Driving Under the Influence

October 30, 2015

Warning: El Niño’s Rains May Make Los Angeles DUI Events That Much More Dangerous

Everyone knows that driving under the influence in Los Angeles (or anywhere, frankly) puts drivers at an elevated risk of getting into accidents, hurting themselves and others, and causing property damage. However, to understand the true risks associated with dangerous driving of any kind, you need context.

Someone just barely overly the legal limit (as established by California Vehicle Code Section 23152) of 0.08% BAC — who is otherwise alert, driving on a sunny, clear road and at a stable, slow speed — is probably far less likely to get into a crash than someone driving with the same BAC level at night, while blasting music and chatting with a girlfriend on a cellphone.

Driving risk factors stack up.

To maximize your safety on the road, be aware not just of your alcohol consumption but also of other elements that could make driving less safe. For instance:

• Your level of distraction – are you fully attentive behind the wheel?
• Are you listening to music or eating?
• Are you chatting with someone on a cellphone? (Even talking on a hands free headset can lead to driving errors comparable to the errors you’d make while DUI, according to research from the University of Utah.)
• How tired are you? (Fatigue is a major factor in auto accidents. One study out of Australia found that someone who stays up 24 hours in a row exhibits a level of impairment commensurate with DUI level of impairment.)
• What are the road conditions like? Are the roads potholed and bumpy or smooth and well-marked?
• Weather – is it dry? Or is it raining? (The first 45 minutes after a rain following a long period of dryness can be quite treacherous.)

As El Niño stirs up trouble in the Pacific, weather forecasters expect serious rain here in the Southland this winter. These bouts of rain will be dispersed with periods of dryness, so we can expect the weather to ratchet up the level of treacherousness on the Los Angeles roads and complicate car accident cases. (For instance, was your wreck caused by DUI driving or by slick conditions or both?)

Call the strategic, respected Los Angeles DUI defense attorneys here at the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers, and recover peace of mind and clarity about your situation.

October 28, 2015

The Day Before Thanksgiving: Why It’s Such a Dangerous Time for Los Angeles DUIs

by Michael Kraut

As the holiday season approaches, most people are looking forward to Thanksgiving turkey, Christmas presents and 2016 fireworks. But a small percentage of people will face unpleasant surprises, such as Los Angeles DUI arrests. Believe it or not, DUI arrests are not spread out evenly throughout the year. Some days are actually more dangerous for DUIs than others.

Statistical analyses have revealed, for instance, that major national holidays, such Memorial Day weekend, Labor Day weekend, the 4th of July, Super Bowl Sunday and New Year’s Eve tend to be more dangerous than average days. In a recent post, we talked about confounders that make easy explanations for this phenomenon hard to identify.

(The “too long; didn’t read” of it is this: just because you notice an ASSOCIATION between two variables — holidays and DUI arrests, for instance — doesn’t mean that you can know what CAUSES what.)

In any event, these analyses, for whatever reason, show that the day before Thanksgiving tends to be a particularly dangerous time. Thanksgiving is also dangerous, but it’s not as dangerous as the eve of Thanksgiving.

Why is this?

One theory is that college students home for break often spend the night before Thanksgiving out with friends, partying. During Thanksgiving, they stay at home with their families and eat and drink inside. But the night before, they go out to bars. Although parents don’t want to hear this, statistics show that children who go off to college often experiment with alcohol and drugs in a fairly predictable manner, even though it’s illegal for minors to do so.

Driving DUI under any circumstances can get you into serious trouble, leading to license suspension, hikes on your insurance rates, and jail time. But driving under the influence while under the age of 21 can lead to special punishments, and the legal system is less lenient. For instance, a minor stopped with a BAC of just 0.05% could lose her license, even though that BAC would be under the legal limit for an adult.

The experienced Los Angeles DUI defense attorneys at the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers would love to learn more about what you are going through and help you develop a sound strategic plan.

October 19, 2015

Notable October DUIs – John Stamos, Cre Moore and Tim Chambers

by Michael Kraut

DUI arrests of sports and entertainment figures always make the news, and this October witnessed some serious charges.
The most prominent Los Angeles DUI arrest involved none other than “Grandfathered” actor John Stamos, whom police pulled over after receiving calls about an erratic driver.

