Our Burbank DUI news blotter often rehashes intriguing stories about celebrities arrested for driving under the influence and other crimes. 
We’re not trying to be a poor man’s “TMZ” — rather, we write to help defendants (and their loved ones) understand the law little better and to find resources and new ways of thinking about their DUI charges.
But nothing teaches better than a good story.
Many people mistakenly believe that Los Angeles DUI defense attorneys do not care about public safety or have an overly laissez-faire attitude about personal liberties. 
Perhaps some attorneys hold this attitude. But the reality is that the vast majority of good DUI lawyers in Los Angeles and Southern California have strong moral compasses. They have families and friends as well. They know all too well the horrors that can result when the wrong person gets behind the wheel or vehicle at the wrong time.
Not all cases of driving under the influence are equal – not by a long shot
This blog has covered some extremely colorful DUI cases involving, for instance, recidivist offenders who’ve been arrested 9+ times. A recent blog post told the story of a 31-year-old who allegedly drove DUI at 80 miles per hour into his girlfriend and her companion, killing the 21-year-old man, severely hurting the girl, and killing all four of her dogs – all while driving under a suspended license after being dinged with three DUI convictions.
A great attorney can help defendants understand what they are up against and construct extremely sturdy and solid legal responses. But there is no such thing as a miracle worker. If you drove with a 0.45% BAC, and purposely hit a nun pushing a baby, odds are you will face massively serious penalties. As well you should!
The reality, however, is that many people who get arrested for crimes like Los Angeles DUI are borderline or near borderline. Maybe you had one too many drinks at a Hollywood industry party and thought you could “make it home” to Santa Monica because you felt pretty good. But then a trooper saw you changing lanes without signaling. He pulled you over, and then one thing led to another, and you found yourself behind bars. Alternately, maybe you’re a student at UCLA who got a little wild at a party. You decided to sleep in your car, but then a police officer found you with your keys in your hand and arrested you for DUI anyway.
Small, borderline cases like these are far more common than the catastrophic, horrific cases you read about in the news. Obviously, all defendants deserve a good defense. Likewise, DUI victims’ rights obviously must be protected, and justice needs to be done.
We as a society also have an obligation to help DUI convicts get rehabilitated, make reparations if possible, regain control over their lives, and get some clarity about how they can be better citizens.
If you know someone who has recently been arrested for DUI in Los Angeles, or if you yourself have been arrested, connect with the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers for a free consultation. Attorney Michael Kraut is an ex-prosecutor, who’s routinely featured as a DUI expert in major media outlets, like KTLA Los Angeles, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, etc. Mr. Kraut will be happy to talk with you about your DUI case and suggest a way forward.
This Beverly Hills DUI blog is not above covering international news, especially news that concerns celebrities like renowned French actor Gérard Depardieu – perhaps the greatest French actor of all time. 
The 64-year-old Depardieu, however, has also had a colorful, if bizarre, recent history of criminal wrongdoings. Two years ago, he was arrested after he urinated in his seat on a plane, despite the pleas of fellow passengers and flight attendants. More recently, last November 29th, he drove his scooter while under the influence of alcohol to the tune of over four times the legal limit!
If you’re arrested for a way-over-the-limit DUI in Beverly Hills, you can be hit with additional penalties, such as a harsher jail sentence, longer license suspension, more alcohol school, and other sundry penalties. According to news sources, Depardieu could have pled guilty to the charges, got dinged with a small fine, and been on his way.
Instead, the eclectic actor absconded from the country to Belgium. Not only did he ditch his January 8 hearing, but he now faces more serious criminal charges, which could net him up to two years behind bars on top of fines totaling nearly $6,000.
The actor’s citizenship changes require a flowchart to track. Last December, he moved to Belgium to protest the high tax rates in France, prompting the leader of France’s Socialist party to call him names. Meanwhile, Depardieu recently accepted Russian President Vladimir Putin’s offer to make him a citizen of Russia, and he may move to Mordovia to become that region’s Minister of Culture. Depardieu released a statement from Switzerland (confused yet?) regarding his status: “I have a Russian passport, but I remain French and I’ll probably have dual Belgium nationality.”
