DUI Expungements

October 11, 2013

Pasadena DUI Celebrity News Update: Dina Lohan (Lindsay’s Mom) Pleads Not Guilty to DUI Charges

As someone who’s been arrested for Pasadena DUI, you were probably more sympathetic than most when you learned that 50-year-old Dina Lohan (mother of actress, Lindsay Lohan) got arrested on September 12th for driving under the influence in Long Island, New York.

Police pulled Dina Lohan over, after they saw her speeding. Based on her Field Sobriety Test performance (and other measures), they figured that she over the influence, and they arrested her just a few miles from her home in Merrick, New York. The bust came only a few months after 27-year-old Lindsay finished her 6th rehab stint connected to her Los Angeles DUI arrest.

On September 24, the elder Lohan entered a not guilty plea at New York’s Nassau County District to charges that she had been driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

Judge Joy Watson did suspend her driver’s license. But that apparently wasn’t a problem: Dina returned home in a chauffeur-driven Rolls Royce, and she is schedule to appear in court again on October 23.

Police said that Dina had been doing 77 miles per hour in a 55 miles per hour zone, and that she had a blood alcohol concentration of 0.20%. For those of you keeping score, that’s two and half times the legal limit for driving under the influence in Southern California.

A Family in Trouble
Lindsay and Dina are not the only members of the family to run a foul of the law. As this Pasadena DUI blog (and other sources) reported months ago, Lindsay’s father — Michael Lohan — has also been tormented by drug and alcohol issues, and he ALSO faces criminal charges.

What’s the Takeaway?

One salient takeaway from all the Lohan DUI drama is that dealing with addiction is complicated, emotionally challenging stuff. Fortunately, you don’t have to fight this battle on your own. An experienced, widely respected Pasadena DUI criminal defense lawyer with the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers can help you develop a sound strategy to deal with your charges.

September 25, 2013

Beverly Hills DUI Sports News Update – Todd Helton of the Colorado Rockies Pleads Guilty to DUI charges

by Michael Kraut

Time for your Beverly Hills DUI celebrity arrest fix…

Back in February, Rockies star Todd Helton whacked into a curve with his black Ford F-150 truck. Witnesses called police to report the likely-DUI driver.

In early May, Helton wound up in court and pled guilty to DUI charges stemming from that night. He told the judge: “I am very regretful to be here… I’ve taken many steps to prevent this from happening again.” The judge gave the major leaguer a minor league sentence: 24 hours of community service, a year probation, $1224 in fees, and a fine of $400.

Here’s how the events of Helton’s arrest unfolded, according to reports.

A witness saw Helton’s Ford weaving all over the road and called police at around 2 a.m. While officers were on their way, Helton hit a median and stopped at a Conoco Gas Station on the corner of Colorado Boulevard and 128th avenue. When police arrived to a strange sight: the truck was idling, empty, with the driver’s door open.

The baseball great soon emerged from the gas station with chewing tobacco and Lotto tickets… and dressed in camouflage. Officer Ty Deichert described the scene: “I could immediately smell a strong odor of an unknown alcoholic beverage coming from this person, and he was unsteady on his feet. The male’s eyes were also bloodshot and watery…I asked the male where he was coming from, and he stated something about getting his truck washed.”

Helton later tested to have a BAC of 0.12% – that’s 1.5 times the Beverly Hills DUI limit of 0.08%, per California vehicle Code Section 23152.

Was Your Beverly Hills DUI Arrest One of the Most Embarrassing Moments of Your Life?

That Helton was dressed in camouflage seems absurd. The detail humanizes him, but it was probably a hugely embarrassing moment. When you’re a celebrity, you need to protect your brand. That logic applies to all of us, in a sense. You want to be seen in a certain light by your colleagues, by your family, by your friends, by society. When you got arrested for Beverly Hills DUI, odds are that you were “at your worst” — or at least close to that.

To deal with this complex issue strategically, get in touch with a Beverly Hills DUI attorney at the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers. Attorney Kraut is an ex-prosecutor, who spent over 14 years at the service of the city, putting criminal defendants behind bars. He’s also roundly liked and respected in the local legal community.

August 21, 2013

Your Los Angeles DUI Versus the First Ever DUI in Human History

by Michael Kraut

As someone who just got pulled over for DUI in Los Angeles, you’re intensely aware of the serious trouble that faces you. Whether you got “just” a misdemeanor DUI by violating California Vehicle Code Section 23152(a) or 23152(b) – or you caused injury and face a felony per California Vehicle Code Section 23153(a) or 23153(b) – you face a litany of a scary penalties, such as:

• Mandatory alcohol school;
• Big fines and fees;
• Jail time;
• The court can force you to install an ignition interlock device in your car, which means that you cannot drive your car unless you “blow a sober breath” into a machine that you pay to install and maintain;
• High insurance rates (almost inevitable after you get a Los Angeles DUI conviction);
• Driver’s license suspension;
• Massive additional penalties, if you ever get convicted again for a DUI or anything else – the court does not take recidivism lightly;
• Indirect problems regarding your social life, your relationships, your job, your self-esteem, and your long-term future.

