DUI Field Sobriety Tests

January 18, 2013

A Los Angeles DUI Defense Attorney Is Not a Miracle Worker

Many people mistakenly believe that Los Angeles DUI defense attorneys do not care about public safety or have an overly laissez-faire attitude about personal liberties.

Perhaps some attorneys hold this attitude. But the reality is that the vast majority of good DUI lawyers in Los Angeles and Southern California have strong moral compasses. They have families and friends as well. They know all too well the horrors that can result when the wrong person gets behind the wheel or vehicle at the wrong time.

Not all cases of driving under the influence are equal – not by a long shot
This blog has covered some extremely colorful DUI cases involving, for instance, recidivist offenders who’ve been arrested 9+ times. A recent blog post told the story of a 31-year-old who allegedly drove DUI at 80 miles per hour into his girlfriend and her companion, killing the 21-year-old man, severely hurting the girl, and killing all four of her dogs – all while driving under a suspended license after being dinged with three DUI convictions.

A great attorney can help defendants understand what they are up against and construct extremely sturdy and solid legal responses. But there is no such thing as a miracle worker. If you drove with a 0.45% BAC, and purposely hit a nun pushing a baby, odds are you will face massively serious penalties. As well you should!

The reality, however, is that many people who get arrested for crimes like Los Angeles DUI are borderline or near borderline. Maybe you had one too many drinks at a Hollywood industry party and thought you could “make it home” to Santa Monica because you felt pretty good. But then a trooper saw you changing lanes without signaling. He pulled you over, and then one thing led to another, and you found yourself behind bars. Alternately, maybe you’re a student at UCLA who got a little wild at a party. You decided to sleep in your car, but then a police officer found you with your keys in your hand and arrested you for DUI anyway.

Small, borderline cases like these are far more common than the catastrophic, horrific cases you read about in the news. Obviously, all defendants deserve a good defense. Likewise, DUI victims’ rights obviously must be protected, and justice needs to be done.

We as a society also have an obligation to help DUI convicts get rehabilitated, make reparations if possible, regain control over their lives, and get some clarity about how they can be better citizens.

If you know someone who has recently been arrested for DUI in Los Angeles, or if you yourself have been arrested, connect with the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers for a free consultation. Attorney Michael Kraut is an ex-prosecutor, who’s routinely featured as a DUI expert in major media outlets, like KTLA Los Angeles, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, etc. Mr. Kraut will be happy to talk with you about your DUI case and suggest a way forward.

January 16, 2013

Burbank DUI News: Will Supreme Court Allow Unwarranted Blood Test? What Effect Will SCOTUS’ Imminent Ruling Have On You?

by Michael Kraut

Were you recently arrested for driving under the influence in Burbank, after being given a blood test by a police officer?

If so, some legal “goings on” at the United States Supreme Court may interest you.

Last Wednesday, the court heard arguments regarding a Missouri case. At issue: whether police should be allowed to compel DUI suspects to participate in DUI blood tests without a warrant. Prosecutors in this case had compelling arguments. Here’s how a Huffington Post article summarized the situation: “against the backdrop of a serious national problem of more than 10,000 deaths from crashes involving alcohol-impaired drivers in 2010…lawyers for Missouri and the Obama administration argued that dispensing with a warrant requirement would further the effort [to reduce the number of DUI injuries] because any delay in testing the suspect’s blood alcohol content allows alcohol to dissipate in the blood.”

A Justice Department lawyer argued that police in DUI situations might “face the certain destruction of blood alcohol evidence” eithout such tests. The SCOTUS Justices appeared skeptical of the prosecution’s case. On the one hand, they agreed that collecting blood samples should be a priority — a delayed collection could be a problem. On the other hand, they recognized that sticking someone with a needle to collect blood — without a judge’s approval! — is a highly intrusive act.

Justice Scalia, for instance, asked prosecutors “why shouldn’t that determination be made case by case?” Scalia’s point was that, if the test can be delayed, then it should be delayed until a warrant is acquired. If waiting would create a evidentiary problem, then “it’s okay.”

Tyler McNeely was arrested in rural Missouri after he failed multiple sobriety tests and appeared unsteady and presented with slurred speech – typical symptoms of Burbank DUI.

The officer had enough evidence to obtain a warrant to get a blood test — McNeely refused the breathalyzer. Instead, he took McNeely to the hospital, where a technician drew blood from him and found that his BAC was 0.154% — nearly twice the legal limit for driving under the influence in Burbank, Missouri, and elsewhere.