Good grief.
Obviously, Depardieu’s legal fate – along with where he will ultimately reside – remain up in the air. But his legal situation is certainly fascinating. Of course, if you’re facing a Beverly Hills DUI charge, you’re much less concerned about being entertained and much more concerned about finding an appropriate, sharp Los Angeles DUI lawyer to deal with your charges in a sensible way.
The team here at the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers can help you. Michael Kraut is a highly esteemed lawyer with a great track record. Connect with him and his team for a free consultation today.
You’re a concerned parent whose child was recently charged with a DUI in Long Beach or elsewhere in Southern California. 
You’re likely feeling a destructive cocktail of emotions right now, including anger, confusion, frustration, and helplessness. You worked so hard to raise a child who would abide by the law. The news of the arrest sent shockwaves through your immediate family. It’s forced you to reflect deeply on your values and parental strategies.
Whether your USC undergrad got stopped at a checkpoint on the 405 after an evening of New Year’s revelry; or your teenage daughter caused an injury accident and now faces the possibility of spending over a year behind bars, pursuant to charges under Long Beach injury DUI California Vehicle Code Section 23153, you want practical guidance. You also want to find empathetic, experienced people to help you deal with your own agita that’s been kicked up by the events of the past few days.
Your concern is merited. In fact, by researching and finding an excellent, trusted Southern California DUI criminal defense attorney, you can position your son or daughter to handle the charges better; manage the rehab and penalty phases more maturely; and identify and dispute officer errors and breathalyzer test false positives.
If your grown child can no longer drive to school or work — due to a license suspension stemming from his or her Long Beach DUI — then you may suddenly find yourself chaperoning once again. Likewise, if your child lacks a big savings account, he or she may look to you to pay the steep fines and court costs (which can total in the thousands of dollars). On a more indirect level, the psychological toll of getting arrested and convicted for a Long Beach DUI offense can impact the family for years. If you no longer trust your adult child to make wise decisions, that lack of trust can poison your relationship with the child.
On the other hand, the situation does not have to be grim, even if the offense is dire and the possible punishments manifold.
With the help of a reliable Long Beach DUI criminal defense attorney, like Michael Kraut of the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers, your child can put up stiff resistance to the charges and tap into a wealth of resources to deal with the various issues we’ve discussed in this blog post (as well as others not yet touched upon). Moreover, the DUI event can be re-framed as a learning and growing experience.
Get in touch with the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers now for a free, confidential consultation about what to do, so you can feel more in control and more empowered.
Tonight is New Year’s Eve. That means that your risk of getting arrested for Los Angeles DUI is at its apogee. 
More people get arrested for DUI on New Year’s than on any other day of the year. DUI injuries, fatalities, and other “bad stuff” also tend to spike over the holiday. The Los Angeles Police Department is well aware of the enhanced revere-induced risk, so expect lots of patrols and DUI checkpoints in Burbank, Pasadena, Glendale, and beyond. After the holiday, we’ll blog on the statistics for the holiday weekend. But just understand that today is a dangerous day to drive — even more so than Memorial Day, Super Bowl Sunday, July 4th and St. Patty’s Day.
So be careful out there!
What can you do to reduce your risk of getting into a crash or getting arrested for DUI in Los Angeles? Here are three ideas:
1. Reduce your driving AND walking.
Say you live in Silver Lake. You have a choice between going to an awesome beachside party in Manhattan Beach or a rockin’ shindig in nearby Los Feliz. Choose the Los Feliz option! Do what you can to stay off the road. Also, avoid walking, if possible. Being a pedestrian puts you at risk of being hit by a DUI driver. If you walk while under the influence of alcohol or drugs, you’re at heightened risk of getting hurt or indirectly hurting others.
2. Create multiple “plan B’s.”
One of the problems with so many designated driving plans is that they usually only contain one “escape hatch.” For instance, say your friend Steve is the designated driver. But then Steve gets sick or bails on the party. Now, you have no designated driver, so you’ll be tempted to do something dumb in the moment.
