DUI Crime and Punishment

May 14, 2014

Why Does Everyone Seem to Have Advice For You About Your Los Angeles DUI?

Getting a DUI in Los Angeles – and announcing it to the world – is a lot like getting pregnant or going on a diet. Everyone seems to have tons of advice for you, even if they have never experienced the situation themselves. Think about all the ridiculous advice non-parents give parents on airplanes about how to keep their kids quiet.

•   “Feed him some popcorn”
•   “Give him another bottle”
•   “Give him a toy”
•   “Take away that other toy”
•   “Don’t listen to that jerk”
•   “They are ready to fly at Y months, not X months… so you shouldn’t be on the plane”

And so it goes with many things in our life – we are forced to take unsolicited advice from people who don’t know what they are talking about. It can get frustrating.

In the case of your Los Angeles DUI defense, this random noise can be pretty destructive as well as distracting. For instance, there are certain myths about DUI defense that just will not die, such as the idea that chewing on a penny or drinking mouthwash will substantially change your breath test results.

There is no need to rehash the science (again) that refutes such myth. But they persist. If you take advice from the wrong people, you could make your situation worse and simultaneously miss out on more effective solutions.

The moral is this: leave the nuts and bolts of your defense up to experienced people. Attorney Michael Kraut of the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers can explain your Los Angeles DUI defense options and build you a sound and reasonable defense.

May 12, 2014

What Your Los Angeles DUI Defense Attorney CAN’T Do for You

by Michael Kraut

A competent, motivated Los Angeles DUI defense lawyer can do a lot to help you fight your charges and help you get your life back together. For instance, he or she can:

•   Contest evidence in your case;
•   Challenge the Constitutionality of your stop or arrest;
•   Nitpick (to your benefit) the documentation or procedures that the police used before, during, or after your arrest;
•   Engage in sensitive but effective negotiations with prosecutors to reduce your sentence and potentially get you into an alternative program, so that you can avoid the most nasty types of punishments, such as license suspensions, long jail sentences, mandatory IID installation in your car, and the like;
•   Connect you with resources to manage congruent problems in your life that might have caused you to drive DUI;
•   Act as a coach and mentor and answer your questions throughout your case, so that you feel in control and ready for whatever the prosecution throws your way.

But although a properly equipped Los Angeles DUI defense attorney can do a lot for you, he or she is ultimately limited. For instance, if you have a serious problem with alcohol or drugs — and, for whatever reason, you do not respond well to therapy or treatment — your attorney can’t compel you to make smart decisions and avoid putting yourself in harm’s way.

If you’ve “gotten in with a bad crowd” — If your boyfriend or girlfriend breaks up with you — if your boss fires you — if your school expels you — your attorney can’t do much. And if your auto insurance company takes a look at your DUI conviction and decides to double your rates, unless the insurance company violated the law… again, there is little that your attorney can do.

The point in highlighting these limitations is not to dissuade you from getting in touch with somebody but rather to hammer home that you need to take responsibility for your situation.

That said, you can benefit hugely from connecting with Harvard Law School educated ex-prosecutor Michael Kraut of the Los Angeles’s Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers today for a free consultation about your Los Angeles DUI defense.

May 5, 2014

A Quick Thought Experiment about Your Los Angeles DUI

by Michael Kraut

As someone who’s been arrested for the crime of driving under the influence in Los Angeles, you’ve already spent a quite a lot of mental energy figuring out how you’re “going to deal with this” in a constructive fashion. You’ve potentially imagined worst case scenarios – i.e. massive jail sentences, huge spikes in your insurance rates, the loss of your job, etc – as well as positive outcomes – e.g., getting the charges dismissed altogether and even getting a letter of apology from the police for inconveniencing you.

But just imagine for a second what would have happened, if the police hadn’t stopped you that night?

What if you hadn’t been pulled over or busted at a checkpoint? How would your life be different? Would you be as concerned about your driving habits and/or proclivities to consume alcohol and/or prescription medications? Would you be as alert as you are now to your possible bad habits?

