. But how can we, as a community, figure out why people tend to drive under the influence and what we might be able to do to collectively to change the behaviors and minimize the risks involved.

It’s easy to take a casual glance at the problem and begin moralizing. It’s easy to fall into an “us versus them” mentality:

• “That DUI driver is a careless or negligent individual.”
• “What really needs to happen is we need to punish people more”
• “The person who drove DUI was (insert label or judgment here: lazy, uncaring, selfish, etc)”

As any Los Angeles DUI attorney will tell you, the pool of defendants is far more diverse than many people realize. It’s not just “irresponsible teenagers” or “club-hopping twenty-somethings” that get nabbed for this crime.

Rather than focus just on punishing, dissuading, or stopping individuals from driving under the influence, it might be useful to address some of the underlying social causes.

To change the mentality, we may need different and more sophisticated educational tools. In Sacramento, students at Kennedy High School recently witnessed the real life sentencing of a DUI offender. The defendant, 25-year old Kristyna Robinson, got caught driving with a BAC level of 0.13%. The legal limit for DUI in Beverly Hills is 0.08%, as defined by California Vehicle Code Section 20152 (b). After drinking four beers and some whisky, she got pulled over and spent hours in jail. Her sentence included two more days in jail, informal probation, and fines totaling $2,300. The students witnessed her being led off in handcuffs with her head lowered. A sobering and emotionally-charged portrait of the potential consequences of DUI in Beverly Hills.

If we can make DUI more unacceptable to groups (as opposed to targeting individuals only), we might be able to find new points of leverage that will aid us in keeping our city and our streets safer… and in treating offenders with more compassion and respect.

If you or someone else needs the services of a Beverly Hills DUI criminal defense attorney, consider connecting today with the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers (9107 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 450, Beverly Hills, California 90210 Phone: (310) 550-6935). As a graduate of Harvard Law School and a former senior deputy district attorney for Los Angeles, Mr. Kraut has a wealth of experience, a terrific record at jury trials, and the resources and investigative tools to get you results.

March 19, 2012

Long Beach DUI Lessons: Mets’ Catcher’s DUI Rollover Holds Clues for Defendants

by Michael Kraut

If you recently got stopped for driving under the influence (DUI) in Long Beach – or got into a serious accident while DUI (or allegedly DUI), your life likely feels rather out of control right now. It can be useful to take a look at relevant DUI news items to give your situation some context and help you think more constructively about your options.

To that end, let’s examine some breaking news out of St. Lucie County, Florida, where 32-year-old Eric Langill, a former bullpen catcher for the New York Mets, rolled over his car at a traffic circle near Commerce Center Parkway and Reserve Road. Langill told witnesses that someone had cut him off—that’s why the car flipped. Initial reports from local law enforcement officials seem to support his conclusion. His white Honda Accord banked “hard to the right” as he approached the intersection, causing a kind of Rube-Goldberg’s-contraption type of accident. According to a report from WPTV, Langill’s car went “over a curb and hit a street sign and concrete fountain at the center of the traffic circle . . . [causing] the car to flip upside down.”

Fortunately, a witness and a friend came to the scene and helped Langill escape through the passenger door. The report said that he had consumed about three drinks that night. But it does not give an indication of whether he took a blood test. As a Los Angeles DUI attorney will tell you, the legal limit for DUI in Long Beach (and Florida) is 0.08%. But you need not test for a high BAC to get arrested and charged – you can be busted for DUI in Long Beach pursuant to a different California Vehicle Code, 23152 (a).

What Can We Learn from Langill’s Experience?

First of all, as a good Los Angeles DUI lawyer will tell you, even simple-seeming accidents or stops can lead to complex consequences. In other words, you may not be able to intuit your best defense strategy or even understand what caused the crash until you really probe the evidence, look at police reports, analyze whether or how breath or blood tests were performed, etc.

