DUI Consequences

January 9, 2012

West Hollywood DUI Lessons: What to Make of the Xenophobic (?) Serial Arsonist?

While West Hollywood DUI rates over the New Year’s Eve weekend spiked nearly 10% from the 2011 numbers for the same weekend last year, WeHo residents were extremely distracted from the fireworks, celebrations, and festivities by a rampaging arsonist. According to Los Angeles Police Department officials, from Friday through Monday, an arsonist set at least 50 fires throughout West Hollywood, the Valley, North Hollywood, and other communities.

Last Monday, police finally apprehended the suspected arsonist, 24-year-old Harry Burkhart. According to speculation, Burkhart set the fires as an angry retort to his mother’s imminent deportation back to Germany. An anonymous state department official tipped off the LAPD that Dorothee Burkhart – who had been detained in federal custody last week on an arrest warrant – “spewed angry anti-American statements” and may have, indirectly, encouraged her son to cross the line. Of course, this is all speculation, and the investigation will strive to answer some lingering questions panicked West Hollywood residents have about why the arsonist acted. Hopefully, measures will be implemented to stop similar crimes in the future.

Can we draw any general lessons from the blazes to help individuals who have recently been arrested and charged with a crime like driving under the influence of alcohol in West Hollywood? Absolutely.

In fact, there are three lessons.

1. First of all, recidivism breeds prosecutorial aggression.

Driving under the influence in West Hollywood is a serious and potentially lethal crime. Likewise, arson is a felonious, easily lethal action. However, committing multiple crimes – being what’s known as a recidivist – will grab the attention of the long arm of the law and lead to massive punishments. This brings us to lesson number two…
2. If you’re out of control, get help, even if you’ve done something wrong.

Often drivers who get into trouble – by committing a hit-and-run DUI in West Hollywood, for instance – flee responsibility and make their potential punishment worse. When the authorities finally find you, you’ll not only face charges for your original crime, but you will also face additional charges and penalties for evading arrest. On the other hand, it’s never too late to face your responsibilities and deal with your situation strategically and intelligently.

3. If you have been arrested (or know someone has been arrested), connect immediately with a qualified West Hollywood DUI criminal defense attorney.

Michael Kraut of the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers (2600 West Olive Avenue, 5th Floor, Burbank, California 91505 Phone: (818) 563-9810) is a Harvard Law School-educated, very experienced former prosecutor. He has the connections, understanding of the law at a practical and theoretical level, and compassionate attentiveness you need to build your best case.

January 6, 2012

The Karma of Burbank DUI: Lessons from the DUI Arrest (and Public Shaming) of ESPN Analyst Matthew Barnaby

by Michael Kraut

Let’s face it: The Burbank DUI process is quite technical and scary.

But if you simply study the law, you will not get a sense of how difficult it can be to face Burbank DUI charges. For instance, you might read a story in the news about a guy who gets pulled over for driving 0.14% near Victory Boulevard and how 0.14% BAC is nearly twice the Southern California legal limit, as defined by Southern California Vehicle Code Section 23152(b), and blah blah blah.

But what do those details really tell you? Not too much. They are dry and clinical.

Often, deep sadness, frustration, and anxiety underlie Burbank DUI incidences. For instance, consider one of last week’s biggest tabloid stories: Matthew Barnaby, a former NHL pro with the Buffalo Sabres, was fired from his job as an ESPN analyst after being arrested for driving under the influence in New York. Allegedly, he drove his Porsche Cayenne on the wrong side of the road – while missing a front tire, no less!

ESPN terminated his contract, effective immediately, and Barnaby might also face deportation to Canada, in part because of domestic charges stemming from a previous arrest. Earlier in the year, per the Buffalo News, Barnaby kicked down the garage door at the house of his estranged wife. Per an arrangement with the court, Barnaby agreed to 500 hours of community service and vowed to stay out of trouble.

Well, driving on the wrong side of the road while Burbank DUI with a car missing a front tire is basically the definition of trouble.

Without the backstory here – without knowing that Barnaby had struggled with domestic issues – his DUI would seem out of context and, in essence, random.