That’s all for a first time DUI, mind you.

So how does your situation stack up against the first ever DUI driver’s? That honor belongs to George Smith, a taxi driver from London, who was busted at the age of 25, after he crashed his cab into a building on September 10, 1897. His penalty? A fine of just 25 shillings.

The first DUI laws here in the United States didn’t go into effect until 13 years later, in 1910. The earliest prototype of the modern breathalyzer — called the Drunkometer (which is kind of a cool name) — was patented in 1936 by Dr. Rolla Harger, a toxicologist and biochemist. The Drunkometer wasn’t a particularly useful piece of equipment, and it took nearly 20 years – until 1953 – for a professor and police captain from Indiana, Robert Borkenstein, to modify the Drunkometer into the breathalyzer.

Borkenstein’s device was capable of being used in the field to (somewhat) gauge whether or not a driver was under the influence and to quantify that DUI on an objective scale.

Over the next six decades, the breathalyzer evolved, and other types of tests, including the DUI blood test, came into vogue. On our Los Angeles DUI blog, we’ve discussed many times how and why even the most sophisticated DUI tests can fail. These reasons range from officer errors to machine/calibration errors to data analysis flubs to peculiar, idiosyncratic “stuff” — such as the fact that diabetics can exhale compounds that fool breathalyzers into thinking that they are under the influence of alcohol.

The point is that DUI law in Los Angeles and beyond has gotten more sophisticated since 1897. But DUI science is still a very imperfect science.
Connect with the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers today for assistance with your DUI case. Attorney Kraut is a very experienced and highly regarded Los Angeles DUI defense attorney. He also served as a prosecutor for many years, and his prosecutorial knowledge and connections can help inform your defense.

June 26, 2013

Are You a Repeat Burbank DUI Offender? Hopefully You’re Not As Bad As Timothy Morrow (8 Convictions!!)

by Michael Kraut

Perhaps you wrote off your first DUI in Burbank as “bad luck” or “bad karma” or whatever.

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.

June 24, 2013

Pasadena DUI Ridiculousness – Man Zipped by DUI Checkpoint at 70 Miles per Hour … to Get to Waffle House!

by Michael Kraut

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.

May 17, 2013

Victory at Supreme Court for DUI Defendant. Los Angeles Defendants, Take Note!

by Michael Kraut

The Wednesday before last, the Supreme Court issued a big decision in a DUI case that Los Angeles defendants should know about.

Justices ruled 8-1 in favor of a Missouri man, Tyler McNeely, concluding that the police should have obtained a search warrant prior to ordering a DUI blood test on him. Justice Clarence Thomas was the sole Justice to rule that a warrantless blood test would have been Constitutional.

The State of Missouri – and the Obama administration – had asked SCOTUS to endorse a sweeping improvement of rule to allow such warrantless DUI blood tests.

Background on the case
As we reported several months ago, McNeely got arrested in Cape Girardeau County, when a local trooper saw his car swerving and speeding all over the road. McNeely already had two DUI convictions, and he refused to take a breath test.

He also bombed out on the field sobriety tests. If you recently got arrested for DUI in Los Angeles yourself, you no doubt are familiar with what he likely went through – the finger to the nose test, the horizontal gaze nystagmus test, the stand on one leg test, count backwards from 100 by 3’s test, etc.

Corporal Mark Winder of Missouri’s State Highway Patrol certainly had enough evidence to ask for a warrant for a blood test. Instead, he took the defendant to a nearby hospital, where a technician took blood for the test – all while McNeely was handcuffed. The results of the blood test were pretty substantial. McNeely’s blood had 0.154% BAC, nearly twice the legal limit for driving under the influence in Los Angeles, as defined as by California’s Vehicle Code Section 23152. Both a Missouri lower court and the Missouri State Supreme Court tossed the blood test results, because they said they violated McNeely’s Constitutional rights against unreasonable search and seizure.

According to the Missouri court, unless delaying could destroy critical evidence (or cause a threat to someone’s life), the police need to get warrants in such cases. In the latest SCOTUS ruling, the eight Justices who penned the majority opinion did not give guidance about when police should (or should not) seek warrants. Justice Anthony Kennedy – writing separately – said that a future case may give the Court a chance to get more in depth.

What does the SCOTUS ruling – and other recent, important DUI law fluctuations – mean for your case?

The SCOTUS situation highlights the fluidity of local and national DUI law. That’s why it’s important to work with an experienced, up-to-speed, results-proven attorney to make sense of what’s happened to you and to build an appropriate defense.