If you were DUI when you got into an accident that hurt another person, the circumstances of the crash are extremely important. If you cause the accident due to your DUI, your penalties can be escalated significantly—you can be charged with DUI pursuant to California Vehicle Code Sections 23153 (a) and (b). This can be a significant shift – making what could have been a misdemeanor into a felony, for instance. On the other hand, if the other driver is at fault, you may still be charged for DUI, but it can be a significantly lesser charge.

The point is that, to protect your rights and avoid making mistakes, it is helpful to connect with a Long Beach DUI criminal defense attorney like Michael Kraut of Long Beach’s Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers (444 West Ocean, Suite 800 Long Beach, California 90802 Phone: (562) 531-7454). For 14 years, Mr. Kraut worked as a prosecutor for the City of Los Angeles. Now, in his capacity as a top-level criminal defense attorney, he uses his knowledge of the prosecutorial mindset and philosophy to get results for his clients.

March 7, 2012

Long Beach DUI Multiple Offender? Not Necessarily a Problem: Ask Rodney King

by Michael Kraut

If you got arrested and convicted more than once for a crime like DUI in Long Beach, your prospects may be grim, indeed. Prosecutors like to “throw the book” at so called recidivists – people who commit the same crimes more than one time.

As any Los Angeles DUI attorney will tell you, if you are convicted for this crime more than once within a 10-year period, your penalties start to escalate in terms of:

• length of your jail sentence
• amount of alcohol school you need to attend
• duration of your license suspension
• strictness of your probation
• fees and court costs
• and more
But just because you have a DUI on your record does not necessarily mean that you are going to get raked over the coals. For instance, take a look at Rodney King’s situation.

Mr. King, whose videotaped beating touched off the notorious early 1990s Los Angeles riots, was arrested last July in Riverside County for DUI. He was also convicted for DUI in 2004. Police reports suggested that King’s BAC level was 0.06% — just shy of the Long Beach DUI cutoff of 0.08%, as defined by California Vehicle Code 23152(b).

That being said, officers say that they found marijuana in his system as well. All those factors – coupled with his 2004 conviction – could have spelled big trouble for the man famous for his remark “Can’t We All Just Get Along?” But – miracle of miracles (at least as far as King was concerned) – he managed to strike a plea deal with prosecutors that allowed him to escape serving jail time. This wasn’t to say that he got off scot free. In addition to pleading guilty, King agreed to pay court costs and a $500 fine, attend alcohol classes for nine months, endure three years of summary probation, and spend 20 days under house arrest. Given the alternatives for recidivist Long Beach DUI violators, King got a pretty square deal.

Your options change depending on innumerable factors. Did you hurt someone while DUI? Did you cause property damage? Did you resist police arrest? Are you prepared to accept culpability for what happened (if indeed you were to blame)? Do you have prior convictions on you record? If so, what were they for?

Only a qualified Los Angeles DUI lawyer can really help you sort out the best strategies and methods for dealing with prosecutors. In some cases, it makes more sense to fight your charges. In another cases, it might make more sense to aim for a plea deal. To really unpack your best solutions, connect with an experienced Long Beach DUI criminal defense attorney with the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers (444 West Ocean, Suite 800 Long Beach, California 90802 Phone: (562) 531-7454). Mr. Kraut is one of the most widely known and respected Los Angles DUI lawyers. He served as a Senior Deputy District Attorney for 14 plus years (after attending Harvard Law School, no less) before switching roles to become an advocate of defendants. His experience fighting on both sides gives him a unique advantage that he can bring to bear to help you.

February 29, 2012

Are Burbank DUI Breathalyzers Tests Based on Bad Science? Can That Really Be?

by Michael Kraut

If you failed a breathalyzer and got arrested for driving under the influence in Burbank or elsewhere in the Southland, odds are you are beating yourself up right now. You’re scrambling to figure out how your life will change once your California driver’s license is stripped away, you’re forced to pay massive fines and spiked insurance rates, and you’re compelled by law to serve jail time.