Plan ahead. Work out multiple escape hatches. For instance, keep the number of a cab company in your back pocket AND find a designated driver. If your first plan B fails, you’ve got a back up plan B to leverage instantly.
3. If you do get arrested, get in touch quickly with an experienced Los Angeles DUI attorney.
The Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers offers exemplary, effective, and professional representation for Los Angeles DUI criminal defendants. Attorney Kraut is a former prosecutor who spent 14 plus years on the other side of criminal cases… before switching over to represent defendants like you. He knows exactly how to negotiate with and talk to prosecutors to get excellent results for his clients. Get in touch today for a free consultation.
In a recent piece we did on this Long Beach DUI blog several months ago, we discussed the peculiar case of Utah Highway Patrol trooper, Lisa Steed, who was fired in November for unfairly arresting innocent people on charges of driving under the influence. 
Steed had actually been named a Utah Highway Patrol “trooper of the year” – owing in part to her big arrest numbers. Documents filed with Utah’s Third District Judicial Court suggest that she might have wrongfully charged and arrested literally HUNDREDS of people over the years.
Some of these people pled guilty in court because they could not afford to pay for a DUI defense. The class action against Steed argues that State of Utah owes these DUI defendants substantial damages: they lost property and jobs and suffered untold toil. For instance, one of Steed’s victims, Thomas Romero, said he got pulled over because he had a burned out taillight. Steed suspected he was DUI, but a blood alcohol test revealed that he had a 0.00% BAC.
That’s right: 0.00% BAC. Nada.
Nevertheless, Romero lost his truck to the impound lot. He told reporters “that night when I got pulled over, lost my truck, lost everything I have, my motor home, everything. That hurts.”
Another supposed victim of Steed’s zealousness, Julie Tapia, recounted her horrific tale: “[Steed] never did give me a sobriety test on the spot, even though I asked for it, because I’m like, I haven’t done anything wrong unless I’m drunk on a hamburger, fries and a milkshake. I don’t even drink.”
Steed, meanwhile, has appealed with Utah’s State Personnel Office to try to regain her employment in the Police Department.
If you’ve recently been arrested for driving under the influence in Long Beach or elsewhere in the Southland, odds are the trooper who pulled you over did not flagrantly flout rules of conduct, like Steed allegedly did.
However, officer mistakes are less uncommon than you may realize!
For instance, as we have talked numerous times on this Long Beach DUI blog, breathalyzer tests are notoriously troubled. Diabetics, for instance, release chemical compounds on their breath called ketones, which can adversely affect BAC reading. In other words, you can have consumed zero alcohol and still score a positive on a breath test because of those ketones. Likewise, if you are on certain special diets, you can register a false positive.
Other factors that can throw off your Long Beach DUI breathalyzer test results include: your gender, whether you’re on any medications, whether you have certain medical conditions, the depth into which you blow into the machine (super deep breaths can cause an exaggeratedly positive BAC reading), and much more.
Given that the difference between a dismissal of your charge and a conviction according to California Vehicle Code Section 23152 can hang in the balance, you likely can benefit hugely from a creditable, thorough Long Beach DUI Criminal Defense. Attorney Michael Kraut of the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers and his team would be happy to provide a free and confidential case evaluation to help you strategize and make sound decisions regarding your legal future.
Whether you were pulled over for Beverly Hills DUI on the corner of Doheny and Wilshire near CVS or stopped on Beverly Drive right near where Islands used to be, you recognize that you’re in serious legal trouble. You need immediate assistance in diverse areas of your life. 
Even if “all was well” in your world prior to your Beverly Hills DUI stop, your charges could wreak havoc on your life. You could lose your California driver’s license, get clobbered with massive fees and court costs, and find yourself serving a not-insubstantial amount of time behind bars. If you injured someone while driving DUI, prosecutors could ratchet up your charges pursuant to California Vehicle Code Section 23153(a) and 23153(b) — escalate your misdemeanor charges into felony counts. And we haven’t even begun to talk about the longer-term repercussions regarding your professional life, your intimate relationships, your risk for escalated penalties if you ever break the law again, and spikes in your auto insurance rates.