The reason why it’s good to run through this thought experiment is that it can help reframe your Los Angeles DUI arrest in a slightly more positive light.

Even if you wind up serving jail time and suffering other slings and arrows doled out by the court system, your arrest can still be an object lesson. After all, you survived the experience. Many people who drive DUI don’t. So no matter what happens, you’re getting a second chance. If you can view your DUI defense as an opportunity for self growth and improvement – as difficult and perhaps absurd as that may sound – it will help you not just psychologically but also logistically. After all, assuming you did commit a crime, the court will want to see that you’re committed to turning yourself around — to becoming a safer and more responsible driver.

Do not make your defense decisions in a vacuum, however.

Let the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers guide your progress and ensure that you follow a coherent, cogent legal strategy. Attorney Kraut is a former prosecutor who attended Harvard Law School. Local and national news organizations, such as KTLA News, The New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times, often consult him for his deep insight into the Los Angeles DUI defense process.
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April 25, 2014

The Promise Versus the Reality of Los Angeles DUI Defense

by Michael Kraut

We live in a world that, through no fault of any one person, has created stiff and unfair challenges for DUI defendants in Los Angeles.

Why? Because we are all totally blitzed with marketing messages about DUI defense (and everything else under the sun). We have limited, attention and skills to tell truth from fiction.

For a dramatic illustration of just how many DUI-related marketing messages are out there — and how conflicting these messages are — do a Google search about the effectiveness of breathalyzer tests.

We won’t discuss their merit (or lack thereof) now — we’ve already spilled plenty of virtual ink on the subject. Just recognize that just trying to parse the truth about that debate alone can take you hours and hours and hours.

And if you’re someone who has been recently arrested, you may not have hours and hours and hours. In fact, you may not have much time at all before “bad things” start to happen in your life, such as a CA driver’s license suspension, your boss firing you, your girlfriend or boyfriend breaking up with you because of your Los Angeles DUI, and so forth.

As a result, many defendants make decisions based on hearsay, random materials they find online or elsewhere, or intuition borne not out of science but out of desperation.

It’s tricky because, when you take bad advice about your Los Angeles DUI, based on some random snippet of news or argument you read online, the consequences could be severe. You could face massive jail time, fines and the your loss of your driver’s license – all of which, in retrospect, might not be strictly necessary.

So how can you break out of this morass? The simplest and easiest method, always, is to find a very experienced, highly qualified person or company — one who has demonstrated results in situations similar to yours — and retain that person or company to help you.

The good news is that, in the case of Los Angeles DUI defense, attorney Michael Kraut of the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers is available for consultation. Mr. Kraut has a great track record of success. Please connect with him and his team today to set up your effective, efficient defense. Continue reading

April 1, 2014

Colorado Man Might Face First Degree Murder Charges for DUI Death

by Michael Kraut

If you’ve been arrested on a Los Angeles DUI charge, odds are that you’re probably facing a relatively minor (but still serious) charge, such as misdemeanor DUI. If your case is extreme – for instance if you hurt someone – you might face a felony. This is a very serious charge that can lead to over a year behind bars.

However, unless your situation is very intense, you probably won’t face a first degree murder charge.

Not so for Ever Olivos-Gutierrez, a native Mexico living in Colorado, who hit and killed a man last Monday morning. Authorities say Olivos-Gutierrez ran a stop light and smashed his Ford Expedition into a Chevy Camaro driven by Juan Carlos Dominguez-Palomino, killing the 17-year-old on the scene. Olivos-Gutierrez then fled the crash, but police tracked him down. Per the arrest affidavit, he tested over four times the legal limit for DUI.

Prior to the fatal crash, Olivos-Gutierrez had been arrested multiple times on DUI-related charges and other traffic incidents. Approximately half of his arrests and offenses happened when he was living in the United States illegally – he never had a Colorado driver’s license.

Authorities say that his fatal wreck last week mirrored a similar crash in September 2008, when an illegal immigrant named Francis Hernandez hit a pickup truck while DUI — driving 80 miles per hour — on a street in Aurora. The force of the accident thrust the truck into a nearby ice-cream shop, where it killed a 3-year-old boy and two women who had been eating inside.