Before you continue dreaming up “worst case scenarios,” it may be worth it to take a breath (no pun intended) and learn a little bit about the potentially flawed and contaminated science behind Burbank DUI breathalyzer tests.

Many Questions, Surprisingly Feeble Rebuttals
1. The “lung volume” problem.

The volume of air that you expel from your lungs depends on a slate of factors. Are you a man or a woman? Did you take a big breath or a shallow one? Often, police officers will ask you to take a deep breath before a breathalyzer to yield a higher BAC rating.

2. The “diversity of metabolism” problem.

Every person’s biochemistry is different. We have different metabolisms. Our blood vessels dilate differently. We absorb alcohol at different rates in different situations. Our bronchial tubes are different — this fact, too, can impact the rate at which the alcohol permeates into the sample. Our “blood breath” ratio can vary widely, depending on temperature, genetics, and other factors. Most breathalyzers are rudimentary, simple tools — not great for dealing with the massive complexity of the human body.

3. Prominent researchers’ concerns are un-refuted.

Researchers like A.W. Jones, Kurt Dubowski and Michael Hlastala — widely recognized authorities in alcohol breath testing — have pointed out many flaws in the common methodologies. Dr. Kurt Dubowski, a decorated member of the National Safety Council’s Committee on Alcohol and Other Drugs (CAOD) and recipient of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences’ top honor, has been a vocal critic of breathalyzer thinking. In one paper, Dr. Dubowski argued that time curves for blood alcohol can vary widely: most people assume that alcohol gets absorbed within 60-90 minutes, but the science tells us this is just not true.

An Isolated Example of “Junk Science”?

As any Los Angeles DUI lawyer will take you, most Burbank DUI defendants automatically assume that breathalyzer results must be “true” or at least probably valid because these tests are so ubiquitous and popular. If they didn’t work, why do so many police still use them? If the science is so bad and ambiguous – as this blog article and many other sources have argued – then why has there not been more of an uproar?

The answer has to do, probably, with human groupthink. Indeed, there is evidence in a surprisingly diverse number of fields that junk science may be the norm. It could impact fields as far ranging as climate science, diet and nutrition science, and even particle physics.

Of course, you are probably less interested in saving the world than in figuring out what to do about your Burbank DUI. To that end, connect with a Burbank DUI criminal defense attorney at the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers (2600 West Olive Avenue, 5th Floor, Burbank, California 91505 Phone: (818) 563-9810) to get a free and comprehensive consultation to find your best defense strategy.

February 22, 2012

How Many Long Beach DUI Arrests Does It Take to Make the National News Headlines?

by Michael Kraut

If you’re tagged for driving under the influence in Long Beach one time or twice, your story likely won’t make the AP, TMZ.com, or any other high-profile media outlet. Unless, of course, there is something extravagant or strange about your arrest—you are a celebrity, a politician, you drove a lawnmower while DUI, you rode a horse on top of a camel on top of a pig while DUI, etc. Likewise, if this isn’t your first or second arrest but your 102nd, odds are great that you will make the national spotlight.

Consider the news last week. In Westport, Massachusetts, a driver from East Falmouth scored his sixth DUI, and the arrest made regional news. In Missoula, KPAX TV is reporting a parallel story—a man who had five DUI convictions under his belt notched his sixth charge the weekend before last on Brooks Street. In Tennessee, Kyle Brasher, 27, of Franklin, Tennessee posted a bond after he was arrested for his fourth DUI.

The intensity of the alleged crime, as well as its eccentricities, combine to make a Long Beach DUI story “newsworthy” or not.

As a Los Angeles DUI lawyer would tell you, any charge of DUI in Long Beach is serious—whether it’s on the front page or just the local police blotter. But if your story is fascinating in some way, or if you are charged with a serious crime, such as a hit and run or fatal DUI, or if your BAC level is extremely high (0.50 and or above), or if you did something crazy after your arrest like punch a police officer or spit a breathalyzer test back in an officer’s face, then your story might get picked up by the blogosphere and the major media.

