DUI Consequences

March 14, 2016

DUI Driver on Probation After Sending 2 Men into Ravine Goes Back to Jail

Most people who spent time in prison after a conviction for a Los Angeles DUI would try to do everything they could to avoid going back behind bars. But one woman in Maryland wasn’t willing (or able) to take advantage of her opportunity to remain free.

The Washington Post reported that a judge is sending 40-year-old Kelli Loos back to jail–at least temporarily–after she violated her probation in a 2009 DUI conviction by trying to drive while she was under the influence of alcohol.

Loos allegedly had a BAC of 0.20–more than twice the legal limit–when she slammed into a vehicle carrying Gradys Mendoza and Franklin Manzanares in July 2009. The impact sent their vehicle flying over a guardrail and down into a 60-foot ravine, killing both men. Loos, apparently oblivious, continued driving until she had another accident in Virginia that brought her to a halt.

After Loos pleaded guilty to two counts of vehicular manslaughter and one count of leaving the scene of an accident, a judge sentenced her to 20 years in jail. Loos got out on probation after serving four years of her sentence. But before Loos could drive again, she had to get an ignition interlock device installed on her vehicle. Prosecutors brought her back into court on parole violation charges after the IID registered at least three occasions on which Loos tried to drive while under the influence.

March 9, 2016

Town Wants to Fire Highway Superintendent After His DUI

by Michael Kraut

Elected officials convicted of crimes–like a DUI in Los Angeles–frequently end up resigning their positions due to their constituents’ disapproval of their actions. But others hold onto their jobs, despite the public outcry. The only recourse that citizens usually have is to vote them out during the next election.

But the town of Scriba, New York, is taking a different tack when it comes to their new highway superintendent. They’re hoping to replace the elected position with an appointed one and in the process rid themselves of the current holder of that position, Michael Barry. The officials are planning to hold a special election to make that change in the current law; if it passes, they’ll dump Barry and appoint someone new in his place. After that, the officials say they’ll go through the whole special election process again to change the position back to an elected one.

March 7, 2016

Video Release Embarrasses DUI Solicitor

by Michael Kraut

In earlier days, people arrested for DUI in Los Angeles could concoct an involved story about what really happened when they crashed their vehicles into a light pole or ended up in a highway median. It was always somebody else’s fault. But in the age of video surveillance, it’s getting harder and harder to make such stories believable.

Just ask Donnie Myers, the 11th Circuit Court Solicitor in South Carolina. Responding to a report of someone hitting a utility pole, a police officer tracked Myers down to his home. Found in his garage, Myers told police that he had been slightly hurt in the accident, which was caused by another driver who had forced him over. But the officer apparently doubted that story, since he smelled alcohol.

February 27, 2016

The Math Is Simple: DUI + Cell Phone = Bad Accident

by Michael Kraut

Although the penalties for a Los Angeles DUI can be fairly severe–first time offenders can spend up to a year in jail under California Vehicle Code 23152 (a)–the punishment for talking on a hand-held cell phone isn’t nearly as severe. (No points, and a fine of just $76 for a first offense.) But even if the court doesn’t punish offenders for cell phone usage, the combination of DUI and talking on a hand-held may have some fairly serious consequences.

In Greenville, South Carolina, a woman ran into a stopped tractor trailer–halted by the side of the road on I-85 because of a previous accident–around 8:45 on February 21st. Police believe that the woman was trying to make a phone call on her hand held cell phone when she hit the vehicle. The unnamed woman suffered serious injuries and doctors had her airlifted to Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte.
Continue reading

February 17, 2016

Lawyer Gets Unusual Private Hearing In DUI Case

by Michael Kraut

The average Joe or Jane charged with a Los Angeles DUI may sometimes wonder if there are two justice systems at work; one for every day folks, and the other for the well-connected. A recent incident across the country in Pennsylvania would probably reinforce their cynical attitudes.

On April 3, 2015, police noticed attorney Zachary A. Morey running a stop sign in Sinking Spring in Berks County. When the officers pulled him over, Morey failed several sobriety tests and his BAC measured three times the legal limit at 0.291.

According to the Reading Eagle, Morey had to appear in Judge Eleni Geishauser’s court for a hearing on the charges, which would typically result in the lawyer’s placement in the Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition Program. (The judge can use this special pre-trial program for non-violent offenders who have no prior or a very limited record. If the defendant successfully completes the supervised program, the court dismisses the charges and expunges the case from the record.)

February 2, 2016

Dumb Things DUI Drivers Should Never Do

by Michael Kraut

Want to get police officers to pay more attention to you? Try pulling one of these dumb stunts when you’re at risk for a DUI in Los Angeles.