The officers initially took Stamos to a hospital out of concern he had some medical condition. Police later charged slapped him with a DUI; tests allegedly determined that Stamos was under the influence of drugs while operating his vehicle. This misdemeanor charge could result in the former star of Full House spending six months in jail.

The sports world also saw two high-profile arrests this month. Cre Moore, the defensive back for the Kansas State football team, crashed his 2014 Ford F-15 in Riley County, Kansas, around 3 in the morning of October 4th. He left the road, hitting a pole and then a stone wall before coming to a stop. The 20-year-old Moore didn’t suffer any injuries, although his vehicle received major damage. But police who went to the scene allegedly did find several pills in Moore’s car, and they charged Moore with DUI and possession of depressants.

The head baseball coach at the University of Nevada, Tim Chambers, faces legal and job troubles after his arrest for arrest for driving under the influence on October 6th. After police charged Chambers with DUI, two counts of failure to maintain a lane and a violation of the proof of insurance requirement, the university immediately placed him on an administrative leave of absence until the courts resolve the charges against him. Chambers is in his fifth year of coaching the UNLV Rebels. The university has a zero-tolerance policy for alcohol for its athletes.

What should you do if you or someone you love faces a serious DUI count? Will you go to jail? Will you lose your license? Call Los Angeles DUI defense lawyer Michael Kraut immediately to understand your options and craft a strategic response.

October 12, 2015

DUI Drivers Who Demand Attention – Setting Off Fireworks Is Not a Way to Lay Low

by Michael Kraut

Intoxicated drivers trying to avoid charges of DUI in Los Angeles should always try to avoid calling attention to themselves. If they attract the eye of a police officer, a pedestrian or another driver, they may find themselves spending several hours in jail. One man in California and two men in Delaware learned this lesson the hard way.

In San Manteo County, California, 25-year-old Daniel Moran probably couldn’t have found a better way of getting the police to come to him. When he set off fireworks around quarter to four in the morning of October 3rd, neighbors complained to authorities because they thought someone was shooting a gun. When sheriff’s deputies arrived they found that Moran didn’t have a gun, just fireworks. But they claimed he was intoxicated and driving under the influence and charged him accordingly.

In Newark, Delaware, police officers found 57-year-old John R. Owens passed out in a school bus parking lot. Owens had driven his Dodge Caliber into the parking lot of the First Student Transportation bus yard and hit one bus before exiting the yard. Apparently not satisfied with this first attempt, he drove back into the yard, hit a fence, and promptly passed out. Although Owens wasn’t injured in the crash, emergency medical personnel had to remove him from the car. They then transported him to the hospital to get checked out.

Getting arrested for DUI appears to be a habit for Owens; it was the seventh time he’s been up on these charges.

Meanwhile, in the southern part of the state, Samuel E. Pu Tzoy hit a Jeep Cherokee—causing it to flip several times—before crashing into the rear of a Lewes Police Department vehicle. Pu Tzoy got a great deal of attention thanks to this accident, and he now faces a great many charges. They include vehicular assault, driving under the influence of alcohol, leaving the scene of a collision resulting in injury, failure to stop at a stop sign, driving without a valid license, disregarding a police officer’s signal, reckless driving and other traffic offenses.

Designing and executing an effective defense against DUI charges (even simple ones) is not intuitive. Fortunately, you can trust the seasoned, highly successful Michael Kraut. Call a DUI lawyer in Los Angeles with nearly two decades of experience.

October 7, 2015

Déjà Vu for Chicago-Area DUI Arrest

by Michael Kraut

Police officers who constantly have to arrest people for a Los Angeles DUI probably experience a sense of déjà vu each time they stop someone suspected of a DUI. Or maybe they feel trapped in an endless loop that keeps repeating (like Bill Murray in the movie Groundhog Day). But a suburban Chicago police officer arresting a certain DUI driver in mid-September had a good reason for getting that done-it-all-before feeling.

According to a local CBS station, the unnamed Riverside police officer had been sitting at a traffic light on September 19 at around three in the morning, when a car driven by 22-year-old Angel Calleros swerved towards him. That got the officer’s attention, and he pursued Callero’s vehicle, which was traveling 50 mph in a 30 mph zone and swerving between traffic lanes.