Despite the fact that Olivos-Gutierrez had been arrested twice for DUI – once in 2000 and once in 2007 — and that he committed multiple driving offenses and infractions, while driving without a license and living in the country illegally — he served less than a year of jail time. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) only had documentation of one of his arrests. (When the Denver Post reported on this story, officials from ICE did not comment.)

Recently, in California, our Supreme Court decided to give the green light to prosecutors to pursue DUI murder charges – also known as Watson Murders. This charge is a second degree murder charge, and it can be punished by up to life in prison. Part of what makes this charge particularly strong is that it contains an element of what’s known as “implied malice” – i.e., the driver clearly understood the dangerous risks of his actions but engaged in bad behavior anyway and then killed somebody. After you have been convicted of a DUI, you need to sign a statement known as a Watson Advisement that acknowledges that you understand how dangerous DUI driving can be.

For help unpacking your Los Angeles DUI defense, connect with attorney Michael Kraut. Mr. Kraut is a former prosecutor (Deputy District Attorney). He has appeared on Good Morning America and written in the Los Angeles Times and The New York Times about DUI cases in the news.
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March 31, 2014

Are You Reliving Your Los Angeles DUI…Over And Over And Over Again?

by Michael Kraut

You just got arrested for DUI in Los Angeles. Your mind is racing with questions:

•   “What attorney should I hire?”
•   “What can I do, if anything, to fight the automatic drivers license suspension?”
•   “How will I manage my life, if I have to spend substantial time behind bars or spend months without a valid license to drive to work?”
•   “What will my friends and parents think about me?”

You’d love to concentrate on solving those issues, but your mind just can’t stay focused. You keep getting drawn back into remembering the drama of what happened. Perhaps the event was actually dramatic, in an objective sense. For instance, maybe your car flipped on the 210, and you hit a concrete barrier. Or maybe you almost ran into (and killed) some pedestrians.

You can’t stop yourself from thinking about the different ways the accident or arrest could have “gone worse.”

Or maybe you keep recalling the feeling of fear that jolted through your body when the red and blue lights flashed behind you, or the maddening conversation you had with the arresting officer.

In any case, the following lesson is abundantly clear: you need to manage this non-stop, destructive mental monologue.

To the extent that you feel out of control about you case is to the extent that your mind will likely “hold onto” these negative thoughts and drive you nuts. But once you know what to expect about your case — and what to do in the next few hours and days — you’ll likely find yourself spontaneously letting go of the looping mental chatter. So that’s one key: get clarity on your case!

Here’s another suggestion. Practice deep breathing and meditation exercises. And/or get therapy, particularly if you were involved in a traumatic incident.

Lastly, connect with a Los Angeles DUI defense lawyer here at the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers. Attorney Michael Kraut is a Harvard Law School educated former prosecutor – he used to work as a Senior Deputy District Attorney for the City of Los Angeles, during which time he obtained a 99%+ success rate at jury trials. He’s won respect as a criminal defense lawyer not just from clients but also from his peers, such as judges and prosecutors.
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February 28, 2014

Did Your Son’s Friend Get a DUI in Los Angeles?

by Michael Kraut

This Los Angeles DUI blog spends a lot of time talking directly to offenders and direct relatives of offenders.

But what if you’re concerned about a person who isn’t in your family? What if one of your teenage son’s good friends, for instance, got arrested for driving under the influence? What then? What should you do? What CAN you do?

Obviously, the answer depends on the context of the arrest. For instance, did your son do anything illegal or not? Was he hurt? Did he supply the alcohol that the other young man drank? How many people were arrested? Did charges include drug possession, hit and run, resisting arrest, etc? If your son faces charges also, you’ll likely want to retain an effective Los Angeles criminal defense lawyer at your earliest convenience.