What to do if your Long Beach DUI story “goes viral”

It’s challenging enough to deal with an arrest for a scary, embarrassing charge like DUI in Long Beach, even if your arrest is low profile.

If your case is on the road to becoming “famous,” the quality of your representation will play an enormous role, not only in determining whether or not you are cleared of the charges and can get “back to normal” quickly, but also in terms of whether you successfully deal with the media and the negative attention. If you make inappropriate public comments, you could ratchet up your challenges ten-fold.

Dealing in Reality
You may regret what happened on the night or day of your arrest/accident. That’s a normal feeling—that’s human. Some regret, in fact, is healthy. But regret, in and of itself, can’t help you plan your next steps. You need clarity. What’s your current reality? What are your challenges? What are the charges against you? What are you doing to prepare?

You also need clear goals: what’s the best-case outcome for your case? How can you recover emotionally, financially, and legally? Lastly, you need the right strategies and outside help to bridge the gap between your current reality and your vision for success.

Let Attorney Michael Kraut of the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers (444 West Ocean, Suite 800 Long Beach, California 90802 Phone: (562) 531-7454 ) help you discover an effective strategy for going forward. Attorney Kraut is a highly successful and well-respected Long Beach DUI criminal defense lawyer with a Harvard Law School background, and he served in the DA’s office as a prosecutor for more than 14 years.

February 17, 2012

DUI in Glendale Sports News Blotter: Broncos’ Knowshon Moreno Busted for DUI in his Bentley

by Michael Kraut

The Super Bowl may be over (sorry, Pats fans), but the Glendale DUI sports news keeps pumping out interesting stories. The Associated Press reports that Knowshon Moreno, a running back for the Denver Broncos, was pulled over in South Denver last week on charges that he had been speeding in a construction zone (going 70 miles per hour when the speed limit was 45 mph) and driving under the influence of alcohol.

Not great news for Moreno or the Broncos. Moreno is on the roster bubble—he is recovering from a torn ACL he suffered last year—and the Broncos’ stern written response may not augur well for his prospects next year (assuming he is well enough to play).

You might be wondering: What does Moreno’s relatively pedestrian arrest mean, if you’ve been charged with the driving under the influence in Glendale?

Good question.

We can extract several lessons from what happened to him:

1. No one is immune from Glendale DUI charges.

In some sense, it’s helpful to read stories about sports figures, politicos, legislators, and even police officers who have been tagged for crimes like driving under the influence. As a Los Angeles DUI lawyer will tell you, many defendants feel alone or isolated—full of self-blame and self-judgment. When you see just how many different people from diverse backgrounds get charged with this crime, you at least feel slightly less alone.

2. DUI is often psychologically driven.

No one can know what was going inside Moreno’s head before and after he got caught. But consider that he had torn his ACL and had been out for the season; he was on the so-called “roster bubble”; and he was still recovering from one of the Broncos’ most watched seasons in years (thanks to the heroics of QB Tim Tebow). All that pressure undoubtedly played some role in Moreno’s decision-making process. As a good Los Angeles DUI attorney will tell you, your underlying psychology can have an unbelievably profound influence on your capacity to build and execute a sound defense.

3. Your Glendale DUI arrest is just the beginning.

Your life is not over. In fact, you have a tremendous ability to influence your future. The bad choices you made may have profoundly negative effects: You could wind up serving significant jail time, suffer a long license suspension, be compelled to attend mandatory alcohol classes, be forced to install an interlock ignition device in your vehicle, and so on.