Once you understand a little bit about his history, the charges, at least superficially, seem to make more sense. Rarely are human beings motivated by pure caprice when they break the law. Often, there is an underlying factor – or factors – that cause or contribute to the situation.

To build your best defense, therefore, you may find it beneficial to speak with Burbank DUI criminal defense Attorney Michael Kraut of the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers (2600 West Olive Avenue, 5th Floor, Burbank, California 91505 Phone: (818) 563-9810). Mr. Kraut is a former Deputy DA (14+ years) and respected legal expert on the subject of DUI. Attorney Kraut can help you understand why you got in trouble in the first place and build the best, most strategic case possible.

January 4, 2012

481 Long Beach DUI Convictions?? Not That Many, but Still a Ridiculously Large Number…

by Michael Kraut

How many Long Beach DUI convictions should a person be allowed to rack up before that person is removed permanently from society?

This is not a purely theoretical question. In fact, a Bloomingdale, Indiana man, 49-year-old William Dietrich, was sentenced last Monday with two decades behind bars for his 11th DUI conviction since 1982. A local newspaper summarized the checkered, disturbing history of the defendant: “In addition to the April charge, Dietrich received DUIs in McLean County in 1982, 1985, twice in 1986, 1989, 1991, 2000, 2002 and 2005. He also was cited for the offense in 2007…a conviction that resulted in an 8-year prison sentence.” Dietrich was released on parole in September 2010 on that charge, but returned to prison for violating the terms of his release after the 2011 charges.

Dietrich’s odyssey is not typical for a Long Beach DUI defendant. But his escalating punishments – and the reasons behind those punishments – serve as a powerful cautionary tale. Consider what Indiana attorney Jane Foster said about Dietrich’s situation: “[The State of Indiana] has made repeated efforts to stop and change this defendant’s behavior through fines, jail, prison, treatment, probation, parole and revocations of his license. Since he has refused to comply with the law and to stop driving under the influence, our office wanted him removed from society.”

California also has an escalating system of punishments. Any Long Beach DUI conviction is a blemish, and you could face jail time even for just one DUI event – particularly if you caused injury to someone else or engaged in other crimes while DUI, such as hit and run, assault, etc. If you get three or more Long Beach DUI convictions within a 10-year span, prosecutors might be able to charge with you a felony instead of a simple misdemeanor. This could be in addition to escalating penalties – hiking up your fines and fees, increasing the amount of mandatory alcohol school and the strictness of your probation, etc.

Dietrich’s odyssey raises questions about what can be done to stop and, ideally, treat seriously recidivist Long Beach DUI drivers. Why did treatment and rehab fail for him? Is Dietrich just a rotten apple? Or did the problems stem from ineffective punishment and/or treatment? All of the above? None of the above? Did he have brain damage or a mental illness? Without more information about his case, it’s impossible to judge.

And that, in essence, is the point.

If you or someone you care about has been arrested more than once for a Long Beach DUI, you need to drill down to the root of your problem. An experienced, compassionate Long Beach DUI criminal defense attorney at the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers (444 West Ocean, Suite 800 Long Beach, California 90802 Phone: (562) 531-7454) can help you come to terms with your charges and what to do about them. Attorney Michael Kraut is a well-known and well-respected former prosecutor.

January 2, 2012

Direct Burbank DUI Penalties: The Scary Stuff You Fear Most

by Michael Kraut

If you or someone you care about has recently been pulled over and arrested for driving under the influence in Burbank or elsewhere in Southern California, you are likely focused on potential penalties.

The punishments will depend on a vast and diverse constellation of factors. In this blog post, we will discuss some of the “level one” penalties you might expect. Southern California DUI penalties transcend simple issues of jail time, fees, and inconvenience. Unless you identify the root cause of your trouble and work with a responsible Burbank DUI criminal defense attorney, your crisis may only grow bigger.

But enough gloom and doom. Let’s get down to brass tacks. If you are a first time Burbank DUI offender and you get charged with a misdemeanor, the court can still impose a fearsome array of penalties. You may be held for 48 hours in custody with the possibility of up to six months behind bars. Your maximize fine: $1,000… on top of court costs, which can, in and of themselves, be way more than $1,000.