On the other hand, you might want to consider another subtle danger that has to do with your son’s peer group. As adolescent psychologists will tell you, peers can profoundly influence on one another. If your son, for instance, hangs out with kids who are driving DUI in Los Angeles and engaged in other criminal activity, he will be much more likely to ape that bad behavior and get in trouble himself. As a parent, you have only limited control over your child’s behavior and decisions. But if you can get your son to stop hanging around with kids who break the law, that’s a great idea.

Obviously not every kid who gets arrested is a “bad seed.” And even the most brilliant, moral, sober-minded people make mistakes and go through challenging times. So you shouldn’t necessarily be prejudiced just because of this one incident. However, in general, pay attention to the peer group’s influence, and respectfully steer your son towards people who exhibit values that resonate with you.

For practical, nuts and bolts help with your (or your son’s) underage Los Angeles DUI defense, look to Harvard Law School educated lawyer Michael Kraut of the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers. Mr. Kraut spent more than 14 years in the District Attorney’s office, prosecuting crimes, so he has a compelling and unique viewpoint on criminal defense cases.
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February 14, 2014

Be Grateful Your Los Angeles DUI Arrest Didn’t Happen in El Salvador…

by Michael Kraut

As someone who was recently arrested for DUI in Los Angeles, you’re feeling pretty down about your situation. California Vehicle Code Section 23512 spells out a variety of punishments — all unpleasant — that could be in your near-term future. These could include fines and fees, court costs, probation, alcohol school, suspension of your CA license, forced installation of an IID device in your car and, of course, jail time.

That’s all less than ideal.

That said, give serious thanks that you did not drive DUI in El Salvador. Why? Because in that country, first time DUI offenders can be punished by death by firing squad!

Let’s take a tour of other DUI punishments from around the world:

•   In the Southeast Asian country of Malaysia, the law of the land says that if you get caught for DUI, not only will you go to jail but your wife will to go to jail, too – even if she didn’t do anything wrong!
•   In South Africa, first time DUI offenders can get a decade long jail sentence on top of a fine equal to $10,000.
•   In Russia, authorities can revoke your driver’s license for life if you get a DUI.
•   In Turkey, if you’re busted for DUI, police can take you 20 miles beyond the town’s borders and march you back by foot via police escort.
•   Bulgaria is almost as intolerant of DUIs as El Salvador is — a second conviction results in execution. (For comparison, a second Los Angeles DUI conviction within 10 years results in escalated penalties as well. You might face a little more jail time, stricter probation terms, more alcohol school, and so forth. But odds are extremely low that you will be executed by firing squad.)
•   Scandinavian countries are also known for their extremely stringent anti-DUI laws. Sweden and Finland both punish the offense with a mandatory one-year jail sentence. In Norway, you lose your license for a year. Two offenses in five years leads to a Russia-style revocation of your driver’s license for life.
•   If you get convicted of Los Angeles DUI, you may find it difficult to travel to Mexico and Canada, both of which have laws on the books that allow Border Patrol agents to stop you from entering their countries if you have a DUI conviction on your record.
•   Even our “civilized friends” across the pond in England and France have tougher DUI laws than we have in the U.S. In France, you get a $1,000 fine, a whole year in jail and the loss of your driver’s license for three years.
•   In England, you get a $250 fine, a year license suspension and up to a year behind bars.

Of course, this article is not meant to convince you that you’re “all in the clear” just because you got arrested in the United States, where the laws are slightly more lenient. In fact, we still live in a relatively punitive society. Fortunately, the team here at the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers can help you come up with an effective, intelligent Los Angeles DUI defense strategy.
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February 5, 2014

Guilty Verdict in Dallas Cowboy Josh Brent’s DUI Manslaughter Case

by Michael Kraut

Breaking Los Angeles DUI news…

A jury has found ex-Dallas Cowboy lineman, Josh Brent, guilty of DUI manslaughter after deliberating for only two days.

Brent crashed his Mercedes in the early morning hours of December 8, 2012, killing his passenger, Jerry Brown, a fellow Cowboy, in an awful crash. The nose tackle — who played 12 games in the 2012 season for the Cowboys — faces up to 20 years behind bars. Stacy Jackson, Brown’s mother, says that she forgives Brent, and she plans to testify to help him get a lighter sentence.

