Articles Posted in DUI Crime and Punishment

As someone who’s been recently charged with DUI in Long Beach – or who knows a friend or family member recently charged – you might be inclined to be sympathetic to rapper DMX, who was busted for DUI recently in South Carolina. DMX-dui-long-beach.jpg

According to reports, the 42-year-old rapper, who goes by DMX but whose given name is Earl Simmons, was busted near Greenville, South Carolina at around 3 AM Friday morning.

TMZ published dash cam footage of X in the car. The police officer who stopped X inquired about his drinking behavior. X originally said he only had single drink but later apparently confessed to having had four or five.

Confusion reigned after the DUI stop as well.

At first, X’s publicist fervently denied the charges. Dominic Niti told the press: “allegations about DMX being arrested for drunk driving are false … he was arrested early this morning but quickly released. X was given a breathalyzer test and he easily passed it.”

But that’s not what the Southern Carolina Highway Patrol said.

The rapper faces a DUI charge on top of charges that he wasn’t wearing a seatbelt and that he didn’t have a driver’s license with him. X has faced a variety of legal challenges recently. In 2008, he was busted in Phoenix for reckless driving and for cruelty to animals. Last year, he got arrested in South Carolina for driving sans a driver’s license.

So how might DMX’s tale of woe influence your quest to deal with your own (or your family member’s) Long Beach DUI charges?

First of all, appreciate that no one is above the law. Even famous rappers, artists, business people, and politicians must follow the law of the land or face unpleasant consequences.

Second of all, appreciate that just because things seem bad right now doesn’t mean that you’re doomed to an unfair sentence or a life of struggle from here on out. The reality is that life is long. You should have opportunities to repair and apologize for the damage that you did and to rebuild your life.

If you haven’t yet connected with a Long Beach DUI defense attorney, like Mr. Kraut of the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers, consider doing so, ASAP. While no attorney can guarantee results, you might be surprised by how much better you’ll feel after getting clear about your potential punishments and options. Mr. Kraut and his team are sensitive and compassionate. They’re also well-known for their aggressive, intelligent approaches to complex Long Beach DUI cases. Connect today to schedule a free and thorough consultation.

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As someone who has been recently stopped and arrested for Burbank DUI at a checkpoint (or elsewhere), your mind is obviously focused on your urgent situation and not on national news involvements. But you should try to understand the context of your arrest on a broader level, since that context can inform your defense strategy and what measures you might take going forward to prevent another Burbank DUI arrest.north-dakota-HB-1302.jpg

To that end, let’s mentally traverse a few thousand miles up to North Dakota, where local Governor Jack Dalrymple just signed into law House Bill 1302, which ratchets up penalties for DUI in ND. The new laws, which will go into effect on August 1, are far more draconian than the state’s old laws. Governor Dalrymple signed HB 1302 into law while surrounded by victims and family members of victims of DUI accidents. Here are key highlights:

• Anyone who blows a BAC of 0.16% or higher (even first time offenders!) will be hit with an aggravated DUI charge;
• If you test at 0.16% or more (twice the limit for DUI in Burbank, by the way), and you’re a recidivist, you must enroll in a 24/7 sobriety program and face an increase in mandatory jail time;
• Even first time offenders convicted of aggravated DUI must perform 10 hours of community service and serve two days behind bars;
• If you kill someone while driving under the influence, you could be charged with the new type of felony called a Class A felony. If convicted, you face a mandatory 3 year jail sentence;
• If you’ve been convicted of reckless or DUI driving in the past, and then you kill someone, you face a mandatory decade-long prison sentence;
• The law also creates a Class C felony charge (one to two year mandatory sentence) if you injure someone while driving DUI.

A local North Dakota state representative, Kim Koppelman, applauded the new stringent DUI laws: “We’ve sent a powerful message, supported by so many…this marks the culmination of a long, collaborative effort involving law enforcement officials, prosecutors, defense attorneys, the Governor, the Attorney General, corrections officials and the families of victims of drunk driving.”

Reflecting on what’s happened at North Dakota leads to a few observations:

• First of all, Burbank DUI laws (and DUI laws everywhere) are fluid. They change over time.
• Secondly, all the stakeholders in the DUI process – DUI defendants; lawyers; insurance companies; lawmakers; victims; and the general public – have a mutual interest in making our roads safer and ensuring a proper balance of punishment and rehabilitation.
• Given the ever-changing and complex nature of DUI law, you should strongly consider finding a talented, effective Burbank DUI defense attorney to help you with your case.

There is just too much information – changing too quickly – for you to be able to process and deal with your case on your own, if you want optimal results. Connect with Mr. Kraut of Burbank’s Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers for a thorough, strategic free consultation about your situation.