Unfortunately, there is no way to know how this experience will transform your life, career, and capacity to deal with challenges. However, you can take the first step towards transforming this difficult experience into one of growth, self-compassion, and learning. Consider the DUI as an obstacle to a better life as opposed to the end of the line. You survived the event. You have the mental capacity to understand these words. So you already need to consider yourself extremely lucky. Many people who drive DUI in Beverly Hills just like you did (or allegedly did) never survive to get a second chance, get rehabilitated, and make amends to people they hurt or repair the damage they caused.
Attorney Kraut of the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers in Beverly Hills would be happy to talk to you about what you can do to start to construct a systematic, intelligent defense to the charges against you. Attorney Kraut is a former prosecutor with a long and detailed history of success. The Harvard Law School educated Kraut also has lots of connections as well as deep, empirically validated insights into how to solve tricky legal issues. Connect with his team today to understand your rights.
If you drive a truck DUI in Long Beach or elsewhere in the Southland, not only could you face jail time and a license suspension, but you can also lose your job and face other industry penalties. 
Prosecutors bring the hammer down on DUI truckers for a reason: trucks are the most dangerous vehicles on the roads. They are more massive than passenger cars, motorcycles, and lightweight vans. Thus, they can inflict geometrically increased levels of force during accidents. A 20-ton truck travelling at 60 miles per hour that crashes into a wall will impart as much force on that wall as will a one-ton racecar that smashes into the same wall at 1200 miles per hour – over four hundred miles per hour faster than the speed of sound!
Consider those forces in light of a near tragedy out of a Beaverton, Oregon. 38-year-old Matthew Allen Hamilton almost drove his pick-up truck off of a Highway 217 overpass into traffic. The scene captured national attention: a red pick-up truck dangled precariously, stopped by destruction only by a surprisingly sturdy overpass guard rail.
It took police and rescue workers hours to rescue Hamilton and remove his truck from the guardrail. Once they plucked him down, they gave him a blood alcohol test, which found that he had a 0.50% BAC – that’s well over six times the Long Beach DUI limit. That’s a BAC level high enough to kill many people or at least make them comatose. So in some sense it’s remarkable that Hamilton even survived the drinking, let alone that he survived nearly driving off the overpass.
The drama behind this story notwithstanding, if you’ve been recently pulled over for driving under the influence in Long Beach, you can learn much from understanding Hamilton’s plight and possible best next steps.
1. Getting a Long Beach DUI charge can lead to public humiliation.
Hopefully, your arrest has not yet led to substantial public shaming – it hasn’t cost you clients, friends, prospective job opportunities, etc. But consequences like that can happen.
2. The fact that you survived your Long Beach DUI event means you got incredibly lucky.
You may not feel particularly lucky now, especially if you hurt someone else and/or if you face massive potential criminal penalties. But driving DUI is a dangerous game. In Hamilton’s case, slightly different physics would have resulted in his certain death.
3. You can take action, now, to start making things better.
Just because you are in a dangerous, helpless, or scary position doesn’t mean that you have to suffer helplessly forever. The team here at the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers in Long Beach can help you understand and craft an appropriate Long Beach DUI truckers’ defense and answer your questions about best practices.
Back in 2007, when Lindsay Lohan collected her first and infamous Los Angeles DUI arrest, many in the Hollywood community were shocked. How could such a sweet and promising performer behave so recklessly and out of character. Alas, five years later, after racking up arrest after arrest in diverse circumstances, even Lohan’s most ardent fans are beginning to wonder whether there will ever be an end to the 26-year-old’s legal woes.
To wit, last Friday morning, Lohan got arrested yet AGAIN, this time at the New York City club Avenue, for allegedly punching psychic, Tiffany Mitchell, in the eye. The woman allegedly pursued Lohan to try to tell her fortune. Lohan first asked for space. When Mitchell kept pestering her, Lohan called the woman a “gypsy,” and the two exchanged other colorful words.