The team here at the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers is ready to help you. Attorney Kraut is a very experienced, highly respected local lawyer who attended Harvard Law School and who worked for over 14 years as a prosecutor before becoming a Los Angeles DUI defense lawyer.

April 10, 2013

Burbank DUI Sports News: Drake Britton, Star Pitcher for Red Sox, Socked with DUI in Fort Myers, Florida

by Michael Kraut

Some disappointing Burbank DUI sports news: 23-year-old Drake Britton, a left-handed pitcher for the Boston Red Sox, got arrested on March 2 for driving under the influence in Fort Myers, Florida.

According to the arrest report, Britton made multiple mistakes that may make his case legally fraught and complex. A USA Today article said a deputy saw him speeding and tried to pull over the promising young leftie. Britton then smashed his car into a curb and bulldozered over a fence. Eventually, he stopped and admitted to the deputy that he had been drinking.

The Red Sox later released a statement saying that the team took Britton’s arrest “very seriously, and it’s being addressed…Fortunately, in this case, there was no one injured, but the bottom line is that it’s a very serious issue with us.”

Britton paid a $2,250 bond.

Did we mention that he’d been traveling at 111 miles per hour? That’s pretty fast!

Unless you’re racing at NASCAR or tooling your vintage Mercedes around on the Autobahn, 111 mph is way, way too fast.

What’s really tragic – at least for Britton – is that he was just about to start in the Big Leagues, after years of struggling through the Minors. He got drafted way back in 2007 in the 23rd round. Even though he accrued a losing record with Boston’s Double-A Portland team (4-7 with a 3.2 ERA) last season, he had wrangled a chance to play in “The Show.”

So why did he drive under the influence and potentially wreck not only his car but also his career?

This question would obviously be impossible to answer unless you spent time understanding his personal situation and his psychology.

But it speaks to the diverse causes of Burbank DUI behavior and accidents.

According to cutting-edge psychological research, stressful situations – both negative AND positive – can drive us to self-medicate with alcohol or other substances.

Unless and until you address the root stress or frustration, then you may never fully get rehabilitated. You thus may be at an increased likelihood of getting arrested again, in the future, for driving under the influence in Burbank or elsewhere.

If that happens, your problems can mount.

A misdemeanor Burbank DUI is a serious charge, and it can result in the stripping of your California driver’s license for a year, jail time, court costs, fines, insurance spikes, tough probation terms, and worse. When you get arrested a second or third or even fourth time within a 10 year period for DUI in Southern California, prosecutors can pile on more and more charges, and your life can spiral downwards and out of control.

To get a grip on what’s caused your turmoil — what caused you to make less than strategic decisions about your driving or to say dumb things to the officer who pulled you over for DUI -– look to the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers. Michael Kraut is an experienced, compassionate, and thorough Burbank DUI defense attorney who has helped many people in similar situations protect their rights and get a fair second chance.

April 8, 2013

Involved in a Horrendous Glendale DUI Accident? Life Feels Out of Control?

by Michael Kraut

You got involved in a serious Glendale DUI accident.

You survived the event. Not everyone who drives DUI in Glendale does. But even if your event involved no injuries and/or vehicle damage, you’re frightened about your future, your freedom, your reputation, your license, whether or not you will have to serve jail time, and on and on.

You keep churning over different scenarios in your head, each one more worrisome than the last. All you keep thinking about is “how much worse will this all get?”

In the abstract, no one can really say.

However, you have the ability — right now, while you are reading this article — to begin to reverse your negative fortunes and to start to rebuild. That’s not intended as Pollyannaish, ridiculous type of positive thinking. If your life is deeply troubled on many levels, you cannot “turn it around” overnight or by reading one inspirational passage. In fact, the quest for that kind of quick “cure all” for life’s problems is often at the root of so much destruction.

That said, you CAN immediately start to make incremental changes to your habits, behaviors, and beliefs that, over long swaths of time, will lead you to better places.

Here’s a good analogy. Imagine that your “elevation above sea level” is equivalent to your “emotional state.” So if you stand in Death Valley or the Dead Sea, you are “emotionally low.” If you stand on top of a mountain, you are “emotionally joyful.”

When you’re standing in Death Valley, you can’t get to Mount Everest by making one giant leap. You make incremental progress towards higher land. Instead of trying to jump to the top of a mountain, you just start to walk in the direction of the peak and focus on the individual steps you need to take to get there.

Success in many different endeavors — including Glendale DUI defense — is a lot like that.

When you start to make “good” decisions, find the right mentors, and engage in purposeful and positive action, over time, your odds of success increase. They are obviously not guaranteed. You can do everything right and still wind up, by some kind of fluke, suffering a lot. Conversely, you can, by random chance, get lucky.