Your CA drivers license can be suspended for a full year. The court can impose six weeks (up to nine months) of alcohol school. You might face probation, both formal and informal, and, as of July 1, 2010, you may be forced to blow into a device called an interlock ignition device every single time you want to drive your car. Basically, the IID stops you from driving your car if you have alcohol on your breath.

The penalties for second-time, third-time, and fourth-time DUI offenders within 10 years ratchet up substantially. Again, the degree to which they will be elevated depends on the nature of the offense and the circumstances. For instance, if you just collect two, non-injury misdemeanor DUIs within an eight-year period, you may be able to battle back pretty effectively. On the other hand, if you hurt someone while driving DUI in Burbank, you may be subject to extra penalties under CVC 23153 (a) and 23153 (b). If you prove to be a recidivist offender, you could be forced to spend up to a year in jail, or your misdemeanor could be even be converted to a felony, and you could be forced to spend even longer behind bars.

You don’t need a blog post to make these penalties sound foreboding and scary.

The threat of jail time alone is enough to terrify most ordinary Angelenos. The threat of fines and court costs is disheartening and terrifying in its own right, particularly if you have a mortgage to pay, creditors nipping at your heels, kids in school, etc. The threat of having your license suspended is obviously horrifying. In Los Angeles, we depend on our cars to go to work, meet our obligations, and go grocery shopping. The threat of probation is annoying at best and a massive inconvenience at worst. Going to alcohol school is also inconvenient, even if it can be useful.

For help piecing together your best Burbank DUI defense, connect with attorney Michael Kraut at the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers (2600 West Olive Avenue, 5th Floor, Burbank, California 91505 Phone: (818) 563-9810). Connect with this former prosecutor today to begin your journey to protect yourself against these frustrating and scary penalties.

December 28, 2011

2011 In Memoriam: Burbank DUI Blog Reflects on the Sad Passing of Amy Winehouse

by Michael Kraut

Amid all the sordid (and often funny) stories of celebrity Burbank DUI, let’s take time to reflect on some of the sobering, tragic events of the past year. After all, it’s one thing to get lost in the stories about Demi and Ashton’s breakup, the rise and fall of GOP hopefuls like Herman Cain and Michele Bachmann, the discovery of earth-like planets just a few light years away, etc. But if we ever hope to make progress fighting Burbank DUI and making our roads safer, it behooves us to examine the scary and often fatal consequences of inappropriate relationships with alcohol.

Pop singer Amy Winehouse died July 23, after a long and very public battle with alcoholism and substance abuse. Winehouse won fame and admiration, thanks to her raw, sultry voice; her songs contain brutally honest confessions about her battles with her demons and voice defiant posture towards her addiction treatment. In her most famous song, “Rehab,” she sings “they tried to make me go to rehab: I said no, no, no.”

The authenticity of her voice and lyrics – the rawness and realness of her personal struggles with addiction – captured international attention because they made Winehouse a real, sympathetic, and dynamic character. These battles ring true for so many of us – particularly for those of us who have ever been arrested for driving under the influence in Burbank or elsewhere in the Southland.

Many of us understand firsthand how difficult it can be to face up to the root causes of our Burbank DUIs, and many of us are also plenty skeptical about typical rehabilitation programs, some of which have pretty abysmal track records. Some studies suggest, for instance, that Alcoholics Anonymous’ success rate may be as little as 5% over the long term.

What Winehouse’s ordeal teaches us is that we need to get help before our Burbank DUI problems metastasize and cause even more damage. Your journey begins with getting the right help at the right time. Attorney Michael Kraut of Burbank’s Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers (2600 West Olive Avenue, 5th Floor, Burbank, California 91505 Phone: (818) 563-9810) can help you uncover not only the best strategy for your defense but also the best strategy for rebuilding your life and solving the deeper problems that got you into legal trouble in the first place. Mr. Kraut is an experienced Burbank DUI criminal defense attorney – a former prosecutor with a Harvard Law School education – and he can help you solve your problems.