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You might be surprised by the size of the list of “upright” celebrities, politicians, and public figures who’ve been arrested and convicted of driving under the influence in Los Angeles.sam-donaldson-dui-santa-monica.jpg

Veteran ABC News political correspondent and reporter, Sam Donaldson, for instance, got tagged for DUI last December in Delaware. Donaldson, by all accounts, seems to be the archetype of a sober headed, rational person. In addition to serving as a prominent ABC News correspondent during the Carter and Regan administrations, he also co-hosted a series of news programs with Diane Sawyer (“PrimeTime Live”) as well as a Sunday broadcast (“This Week with Sam Donaldson and Cokie Roberts”).

Nevertheless, Donaldson, like Nick Nolte and the ever-in-the-tabloids Lindsay Lohan, recently found himself blowing into a Los Angeles breathalyzer test, getting put into a cop car, and winding up behind bars.

In almost every respect, the 78-year-old defies the “stereotype” of someone arrested for DUI in Los Angeles. But there he was. (Okay, technically, he was arrested in Delaware. But still!).

He allegedly cooperated politely with officers, when they stopped him on Savannah Road on December 1st. Cops put him through the paces of a field sobriety test — probably similar to Los Angeles FSTs: e.g. finger to the nose test, stand on one leg test, walk the line test, horizontal gaze nystagmus test, etc.

On April 22nd, during his arraignment, he pled not guilty and asked for a non-jury trial. (He also faces a charge of improper lane change.) His DUI case will be heard on June 10th in Sussex.

As someone who’s recently been arrested for DUI, you likely feel pretty alone and isolated, even though your family has been understanding and empathetic. You never thought of yourself as the “type of person” who would get into trouble like this, and you’re scared and confused about what to do next.

Fortunately, former Los Angeles City prosecutor, Michael Kraut, and his adept team are standing by to help you come to terms with your charges and make an effective action plan to build a strong DUI defense. Connect with Harvard Law School educated Kraut and his team to get good help now.

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The act of driving under the influence in Glendale (or wherever) is a fundamentally dangerous and potentially destructive act. It’s often the tip of a more disturbing iceberg. kenny-anderson-glendale-dui.jpg

But DUI defendants are a diverse lot.

Some suspects just make simple “dumb” errors of judgment and wind up sitting in the back seat of a police cruiser. Others struggle mightily for years with psychological demons, and these struggles manifest as asocial behavior, like driving under the influence of medication or drugs.

As someone who was recently arrested for Glendale DUI, you may fit into either category. It’s helpful to “drill down” to understand why you got in trouble, so that you can remedy not only the charges but also the root problem that drove you to accrue the charges.

If were just “being careless,” that’s one thing. But if you got a DUI after struggling for years with alcohol, depression, anxiety, and other life problems, you might need serious help to uncover what’s gone wrong and take steps to fix thing.

In light of that preamble, consider the sad case of 42-year-old Kenny Anderson, a former basketball star with the Boston Celtics and New Jersey Nets. He was arrested recently in Broward County, FL, when Pembroke Pines police saw him weaving in and out of lanes in the middle of the night.

Anderson had been arrested a year and half ago, in December 2011, in Miramar, when he crashed his Escalade SUV into a tree. He left the scene of that crash, and police had to call him to return to the scene. He apparently had an odor of alcohol on him and had bloodshot eyes – typical symptoms of a DUI in Glendale – but police did not charge him for driving under the influence, because he could have argued that he had consumed the alcohol at his house. Nevertheless, he got a misdemeanor charge for leaving the scene of an accident.

Anderson has seen serious ups and downs in his life.

At one point, pundits estimate that he had earned over $60 million through basketball. Today, he’s apparently nearly broke. He coaches basketball at a private school. He also had been married to Tami Roman, who starred in VH1’s reality series, Basketball Wives.

Who knows whether the 46-year-old can rebound from his DUI charges to clean up his life and find clarity and peace. Hopefully, he can do so.

The point is that you may also need effective guidance with your Glendale DUI charges. Connect with the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers for a complementary, confidential consultation. Attorney Kraut is a highly regarded ex-prosecutor (also Harvard Law School educated) who has helped many people in situations similar to yours fix their problems and move on.

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Your Glendale DUI arrest is not going to go over well with the folks at work, or at least so you’re afraid.fight-with-boss-after-pasadena-dui.jpg

Perhaps you already were struggling at work — on the verge of getting demoted or even fired. Once your employer finds out about the arrest – particularly if you hurt someone while DUI in Glendale – you may lose your main source of income, another horrible blow after what has already been a traumatic experience.