That’s why there is no such thing as a “cure all” — because life and nature are irreducibly random at some level. But you can start making a conscious choice to walk towards the proverbial mountain:

• To consult with an experienced Glendale DUI defense attorney, like Michael Kraut of the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers;
• To go in for counseling to find out what’s at the root of why your life is so stressful on so many levels;
• To start to be kinder and more compassionate with yourself;
• To improve your eating and exercise habits and take better care of your body;
• And so on.

Call Attorney Kraut to deal with your Glendale DUI charges now.

March 8, 2013

What Beverly Hills DUI Arrest Is This for You? First? Second? This Guy Just Got His 14th!

by Michael Kraut

Whether you got pulled over for your first-ever Beverly Hills DUI on Wilshire & Rodeo after a tony film industry soirée; or you just racked up your second or third DUI within 10 years, consider yourself fortunate that you are not 55-year-old William Grussing.

The Montana man was just sentenced to two decades behind bars for driving under the influence.

Why the harsh sentence?

Because this was his 14th time facing DUI charges!

In order to even become eligible for parole, Grussing must go through a very long and intense alcohol education program. He admitted to the judge that he was just 14, when he had his first alcohol beverage — with his father, no less.

Even though you are a DUI defendant yourself, you’re probably nodding to yourself that the judge probably did the right thing in this case. It’s one thing to make a misjudgment after a party… or even to make multiple bad decisions within a few years. But when you get into the double-digits with your DUI charges, something is just not working, and more drastic measures might be needed.

In your case, you want to figure out not only how to beat your Beverly Hills DUI charges, but also how to manage the core problems causing you to make less than optimal decisions.

Sorting out those root problems is no easy feat, even for someone who is dedicated, open, and persistent.

Fortunately, the team here at the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers can help you with your Beverly Hills DUI charges. Attorney Kraut and his team are experienced, compassionate, and aggressive. They can help you understand what you might be able to do, immediately, to get control over your life and over your legal situation. Get in touch with the Harvard Law School educated attorney Kraut now for assistance.

December 25, 2012

Long Beach DUI Debacle: Wrongfully Accused DUI Defendants File Class Action against Utah Trooper, Lisa Steed

by Michael Kraut

In a recent piece we did on this Long Beach DUI blog several months ago, we discussed the peculiar case of Utah Highway Patrol trooper, Lisa Steed, who was fired in November for unfairly arresting innocent people on charges of driving under the influence.

Steed had actually been named a Utah Highway Patrol “trooper of the year” – owing in part to her big arrest numbers. Documents filed with Utah’s Third District Judicial Court suggest that she might have wrongfully charged and arrested literally HUNDREDS of people over the years.

Some of these people pled guilty in court because they could not afford to pay for a DUI defense. The class action against Steed argues that State of Utah owes these DUI defendants substantial damages: they lost property and jobs and suffered untold toil. For instance, one of Steed’s victims, Thomas Romero, said he got pulled over because he had a burned out taillight. Steed suspected he was DUI, but a blood alcohol test revealed that he had a 0.00% BAC.

That’s right: 0.00% BAC. Nada.

Nevertheless, Romero lost his truck to the impound lot. He told reporters “that night when I got pulled over, lost my truck, lost everything I have, my motor home, everything. That hurts.”

Another supposed victim of Steed’s zealousness, Julie Tapia, recounted her horrific tale: “[Steed] never did give me a sobriety test on the spot, even though I asked for it, because I’m like, I haven’t done anything wrong unless I’m drunk on a hamburger, fries and a milkshake. I don’t even drink.”

Steed, meanwhile, has appealed with Utah’s State Personnel Office to try to regain her employment in the Police Department.

If you’ve recently been arrested for driving under the influence in Long Beach or elsewhere in the Southland, odds are the trooper who pulled you over did not flagrantly flout rules of conduct, like Steed allegedly did.

However, officer mistakes are less uncommon than you may realize!

For instance, as we have talked numerous times on this Long Beach DUI blog, breathalyzer tests are notoriously troubled. Diabetics, for instance, release chemical compounds on their breath called ketones, which can adversely affect BAC reading. In other words, you can have consumed zero alcohol and still score a positive on a breath test because of those ketones. Likewise, if you are on certain special diets, you can register a false positive.

Other factors that can throw off your Long Beach DUI breathalyzer test results include: your gender, whether you’re on any medications, whether you have certain medical conditions, the depth into which you blow into the machine (super deep breaths can cause an exaggeratedly positive BAC reading), and much more.

Given that the difference between a dismissal of your charge and a conviction according to California Vehicle Code Section 23152 can hang in the balance, you likely can benefit hugely from a creditable, thorough Long Beach DUI Criminal Defense. Attorney Michael Kraut of the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers and his team would be happy to provide a free and confidential case evaluation to help you strategize and make sound decisions regarding your legal future.