December 26, 2011

Like a Glamorous Beverly Hills DUI Story, but in Michigan: Former Miss USA Busted for DUI While Serving as a “Designated Driver”

by Michael Kraut

Americans love glamour and beauty, and we are fascinated by stories of “celebrities gone wrong.” Hence, our obsession with Beverly Hills DUI stories and news events involving pop princesses, celebutantes, fashionistas, powerful politicians, and others who get into trouble with the law. Sometimes, these stories are bittersweet; sometimes they are tragic, sometimes they are purely humorous. But we can learn a lot more from Beverly Hills DUI defendants than the tabloids (and even the mainstream news media) are willing to teach us.

Take the recent arrest of 2010 Miss USA, Rima Fakih. The 26-year-old captured America’s heart in 2010, but police captured her last week. Although police did not release details about the DUI arrest, the story is practically pregnant with object lessons for Beverly Hills DUI defendants and friends and family members of defendants.

According to the Detroit Free Press and other local news reports, Fakih had appointed herself designated driver last Saturday evening, when she went out with some friends. After noticing that her friend seemed too intoxicated to drive, Fakih took over the wheel. She quickly realized that she, too, was too intoxicated to drive. So she pulled the car over. Too late. Police had already spotted her, and she was quickly rounded up and charged with DUI. After news of her arrest broke, she, like so many Beverly Hills DUI arrestees – reached for her Twitter account to deny her reality: “Let’s clear things up now…I’m not in Michigan and I’m not in jail! Wrong Fakih.”

She later removed that post. But it’s instructive for us to talk about that.

We can see two lessons from here:

Number one, when people “have a few drinks” while trying to be a designated driver, bad things happen. In Fakih’s case, fortunately, no one was hurt and no property was damaged.

Number two, defendants can enter a period of abject denial after being arrested. This is a human reaction. But it can be a compromising reaction, in that you may do or say things after your arrest (because of your denial) that will compromise your ability to build a case.

To protect yourself and your rights, connect with the Beverly Hills’s Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers (9107 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 450, Beverly Hills, California 90210 Phone: (310) 550-6935). Attorney Michael Kraut is an experienced, highly confident, Harvard Law School-educated Beverly Hills DUI criminal defense attorney. He served as a prosecutor for 14 years, so he knows how prosecutors will treat your case.

December 18, 2011

Long Beach DUI Drama Rocks High School as Mom Hits and Nearly Kills Classmate While DUI

by Michael Kraut

Driving under the influence in Long Beach and driving in a school zone don’t mix. This truism is obvious enough. However, unfortunately, common sense is one of the first things that goes out the window when driving intoxicated.

Two weeks ago, Marie Lippincott of Costa Mesa struck and nearly killed a 17-year-old senior, Crystal Morales, at her son’s high school in Newport Harbor. Lippincott was arrested for causing an injury DUI and held at an Orange County jail in lieu of bail set at $100,000. Investigators suspect that she was driving under the influence when she hit Morales at a crosswalk on Margaret Drive, right before school let out. Court records show that Lippincott has a criminal history. In 2005, she pleaded guilty to prescription drug fraud, burglary, and theft. As for poor Ms. Morales, she was hospitalized in a coma with internal bleeding, swelling of the brain, internal injuries, and head trauma. A spokesperson said that Morales would be on assisted breathing for at least two weeks to recover optimally.

When reading the reports of Long Beach DUI accidents like this one, it’s easy to quickly judge people and “explain away” the facts of the accident. However, jumping to conclusions can be dangerous business. For instance, in a Los Angeles Times blog post about the accident, Laura Boss, a spokesman for the school district, highlighted that the section of Irvine Avenue where the accident occurred “has been a safety concern for school officials.”

This is not to excuse the bad driving or DUI driving, if it did occur. However, it does suggest that Long Beach DUI accidents do not occur in a vacuum. Often, a constellation of factors plays a role. Yes, a driver may be DUI. Yes, a driver may make misjudgments. But other factors, such as poor road engineering, auto malfunctions, and the dangerous or less-than-ideal actions of others can all come together to create the “perfect storm” of an accident.