A woman from Baraboo, Minnesota, apparently couldn’t find her own vehicle when she stumbled out of a BP gas station and convenience store in Juneau County. So she did the next best thing–she got into a waiting deputy’s vehicle and drove away.
The deputy and a state trooper dealt with the unnamed 29-year-old woman and her intoxicated male friend at the gas station around 4 a.m. in the morning. The woman apparently got tired of the discussion and left. Fortunately, witnesses saw her take off and pointed the trooper and the deputy–who were riding in the state police car–in the right direction. They soon caught up with her and managed to pull her over.

Turns out, this wasn’t the woman’s first DWI charge; she already had two on her record.

Bradley James Mitchell, on the other hand, didn’t try to flee the scene when officers stopped him on suspicion of DWI. But the 38-year-old from Weirsdale, Florida, should have tried a different excuse for swerving across two roads late in the evening of January 13th.

Mitchell told officers his low blood sugar caused his erratic driving. But medics called to the scene confirmed that his blood sugar was just fine. After Mitchell failed sobriety tests, officers searched his car and found methamphetamine and Clonazepam. He was also driving on a license suspended because of a previous DUI. Continue reading

January 27, 2016

Judge Refuses Pleas in DUI Cases

by Michael Kraut

Pity the poor judges who have to spend multiple hours in court each week hearing cases involving DUIs in Los Angeles. The stories they hear about deaths and destruction caused by people driving under the influence are often devastating.
One judge in Laramie County, Wyoming, has had enough. A recent article in the online Wyoming Tribune Eagle reported that Judge Steven Sharpe is taking a hard line when it comes to plea deals for drivers accused of DUI. When faced with a repeat offender, he now won’t accept a deal unless it includes some jail time for the driver.

In a case highlighted by the Tribune Eagle, Jeremy Shutt, now 28, had appeared before the judge last year on his fourth DUI charge in four years. Under Wyoming law, that would make Shutt’s latest arrest a felony, which meant incarceration time.
Shutt’s attorney had negotiated a plea deal with the county: five years of probation, with three to five years in prison if Shutt failed to live up to his end of the bargain (i.e. stay sober and stay out of trouble). But the judge, noting that Shutt had spent only a single day in jail on this latest charge, said that wasn’t enough. He’d keep Shutt out of state prison, but only if Shutt agreed to spend 120 days in jail.

January 18, 2016

Wow – Verdicts Overturned in 30-Year Old DUI Cases

by Michael Kraut

If a judge had accepted your guilty plea case involving a Los Angeles DUI, and new evidence turned up, would you take the time and spend the money to have that verdict overturned? What if your conviction dated all the way back to 1986? Some people in Massachusetts who pleaded guilty to DUI are willing to do it.

District Court in session. Edgartown.

A recent article in the Vineyard Gazette (the newspaper for the upscale Martha’s Vineyard) reported that attorneys who practice in the Edgartown District Court are taking a look at the operating under the influence (OUI) cases handled by Judge Brian Rowe over his 20 years in office. When accepting an accused DUI driver’s guilty plea, Judge Rowe apparently neglected to follow a procedure called colloquy. According to the Gazette, the judge was supposed to advise the guilty party that he/she had the right to a jury trial if desired and to ask each defendant if he or she fully understood the consequences of the decision to make a guilty plea. There’s a box on some court forms that the judge should have checked if the discussion had taken place.

January 15, 2016

Courts Rule For and Against Accused in Two DUI Cases

by Michael Kraut

The results of court cases in other states may not directly impact the outcome of Los Angeles DUI arrests, but they sometimes indicate the direction in which the judicial wind is blowing across the U.S.

The State of Georgia has already made it harder for prosecutors to win DUI convictions because of a ruling that people suspected of DUI may be too intoxicated to give their true informed consent to a breathalyzer test. Now an administrative law judge has thrown out the state’s attempt to suspend the license of a driver accused of DUI.

Atlanta Police Officer Justin J. Brodnik pulled David Leoni over for exceeding the speed limit by 20 miles per hour. The officer smelled alcohol on Leoni’s breath and noticed that his eyes were watery. (Leoni said he had just woken up from a nap.)

Despite the fact that Leoni answered questions without any difficulty and didn’t have trouble passing a balance test, Brodnik arrested him for DUI. That meant the Department of Driver Services automatically suspended his license. The law judge ruled that the watery eyes and a moderate smell of alcohol weren’t enough to prove that Leoni was impaired, so he ordered the state to restore Leoni’s license.

December 28, 2015

Must Read, Jaw Dropping DUI Stories from 2015

by Michael Kraut

Unfortunately, crazy DUI stories span every state and continent, and the impact of driving while under the influence of drugs and alcohol affects all ages, genders, ethnicities, and religions. Here are three more of the most astonishing DUI stories 2015 had to offer:

1. Woman drives into the homecoming parade. In Oklahoma last October, Adacia Chambers drove into an Oklahoma State University parade crowd. She killed three adults and one 2-year old and injured 47 more. The 25-year-old faces four counts of second-degree murder and 46 charges of felony assault. She could face life in prison if convicted on all counts. While alcohol was not a factor, she allegedly had been driving under the influence of drugs.