For instance, if you try to represent yourself or if you choose a poor Los Angeles DUI lawyer to represent you, your case could wind up compromised. On the other hand, by connecting with a Glendale DUI criminal defense attorney at the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers (121 W Lexington Dr, Glendale, CA 91203 Phone: (818) 507-9123), you might be able to begin on the road not just to saving your license and staying out of jail, but also to dealing with the underlying problems that led you to this brush with the law in the first place.

Attorney Kraut understands what defendants need. He also understands what prosecutors need and how they operate because he was one—he served as a Senior Deputy District Attorney for Los Angeles for nearly a decade and a half. He is widely recognized as one of the top authorities of Los Angeles DUI law. Attorney Kraut is widely sought after as a trusted commentator on Los Angeles DUI news by likes of the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, Fox News, KTLA, etc.

February 8, 2012

Are All Pasadena DUI Defendants Treated Equal? Story Out of Denver Suggests…Maybe Not

by Michael Kraut

The law is the law. Driving under the influence in Pasadena (or elsewhere in the Southland) can be punished pursuant to California Vehicle Codes 23152(a) or 23152(b)…or, if you caused injury to someone, by the harsher CVC Codes 22153(a) and 22153(b).

No one wants to have to find a Los Angeles DUI lawyer to fight these charges and deal with the hassles of punishments like license suspension, mandatory alcohol school, mandatory interlock ignition device installation, fines, court costs, jail time, insurance hikes, destruction of personal reputation, etc.

But at the very least, if we’ve been accused of a DUI in Pasadena, we can take heart that the law will treat us just like it would treat any other citizen. After all, this is America.

Or is it?

Steven Colbert style humor aside, a news story out of Denver, Colorado has some observers scratching their heads: are some Pasadena defendants, in fact, more privileged than others?

The Scoop Out of Denver
In late January, Denver police nearly arrested Republican representative Laura Bradford for DUI. Nearly, but didn’t. Bradford was driving erratically, after she attended a “lobbyist happy hour” function. It’s unclear whether or not she was actually above the legal limit for DUI in Pasadena (or Colorado or wherever) of 0.08% BAC. But critics have accused the lawmaker of “invoking legislative immunity” to get out of her DUI charge.

A spokesperson for the Denver Police Department, Matt Murray, issued an apology for harassing Bradford. Curiously, Bradford reportedly told the sergeant who pulled her over that she had a firearm at her car. In Colorado, if you drive DUI with a firearm, you can be tagged with a significant misdemeanor.

Meanwhile, the political implications of this “DUI that wasn’t” could really stir the pot of Colorado’s politics.

Currently, Colorado’s house is almost totally divided between Republicans and Democrats: 33 to 32. Bradford now may face an ethics investigation. She’s apparently furious at the “lack of support” she’s received from Republican colleagues. She’s even hinted that she might switch parties. If she went from Republican to Independent, Colorado politics would be momentarily thrown into turmoil, since the House would have to elect a new speaker. If she flipped to the Democratic side, the Democrats would control the ball game.

Not every Pasadena DUI case is as dramatic and fraught with political implications, obviously.

That said, you want to connect to a Los Angeles DUI attorney who has the capacities, resources and experience to help you, if your case does become complicated or convoluted. So even if your situation seems simple now – perhaps you just got pulled over at a checkpoint and tagged for driving under the influence in Pasadena with a BAC of 0.10% or something (no injuries or vehicle damage, etc) – the seeming simplicity of your case may be misleading. When your Los Angeles DUI lawyer delves into your case, who knows what he or she might find? You need to be prepared to face anything the prosecutors will throw at you.

To that end, consider connecting today with Pasadena DUI criminal defense attorney Michael Kraut of Pasadena’s Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers (790 East Colorado Boulevard, 9th floor, Pasadena, California 91101 Phone: (626) 345-1899). For nearly a decade and a half, Mr. Kraut served as a city prosecutor (going after people for crimes like DUI) before switching over to become a criminal defendant. Connect with this well-established, highly reputable, Harvard Law School educated attorney today to solve your Pasadena DUI defense issues.