If you have been recently arrested for driving under the influence in Long Beach, connect with an experienced Long Beach DUI criminal defense attorney, such as Michael Kraut of the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers (444 West Ocean, Suite 800 Long Beach, California 90802 Phone: (562) 531-7454). Attorney Kraut is a former DUI prosecutor (14-plus years in the Deputy District Attorney’s office), so he understands the dynamics, nuances, and emotional complexities of DUI cases. Tragedies like what happened to Ms. Morales are not inevitable, and they do not need to be repeated. It’s important for all of us to understand what goes wrong in these kinds of situations and to deal with the repercussions in a fair and compassionate way.

December 14, 2011

Hidden Long Beach DUI Penalties Could Be Worse Than Jail Itself

by Michael Kraut

In a recent blog post, we enumerated the many unpleasant, repugnant penalties for Long Beach DUI. We won’t belabor them again, but they include jail time, massive fines, probation, mandatory installation of an IID, alcohol school, etc.

But is that really the worst of it?

In the worst-case scenario, you could at least imagine yourself surviving these penalties and carrying on with your life. No one wants to spend three months in jail or pay thousands of dollars in fines. But life is long, second chances abound, etc.

In some sense, this attitude is correct. In another sense, however, it ignores the far more insidious but potentially terrifying, debilitating indirect penalties of a Long Beach DUI conviction.

Punishment worse than jail?

There are, believe it or not, worse things than going to jail. Unless you commit a truly heinous crime, jail is a temporary situation. However, the long-term “metaphorical prisons” that we build for ourselves can incarcerate us for a lifetime. Bad habits beget bad habits. Bad self-image begets worse self-image. And so on. Indeed a Long Beach DUI conviction can be the first step on a slippery slip towards an unfulfilled and unfulfilling life.

Consider the hazards potentially in your way:

• Conviction makes it more likely that you will be punished harsher for any future crimes or infractions;
• Conviction will almost certainly spike your car insurance rates (assuming that you are still allowed to keep your license) for years, draining your pocket book of potentially of thousands of dollars;
• Once convicted, you may find yourself judged harshly by employers, acquaintances and people in your social circle as well as by close family members and even by yourself.
• If you “don’t believe in yourself” or lack support from friends or family members who’ve “given up on you” you may find it harder to get a job, harder to get a loan, harder to find the inner resources to fight through obstacles in your way, be they career obstacles or even medical problems.
• Loss of driving practice and mobility. If your license gets suspended, you may have to lean on public transportation, friends and family members, and ingenuity to survive. If you are like most people who live in and around Long Beach, you likely depend heavily on your car, truck, or motorcycle to deal with the “stuff” of life.

Count those costs. How many hours of productive time will you have to sacrifice? Will you be fired? Will you sap your spouse’s productivity and thus limit his or her income? What about loss of confidence behind the wheel?

Once you’ve been convicted for a serious violation, such as a Long Beach DUI, you may lose confidence in your ability to drive safely and effectively. Your driving persona may change for the worse.

Fortunately, you don’t have to go through the gauntlet of defending yourself by yourself.

An experienced Long Beach DUI criminal defense attorney from the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers (444 West Ocean, Suite 800 Long Beach, California 90802 Phone: (562) 531-7454 ) can help you develop a powerful strategic response to whatever charges you face. Attorney Kraut is a former Deputy District Attorney with a fantastic track record at jury trials and a Harvard Law School Education.

December 12, 2011

Beverly Hills DUI Penalties: When You Suffer, Everyone Around You Does, Too

by Michael Kraut

You’ve recently been hit with a charge of driving under the influence in Beverly Hills, and you’re still reeling from it. The mind is churning up worst case scenarios:

• What if the person you injured during your Beverly Hills DUI doesn’t recover or is saddled with a lifelong disability?
• What if you have to go to jail for years?
• Who will take care of your business, your home, your family?
• What if you lose your driver’s license and have to pay thousands of dollars in fines, etc?
• What should you be doing now to make your new job as a Beverly Hills DUI defendant easier and more strategic?

We’ve discussed the direct consequences of Beverly Hills DUI conviction (e.g. jail time, fine/fees, mandatory alcohol school, mandatory installation of an IID device in your vehicle, probation, etc) as well as the indirect consequences (e.g. hiked up insurance rates, loss of confidence, loss of self respect and professional reputation, massive, chronic inconveniences that strain your budget, etc).