Even if you keep your job, you might face backlash from your coworkers and even from clients. You want to avoid lying about your experience — and even if you wanted to lie, you also may not be able to, particularly if you were arrested in spectacular fashion or if you seriously hurt yourself or someone else while DUI in Glendale.

So what can you do?

First of all, give yourself credit just for reading this article and beginning the thinking process about how to address the issue. Yes, you made mistakes. Yes, you’re in trouble and you’re rightly worried about the “snowball effect” of your DUI – i.e., how many other areas of your life will the DUI arrest impact in a negative fashion?

But you might be surprised by what you can accomplish by being compassionate with yourself and being strategic about how you proceed. For instance, depending on your employer and the nature of your relationship with him or her, you could address the issue upfront and ask for guidance:

“Ms. Hankins, I’ve come to your office to tell you that I got arrested over the weekend for driving under the influence in Glendale on a misdemeanor charge.

I can’t really say much about my case right now, but I deeply regret what happened and I’m working with an experienced Glendale DUI criminal defense lawyer to figure out what to do. I want to tell you this upfront, because I value my role at this company and I didn’t want you hear the news from someone else. I am committed to getting the appropriate help and coming out of this experience stronger. I would obviously love to keep working for this company. Tell me what you think about how to go forward.”

Even if you think that your boss “won’t understand,” you might be surprised by what people are capable of, when you’re honest and forthcoming.

Of course, so you want to avoid putting the cart before the horse. First, get insight into your Glendale DUI case by connecting with the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers. After attending Harvard Law School, attorney Kraut spent nearly 15 years as a prosecutor for Los Angeles (working his way up to Senior Deputy District Attorney), before switching over to represent criminal defendants. He and his team can give you the resources and insights to manage not only work-related challenges (flowing from the DUI) but also other challenges, such as the imminent license suspension, jail time, mandatory alcohol school, mandated interlocking ignition device installation and so forth.

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Things were already rocky between you and your spouse, before you got arrested for driving under the influence in Long Beach. Now things are worse.fight-with-wife-after-long-beach-dui.jpg

What can you do?

First of all, you need to address the realities of your arrest and all the legal implications. According to California Vehicle Code Section 23152 (a) or 23152 (b), even a misdemeanor DUI in Long Beach (or elsewhere) can lead to jail time, annoying court costs and fees, mandatory installation of an Interlock Ignition Device (IID) in your car, strict probation terms, mandatory alcohol school, and loss of your CA driver’s license. And that’s just for starters! On top of that, your insurance rates can go up and you can lose your job.

That’s brought up not to spook you, but rather to help you focus on what’s truly important right now, which is your Long Beach DUI defense.

In other words, the “practical stuff” regarding your defense needs to take priority. Otherwise, you run needless risks. The longer you delay getting good representation, for instance, the more difficult it will be to take care of/prevent other bad events. For instance, right now you might be able to contest the driver’s license suspension, find evidence to challenge the Long Beach breathalyzer test results, and anticipate what prosecutors may throw at you.

This isn’t to say that you should neglect your relationship. At some point, you DO want to circle back to address pivotal emotional issues. After all, you’re going to need support not only to manage the logistics of your life – e.g. who’s going to drive you and your children places, if you have a suspended license? – but also to keep you from recidivism and boost your confidence.

Obviously, this is a Long Beach DUI defense blog, not a relationship counseling blog. But you might find it useful to treat the “Long Beach DUI conversation” with your spouse (or partner or girlfriend/boyfriend) as you would treat an important business meeting. In other words, prepare for it! Spend time writing down the stuff you want to stay and imaging the conversation going as well as it could go.

If you haven’t yet broken the news to him or her, prepare. If you’ve broken the news, and the “first round” didn’t go over well, you need to go from there. Acknowledge your starting point – don’t lie to yourself or pretend your problems aren’t as bad as they really are. But retain hope and faith that you can get through this — that you will rebound from your DUI in Long Beach stronger, more compassionate, safer, and more resilient than before.

Step one is to understand your current playing field. What’s true now about your arrest, your charges, and your possibilities? Get insightful, confidential answers by connecting with the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers today. Attorney Kraut is not just a very highly regarded and well connected Long Beach DUI defense attorney, but he is also an ex-prosecutor, so he knows what prosecutors will want out of your case.

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Your Pasadena DUI arrest has caused you to rethink a lot of your fundamental ideas about yourself, your future, your relationships, and your ability to succeed in general. kaizen-after-pasadena-dui.jpg

Whether the DUI caused serious bodily injury to someone, or whether it was “just” a misdemeanor charge that landed you in jail overnight, you’re stuck in a precarious situation. To create an effective Pasadena DUI defense, you need the proper mindset. To paraphrase one of Albert Einstein’s most famous quotes, “DUI problems cannot be solved using the same consciousness that created them.”