Mitchell has already “lawyered up” over the assault. She hired celebrity attorney Gloria Allred. Sensing the potential impending civil lawsuit, Lohan has gone on the offensive and hired a private detective to look into Mitchell’s history. Initial reports from celebrity gossips sites suggest that Mitchell may indeed have a checkered past: some of her psychic clients have allegedly come forward calling her a fraud, and she also may have had legal troubles with respect to non-payment of rent.
Lohan’s situation, however, is more diverse and more dire.
The actress earned huge notoriety over her struggles with her Los Angeles DUI probation revocation. That mini-drama ended with Lohan being compelled to serve a stint in jail and do community service work at a county morgue.
Lohan earned another dubious distinction: she faced four separate criminal charges on the same day, on both coasts, including charges that she resisted a police officer, gave false info to a police officer, and engaged in reckless driving. So Lohan’s legal plate is certainly full. She also received less than lackluster reviews for her performance in the made for TV movie, Liz and Dick.
A Los Angeles DUI charge is often just the tip of the iceberg
If you’ve been recently arrested on one or multiple or similar charges, you may be overly tempted to focus exclusively on your immediate defense and less on the long-term strategic ramifications for your life, career and health.
As a Harvard Law School educated former prosecutor who’s won high praise from peers and clients alike for his work as a Los Angeles DUI criminal defense attorney, Michael Kraut understands that defendants often need more than just “nuts and bolts” help. They also need to be listened to and to get educated about how to prevent recidivism.
This is particularly key, in that, if you get hit by multiple charges of Los Angeles DUI within a 10-year period, prosecutors can rapidly escalate your charges.
Connect with attorney Kraut and his team for incisive, insightful help with your L.A. DUI charge.
It’s painful to be arrested for DUI in Long Beach or elsewhere in Southern California. It would probably be doubly painful if you represented defendants charged with driving under the influence for a living. And triply humiliating if you also served as a lawmaker.
Poor David Burnell Smith of Arizona recently suffered these three ‘stings’ simultaneously after Scottsdale police arrested him near Westland Road and Pima Road. They hit Smith with two charges of driving under the influence for impairment and for having a BAC in excess of 0.08% (also the limit for Long Beach DUI, as defined by California Vehicle Code Section 23152).
According to the Arizona Republic, Representative Smith – who had recently lost a primary race – was seen swerving around in his Chrysler 300, endangering other people on the road. After the police stopped him, he ‘stumbled’ out of his vehicle and refused to participate in FSTs (Field Sobriety Tests). He also inhaled (instead of exhaling) into a breathalyzer test before finally complying – and blowing a 0.137% BAC. Again, the legal limit for both CA and AZ is 0.08%. That reading was nearly double what’s allowed.
This would all be pretty embarrassing for a state representative, but Smith is also a lawyer who makes a living ‘fighting for those who have been arrested and/or charged with DUI.’
Smith claimed that he had swigged mouthwash before getting behind the wheel. As we’ve discussed at length on this Long Beach DUI blog, it is true that substances like mouthwash can throw off your breathalyzer test readings. Indeed, these tests are often surprisingly poorly calibrated, poorly executed, and poorly interpreted. An experienced Long Beach DUI defense attorney may be able to help you challenge the results and either reduce your charges or get them eliminated completely.
That being said, it’s a mistake to assume that you will be able to easily eliminate your DUI charges – or even successfully challenge breathalyzer test results. DUI law is extremely nuanced, and prosecutors are neither dumb nor particularly overly accommodating.
Fortunately, you can turn to Long Beach DUI criminal defense lawyer Michael Kraut, and his team at the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers here in Long Beach, for an insightful, thorough, and strategic defense. Attorney Kraut has delivered big successes for his clients in complex DUI cases. He also worked as a prosecutor for the city for nearly a decade and half. So he understands how prosecutors think and work, and he maintains excellent relationships, which he leverages to help his clients get good strategic outcomes.
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