But a third, arguably even scarier set of penalties awaits you. These pertain to the effect of your DUI event and possible conviction on society as a whole.

To get a little philosophical for a second… cities like Beverly Hills (and Los Angeles in general) maintain their social cohesion through bonds of trust, order, and mutual self interest. Those bonds are not absolute, however. Difficult economic conditions, fraud and crime, war, disease, and other destabilizing forces can fray these bonds and lead to chaos in the community.

Now, obviously, your Beverly Hills DUI is not going to “make or break” the city. At least, hopefully it’s not going to. On the other hand, the incremental effects of Los Angeles DUI arrests, convictions, consequences, etc on society as a whole are non-negligible. In other words, what you do behind the wheel has an effect beyond the immediate radius of your accident.

If you recall the movie Office Space, you’ll likely remember the scam the co-workers pulled – they essentially tried to “shave off” fractions of a cent from millions of bank accounts in a high-tech heist. Individually, no one customer was hurt; collectively, however, the financial institution was damaged.

The obvious retort is: Well, it was just me who got in trouble. How much of a difference could my actions have made? But multiply that attitude times hundreds of thousands of Angelinos, and you have a recipe for chaos, disorder and worse.

The moral here is: You have a choice. Even if you’ve already a committed a Beverly Hills DUI – and even if that DUI was serious and caused injury and/or property damage – you have a choice right now to change your perspective on what happened and not only rebuild your own life but also work towards healing society and making the city and our world a more compassionate, livable, hopeful environment.

Of course, it’s important to ground ideals into solid thinking and strategy. Connect with a Beverly Hills DUI defense attorney from the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers (9107 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 450, Beverly Hills, California 90210 Phone: (310) 550-6935 ) right now to plan your next steps. Attorney Kraut is a hugely respected former prosecutor who can help you understand your rights and best next steps.

December 7, 2011

Staggering, Bank Breaking Costs of a Pasadena DUI

by Michael Kraut

How much will your Pasadena DUI cost you, in terms of energy, freedom, and, perhaps most substantially, money?

If you face Pasadena DUI charges, this question – and all the branches of thought that it generates – no doubt weighs heavily in your mind. A recent Fox Business news article suggested some very sobering numbers: “(if convicted) you should expect your insurance rates to double. That varies from driver to driver, of course.”

A 24-year-old Seattle woman who got DUI with no priors found that “her insurance quotes spiked radically.” Before the accident, she “saw quotes from $742 to $1,814 a year for basic liability and personal injury protection.” After the misdemeanor DUI – no injuries, no complications, no priors – “her insurance quotes ranged from $1,608 to $2,492.” As long as your DUI remains in your record, you likely have to pay these steeper rates.

So let’s do a little math. Say a 24-year old gets a Pasadena DUI, and her insurance hikes up from $800 a year to $1,600 a year. So she’ll be paying $800 extra a year. Multiply that by three years and that’s $2,400. For some people that’s equal to a year’s worth of car payments.

Also, that’s just the insurance costs, and that’s just for standard “garden-variety” Pasadena DUI charges. That $2,400 figure obviously does not include court costs and fines, the money you have to pay to install a mandatory ignition interlock device in your car, and so on.

Moreover, even those costs likely underestimate the total resource drain. After all, Pasadena DUI defendants often have to take time off of work to go to court — money lost there — and they may need to make significant changes to their daily schedule — even more money lost there. And this is to say nothing of the psychological toll that a DUI conviction can have on someone. A person who suffers depression or other emotional problems as a result of a Pasadena DUI conviction will likely work fewer hours. Likewise, in certain cases, a DUI conviction can mean the end of your job. At the very least, it can seriously degrade your professional reputation and even your reputation with close friends and family members.

So what can you do?

Step one is to get the resources and strategy you need to put up the most stiff resistance to the charges. Pasadena’s Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers (790 East Colorado Boulevard, 9th floor, Pasadena, California 91101 Phone: (626) 345-1899) is a highly reputable, experienced law firm. Attorney Michael Kraut served for 14 years as a Deputy District Attorney. Connect with a Pasadena DUI criminal defense attorney today to design and develop your smartest response.