The verdict came just a few weeks after another Texas DUI manslaughter case concluded. In that case, a defendant named Ethan Couch got let off with just probation, after he caused a crash that killed four people. Couch’s “affluenza” defense sparked an intense and vigorous debate in Texas, online, and elsewhere.

The Case Against Brent

Prosecutors showed jurors receipts from the night in question, showing that Brent had purchased three bottles of champagne. Brent was also seen in pictures holding champagne bottles in each hand, and jurors saw footage of Brent in the police vehicle’s dashboard cam stumbling during a field sobriety test. Prosecutors called Brent’s a “textbook” DUI manslaughter case, and they argued “[DUI drivers] shouldn’t be driving, no exceptions, no excuses!”

Jerry Jones, the owners of the Cowboys, talked to the media about the conviction: “certainly it’s tragic. We’ve all, to some degree, have been a part of this… we support Josh. This has been a terrible experience for the families who lost a loved one and for Josh who loved Jerry as well.”

Prosecutors said that Brent and his friends had gone to Privae, a private club in the Dallas area, and consumed alcohol before driving. Brent’s attorney countered that Brent had only been “guilty of being stupid behind the wheel of a car.”

Here’s a quick primer on Southern California DUI gross vehicular manslaughter cases.

Penal Code Section 191.5 (A) outlines what prosecutors must prove to win a gross vehicular manslaughter case.

First, the prosecution must show that a driver was under the influence of drugs or alcohol — i.e. that his blood alcohol concentration was 0.08% or above.

Second, the prosecution must show that the driver committed a misdemeanor or infraction — or some other act that could have caused someone to die.

The prosecution must also show that this act was committed with “gross negligence” – a kind of negligence above and beyond a normal lack of attention or carelessness.

Finally, the prosecution must show that said conduct resulted in someone’s death.

Defending against DUI manslaughter charges can be complex, fraught work. If you or someone you love needs help with a serious Los Angeles DUI defense, connect with ex-prosecutor Michael Kraut and his legal team today for guidance.
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January 17, 2014

Los Angeles DUI Sports News: Erin Henderson (of the Vikings) Arrested Yet Again

by Michael Kraut

Whether you were arrested for DUI in Los Angeles recently – or you’re just a sports fan who’s rabidly obsessed with the NFL – you may have heard that Minnesota Vikings linebacker, Erin Henderson, just got arrested after a nasty DUI crash in Minnesota.

The six season veteran drove his black SUV off the road in Carver County, scraped across a grassy landscape, sailed across a parking lot, and then smashed into a copse of trees. The SUV’s front was “heavily damaged” in the crash.

The Vikings had a less than stellar season, as exemplified by a late season game against the Baltimore Ravens, during which the two teams traded a pair of touchdowns in the final two minutes of the game. (The Ravens won that battle… only to get knocked off by the Bengals in the last week of regular season play).

As for Henderson, he, also, struggled off the field before this latest DUI arrest. On November 19th, police arrested him for possession of controlled substances and probable cause DUI. As for his latest arrest… he now faces second and third degree DWI (the Minnesota equivalent of Los Angeles DUI) as well as charges of breath test refusal, possession of drug paraphernalia, possession of marijuana, and violation of driver’s license suspension.

He posted a $12,000 bail, and he’ll head to court in early March to face the charges.

Despite Henderson’s impressive season – he nailed two interceptions, started 12 games and racked up 5 sacks – insiders suggest that his days with the Vikings are numbered and that he will be released after the Super Bowl’s transaction moratorium ends.

After his November 19th arrest, Henderson expressed remorse: “it is a strange situation, but I really can’t go into too much detail and depth right now as far as legal matters go… will kind of let the things play out the way they will. I am sure you guys will learn more in the future, but at this point right now I am not at liberty to discuss…”

Many people who face charges like DUI don’t understand what they’re really up against and what they can do to minimize punishment. Fortunately, if you or someone you love faces a Los Angeles DUI charge, you can turn to the experienced team here at the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers for a personalized, customized, and strategic defense.