To reconcile with what drove you to drive DUI in Pasadena, you’re going to need help from outside, trusted sources. You may not be able to “fix things” in a single therapy session. But tested advisors, such as an experienced Pasadena DUI defense lawyer, can help you make serious progress.

Seeing “Self-improvement” Not As a Single Project, But Rather As an Ongoing Process
Consider the Japanese art of “Kaizen” – or “never ending improvement.” This philosophy has helped companies like Toyota become world acclaimed brands, and it’s also helped many civic leaders, scientists and athletes achieve their potential. The gist of kaizen is that, over time, if you direct your energy towards improvement – enjoying the process of improvement for itself – eventually, you will build positive momentum and vault beyond mediocrity to success.

What this means for your Pasadena DUI defense is that, in addition to dealing with the nuts and bolts — e.g. striving to minimize your punishments and reconcile with ancillary costs (such as bumps in your car insurance rates) — make a vow now to work on yourself. Find the right people and mentors. Transform this disheartening experience into one that, in retrospect, you will recall as a pivotal, positive moment in your life.

Step one is to get in touch with your resource-rich, tested Los Angeles criminal defense attorney at the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers. Mr. Kraut attended Harvard Law School, and he has been a guest commentator for the Los Angeles Times, KTLA, and other widely respected media publications.

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Stories about celebrity DUIs in Los Angeles typically focus on the drivers who wreak havoc, hurt people, or say or do dumb things at checkpoints. toth-witherspoon-dui.jpg

But that’s not always the case.

Consider the fascinating DUI arrest of CAA agent, Jim Toth, husband of actress Reese Witherspoon. On April 19th (as this Los Angeles DUI blog and other sources reported), Toth got stopped in Atlanta on suspicion of DUI. Witherspoon, who was in the car, made ridiculous, panicked statements to the officer — including accusing him of not being a “real” police officer – comments which got her arrested for attempting to intervene and disorderly conduct.

She has since profusely apologized.

She recently appeared on Good Morning America to talk about her new independent film, Mud. Host George Stephanopoulos brought up the DUI — and Witherspoon’s less than elegant comments to the officer: “You’ve been under the spotlight your whole adult life, and this doesn’t sound like the Reese Witherspoon we’ve grown to know.” Witherspoon agreed and said “I have no idea what I was saying that night. I saw him arresting my husband, and I literally panicked. And I said all kinds of crazy things. I told him I was pregnant. I am not pregnant. I am so sorry.”

Witherspoon said she particularly regretted the disrespect, because she has police officers in her family, and she works with police every day: “I know better. It’s just unacceptable.”

She also discussed how difficult it was to talk to her young children about the acts. She told Stephanopoulos “we are taking responsibility and doing everything in our power to make it right. You just have to be honest with them [her kids].”

The Oscar winning actress’s weird post-DUI behavior is not atypical.

In fact, lot of people arrested for driving under the influence in Los Angeles behave in ways they never imaged they could behave. Some people leave the scene of accidents — obviously a big no-no. Others lash out at police officers or break down emotionally.

In fact, many of the stories that we discuss here on this Los Angeles DUI blog are “newsy” because they highlight this tendency that DUI drivers often exhibit — to exacerbate problems after the fact. It’s bad enough if you get stopped at a Los Angeles DUI checkpoint and blow a 0.16% BAC on the breath test (twice the limit, per California Vehicle Code Section 23152(b)). It’s worse if you complicate the situation by punching an officer, driving away from the scene of the crime, lying, or engaging in other fishy behavior.

So why do people do this? Why do they metaphorically “throw good money after bad” – i.e., put themselves at risk for enhanced/additional charges for no reason?

This is a Los Angeles DUI blog, not a psychology blog. But undoubtedly our primitive brain is (at least to a degree) responsible. When we see threats in nature (be they saber-tooth tigers or police cars with flashing red lights), we engage in defensive behaviors: freeze, flight, or fight.

• The “freeze” behavior corresponds to a driver’s failing to respond to officer questions.
• The “flight” response corresponds to hit and runs or attempts to flee Los Angeles DUI checkpoints.
• The “fight” behavior corresponds to the lashing out – ranging from Witherspoon’s verbal misbehavior in Atlanta to other suspects’ attempts to fight with officers.