The officer pulled Calleros over on Harlem Avenue–and realized that he had arrested the same man, on the same street, on the same charge, just two weeks before. There were some differences in the experiences, however. For one thing, Calleros refused field sobriety tests at the time of his first arrest, and he agreed to them the second time. (Not that it did him any good–he reportedly failed all six.) In addition, the first time Calleros had been traveling 48 mph in a 35 mph zone. Police also found open liquor bottles (Jack Daniels and tequila) at the time of the first arrest.

Meanwhile, Calleros may have had his own déjà vu experience. Police arrested him for DUI (again), two counts of improper lane usage and speeding.

Unfortunately, multiple DUI arrests aren’t a rarity–online news sources carry many accounts of police charging drivers previously arrested on DUI counts for second and third incidents of driving under the influence.

To understand what to do to fight back against your charges, call Los Angeles DUI defense lawyer, Michael Kraut of Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers. As a former (and highly successful) Deputy District Attorney, Mr. Kraut has fought on behalf of defendants like you for nearly 20 years.

September 30, 2015

Taking Care of Young Children After You’ve Been Arrested for Los Angeles DUI

by Michael Kraut

Many people have a cartoonish view of what a Los Angeles DUI defendant looks like.

Obviously, driving under the influence – or even close to under the influence – is dangerous business, and it can (and does) lead to thousands of death and countless injuries and traumas every year. However, DUI defendants are people too – people with jobs, lives and families.

What happens if police arrest you for this crime, but you need to take care of young children?

September 25, 2015

Dumb DUI Moves

by Michael Kraut

The last thing drivers arrested for a DUI in Los Angeles want to do is call attention to themselves; they don’t want friends, family or employers to know what’s happened. But stories about DUI incidents get a lot more play in the news media when they are out of the ordinary. Here are a few unusual stories that made local headlines.

The Chicago Tribune reported on 28-year-old Jeremy Walsh, who went into a grocery store, opened and chugged a bottle of vodka, left the store without paying for the liquor and then drove away. Officers called to assist observed Walsh’s vehicle crossing over the double yellow line on one of the roads in Naperville, Illinois. Walsh gave a false name and wouldn’t take a breathalyzer test or a field sobriety test. Police charged him with DUI, retail theft, driving without a license and obstructing identification. (Walsh really should have maintained a lower profile. After police arrested him, they found that the Kane County sheriff’s office already wanted him because he failed to appear at a court hearing on reckless driving and speeding charges.)

Then there’s Tara Monroe, a 20-year-old junior at Texas State University. After Monroe refused to take a breathalyzer test on her way home from a concert, her father came to campus and repossessed her car. Monroe’s solution—which gained national news attention—was to buy a kid-size, hot pink Barbie car to tool around campus. At least she can’t speed; the pink Barbie car doesn’t move above 5 miles per hour.

North Carolina resident Patrick Mercer, 29, made headlines when he taunted Tennessee police on Facebook. After Tennessee police posted photos of people wanted on outstanding domestic violence warrants, Mercer responded that he was in North Carolina and the police should come and get him. They did. Mercer ended up in jail charged not only with domestic assault but also with DUI, reckless driving, theft and harassment.

Designing and executing an effective defense against DUI charges (even simple ones) is not intuitive. Fortunately, you can trust the seasoned, highly successful Michael Kraut. Call a DUI lawyer in Los Angeles with nearly two decades of experience.

September 23, 2015

Police Learn to Distinguish Other Types of DUI

by Michael Kraut

Although the majority of cases of DUI in Los Angeles involve excessive alcohol consumption, police in California and other states are seeing more and more DUI incidents caused by illegal and/or prescription drugs.

The Los Angeles Police Department has been a pioneer in training officers to distinguish these types of DUI cases. In the 1970s, two LAPD sergeants worked with medical doctors, research psychologists and other medical professionals to develop a simple, standardized procedure for recognizing drug influence and impairment. Their work resulted in a Drug Evaluation and Classification Program (DECP), which jurisdictions throughout the U.S., Canada and the United Kingdom now employ for training.

Connecticut held its first DECP training in 2011. More recently, the state’s drug recognition experts (DRE) conducted a training class in Manchester. According to the Hartford Courant, the course included 16-hours of initial training, a 56-hour drug recognition school and a 40-60 hour certification process.

The officers had to study the seven categories of drugs and the signature symptoms that users of each type display. The categories include narcotic analgesics (heroin and painkillers); depressants (alcohol and benzos); stimulants (cocaine and meth); inhalants (aerosols and solvents); hallucinogens (peyote and LSD); cannabis (marijuana and hashish); and dissociative anesthetics (PCP).
Police officers who took the course learned how medical equipment such as a blood pressure meter, oral thermometer, a pupilometer (which measures the pupil’s response to visual stimuli) and a stethoscope can help them identify which drugs a suspected DUI driver might have used.

There’s a real need for such programs. A study from the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration showed an increasing number of nighttime weekend drivers will illegal drugs in their systems, rising from 16.3 percent of drivers in 2007 to 20 percent in 2013-2014.

Los Angeles DUI defense lawyer, Michael Kraut, of the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers is standing by to offer critical insight into your case and potential defense options. Call him and his team today to begin regaining control over your case and your life.

September 14, 2015

DUI Driver Appeared Threatening Even While Asleep

by Michael Kraut

Pulling over and taking a nap instead of operating a vehicle might appear to be a good way to avoid charges of DUI in Los Angeles. But people who decide to try this approach might want to double check what else is in the car before they close their eyes for some restorative sleep.

A driver from Colorado Springs, Colorado, will likely remember that precaution if he ever again gets the urge to take a nap after imbibing alcohol. The driver actually made several mistakes. He pulled into the parking lot of a youth sports complex early one Saturday morning in September but failed to turn off the motor of his truck. That attracted the attention of a nearby resident, who became concerned after the truck remained parked with the engine running for more than 90 minutes. When she peeped inside the window, she saw the man passed out with a can of beer between his legs and a gun (later identified by police as a nine-millimeter handgun) by his side. She alerted police, who rushed to the scene.

The driver is obviously a heavy sleeper. TV station KOAA 5 reported that police initially tried to wake him using a public address and their sirens. When that didn’t work, they ended up pulling him out of the car, using shields to protect themselves. They charged him with DUI and prohibited use of weapons.

At least Timothy J. Seeden of Lisle Village, Illinois, didn’t have a gun or an open alcohol container when police caught him napping. They found the Lisle village clerk, who is also a Boy Scout official, sound asleep in his car on a roadway. Police officers said he smelled like alcohol and admitted he had been drinking. Seeden, who has two DUI convictions dating back to the mid-1980s, will face new charges of DUI and driving without insurance.

Designing and executing an effective defense against DUI charges (even simple ones) is not intuitive. Fortunately, you can trust the seasoned, highly successful Michael Kraut. Call a DUI lawyer in Los Angeles with nearly two decades of experience.

September 7, 2015

DUI-Related Accidents Take Grisly Toll – Harrowing Statistics and Stories

by Michael Kraut

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Controls, almost 30 people the U.S. die every day due to crashes that involve alcohol-impaired drivers. That works out to one death every 51 minutes. If you narrow the statistics down to cases of DUI in Los Angeles and other areas of California, 29 percent of the state’s 867 fatal car crashes in 2013 involved a DUI driver.

Online news sources carry reports of deadly DUI accidents every day. They serve as a sad reminder of the real cost of people driving while intoxicated:

• A woman in Queens, New York, lost her entire family in a crash on August 23rd. As Lucie Bouaz-Ostane watched in horror, her husband, eight-year-old son and four-year-old daughter died when fire engulfed their vehicle. Bouaz-Ostane had freed herself but wasn’t able to rescue any of her family members. Oniel Sharpe, a 24-year-old man, had rear-ended their car and then sped away from the scene.

• In San Diego, Antony Schoenele, age 20, had drunk alcohol, smoked marijuana and consumed cocaine before getting behind the wheel. Guadalupe Amado and Lizette Garcia, both in their early 20s, were passengers. Schoenele ended up driving off Friars Road near the Pacific Highway overpass, struck a curb and went airborne. His vehicle hit a pillar and caught fire; then Schoenele climbed over one of his passengers to escape. Prosecutors charged him with gross vehicular manslaughter and held his arraignment hearing at his hospital bed in UC San Diego Medical Center.

• In Western Pennsylvania, firefighter Mathew Poston admitted to drinking four or five beers and at least one tequila shot before driving off with his colleague, 33-year-old Gary Moore. The two never made it to their destination, because Poston stuck a guard rale and a utility pole. Moore, an 18-year veteran of the Yukon Fire Department, died at the accident scene.

To respond effectively to your charges, call a qualified Los Angeles DUI lawyer with the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers today to schedule a free consultation.