To unpack what’s happened to you and figure out the best way forward, connect with a Los Angeles DUI defense attorney at the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers. Mr. Kraut is an experienced and battle-tested lawyer who worked work many years as prosecutor (Senior Deputy District Attorney for LA).

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Perhaps you wrote off your first DUI in Burbank as “bad luck” or “bad karma” or whatever. tim-morrow-8-DUI-brurbank.jpg

But now that you’re facing your second charge, you’re deeply worried that prosecutors will not take kindly to the recidivism. You are right to fear that. The Southern California justice system does not like it when drivers commit repeat crimes.

In that context, it’s astonishing when people like 43-year-old Timothy Morrow wind up with eight DUI convictions over a lifetime. That’s right: EIGHT DUIs.

The self-employed carpenter collected his first DUI at the age of 17. After that, he got arrested twice for boating under the influence and nine other times for driving while intoxicated. A local state attorney, Ben Dillon, noted “it defies the logic that an individual that has been arrested for DUI 10 times continues to drink alcohol…it’s clear this defendant just doesn’t get it and doesn’t care.”

A judge just handed down a 13 year prison sentence to Morrow, despite the fact that he admitted to the court that he had been abused as a child: “I have a 12-year-old son that I want to see grow up. I made a mistake, I apologize.” Circuit Judge, Brian Hughes, appreciated the confession but handed down the 13 year jail sentence anyway: “you said you made a mistake … you made mistake after mistake after mistake, for 25 years. You are still somebody that keeps making the same mistake.”

Do recidivists Burbank DUI offenders deserve a second chance? How about a third? A fourth? A fifth? Where does it end?

As the inimitable Will Rogers once said, “If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.”

That’s sensible advice, but it’s often hard to follow in practice. It’s easy to look at somebody else who keeps “making the same mistake” and judging that person for being unable to get it together. But if you have a problem — be it a problem managing your relationship with alcohol or a deep seated psychological issue — you may not be able to figure out how to “stop digging” and approach your situation from a new and fresh vantage.

Fortunately, with the right help, Burbank DUI defendants like you can often not just rebound from serious charges but also restructure their lives, their careers and their finances in positive ways.

Let the team here at the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers help you with your Burbank DUI defense. Attorney Kraut is an experienced, trusted criminal defense lawyer. As an ex-prosecutor, he maintains excellent relationships with other prosecutors, judges and police officers, and he feels a great duty both to provide defendants with excellent counsel and to protect the public good.

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If you got stopped at a DUI checkpoint in Pasadena, hopefully you had a better excuse than 50-year-old Steve Gosa, of Buford, Georgia. According to local reports from the Gwinnett County Police, Gosa awoke in the middle of the night on April 15 with a hankering for Waffle House.

He cruised passed a sobriety checkpoint on Braselton Highway, going 70 miles per hour in a 45 miles per hour zone — “then crossed over into the center lane, getting half the vehicle in the other lane” — according to the local police report.

An officer unsurprisingly took off after him and chased him into the parking lot of a local Publix Grocery Store, on the corner of Braselton Highway and Hamilton Mill Road.

One of the big symptoms of DUI in Pasadena is the “odor of alcohol,” and that’s exactly what this officer first noted about Gosa. Gosa admitted that he was heading to Waffle House because he woke up really hungry. He did not admit to consuming any alcohol.

Obviously, Waffle House’s waffles (and the other food there) is quite yummy. It’s certainly understandable why someone would want to head down to get waffles that have been smothered, covered, slathered, etc. Also, Waffle has a jukebox that plays some really fun, kitschy songs, extolling the glories of waffles.

Nevertheless, no matter how hungry you are, you are not allowed to drive DUI in Pasadena or anywhere else. Not to a Waffle House. Not to an IHOP. Not to any place at all.

Gosa surely understood this, after he failed his field sobriety test and got booked on DUI charges and a charge of an improper lane change. He made his $2074 bond that day, but he undoubtedly has a long road to face, legally speaking.

So what lessons does this Waffle House drama hold for you, if you’ve likewise been tagged for driving under the influence in Pasadena (or elsewhere)?

First of all, appreciate that, if you said something dumb or untoward to a police officer, you’re not the first person to make such an error. Strive to be compassionate with yourself and avoid beating yourself up too much for what happened.

Second of all, understand that your misjudgment has landed you in legal hot water. You may face charges per California Vehicle Code Section 23152 or even 23153 (the CVC for injury DUI).

Lastly, know that you CAN start taking responsibility and being strategic about how you approach your case. An astute, well-formed defense can help you get out of trouble – or at least minimize your punishments. Get in touch with well-established Los Angeles DUI defense attorney, Michael Kraut, today to explore your options and create an effective defense.

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