Both the lower court and the Supreme Court of Missouri said the blood test results should be thrown out because they violated the Constitution’s restrictions against unreasonable search and seizure. This legal fracas could redound to change how police, prosecutors, and Los Angeles DUI lawyers operate, albeit in a nuanced fashion. But if you’re facing a charge, you probably care less about obscure rulings out of Washington and more about your own situation. What should you do to manage your charges, protect your license and your rights, and avoid the harsh punishments that prosecutors may be bringing against you?

The Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers can help you make better decisions. Get in touch with Mr. Kraut and his team for a free, thorough and confidential consultation about your best next steps.

January 9, 2013

Glendale DUI Sports News: Hall of Famer Carlton Fisk Guilty of Misdemeanor DUI

by Michael Kraut

Some sobering Glendale DUI news out of Chicago: Carlton Fisk, the legendary Hall of Fame catcher, pled guilty to a misdemeanor charge, just two months after Chicago police found him snoozing in his pick-up truck in a cornfield.

Officers in Lenox found the baseball legend passed out in his truck on the 22th of October. An open bottle of Vodka lay strewn on the truck’s floor.

Fisk got off with a relatively light sentence — just a year of court supervision, drug and alcohol counseling, and court costs and fines of $1,250. According to Fisk’s attorney, the emeritus slugger did the right thing by accepting responsibility; he “stepped up to the plate.”

Meanwhile in local Glendale DUI news, the Los Angeles Daily News recently offered the following key reminder: “Metro rail and bus lines will be free New Year’s Eve from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. And if you drove to a celebration before having a few too many, AAA will even arrange a free tow home for your car.”

Over the 2011-2012 New Years holiday, over 15,000 people got arrested for DUI in Glendale and elsewhere in Los Angeles. Police tallied over 2,400 DUI accidents; 17 people died in those crashes. We’ll report on the DUI statistics for the 2012-2013 New Years holiday in an upcoming blog post.

If you or a family member stands accused of a crime like Glendale DUI, a good defense can save your CA license, keep you out of prison, protect your job, and stave off many directly related and indirectly related problems. Unfortunately, coming up with the most adroit defense is not always simple stuff!

For instance, you may suspect that the police operated in a less than ethical manner. But that may not be the case. Likewise, you may harbor unfounded doubts about your DUI blood test. Your true “best defense” might be esoteric. And the path to finding it — and then developing it and executing it properly — may be difficult, if not impossible, unless you have a respectable, powerful Glendale DUI defense attorney guiding you.

Get in touch with Michael Kraut of the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers today for experienced and effective counsel, and get 2013 off to a better start.

December 12, 2012

Nothing in the World Can Possibly Prepare You for Your Beverly Hill DUI Experience

by Michael Kraut

Whether you were pulled over for Beverly Hills DUI on the corner of Doheny and Wilshire near CVS or stopped on Beverly Drive right near where Islands used to be, you recognize that you’re in serious legal trouble. You need immediate assistance in diverse areas of your life.

Even if “all was well” in your world prior to your Beverly Hills DUI stop, your charges could wreak havoc on your life. You could lose your California driver’s license, get clobbered with massive fees and court costs, and find yourself serving a not-insubstantial amount of time behind bars. If you injured someone while driving DUI, prosecutors could ratchet up your charges pursuant to California Vehicle Code Section 23153(a) and 23153(b) — escalate your misdemeanor charges into felony counts. And we haven’t even begun to talk about the longer-term repercussions regarding your professional life, your intimate relationships, your risk for escalated penalties if you ever break the law again, and spikes in your auto insurance rates.

Unfortunately, there is no way to know how this experience will transform your life, career, and capacity to deal with challenges. However, you can take the first step towards transforming this difficult experience into one of growth, self-compassion, and learning. Consider the DUI as an obstacle to a better life as opposed to the end of the line. You survived the event. You have the mental capacity to understand these words. So you already need to consider yourself extremely lucky. Many people who drive DUI in Beverly Hills just like you did (or allegedly did) never survive to get a second chance, get rehabilitated, and make amends to people they hurt or repair the damage they caused.

Attorney Kraut of the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers in Beverly Hills would be happy to talk to you about what you can do to start to construct a systematic, intelligent defense to the charges against you. Attorney Kraut is a former prosecutor with a long and detailed history of success. The Harvard Law School educated Kraut also has lots of connections as well as deep, empirically validated insights into how to solve tricky legal issues. Connect with his team today to understand your rights.

December 10, 2012

Quick Quiz: Is It Safe to Drive a Massive Truck DUI in Long Beach with a BAC of 0.50%?

by Michael Kraut

If you drive a truck DUI in Long Beach or elsewhere in the Southland, not only could you face jail time and a license suspension, but you can also lose your job and face other industry penalties.

Prosecutors bring the hammer down on DUI truckers for a reason: trucks are the most dangerous vehicles on the roads. They are more massive than passenger cars, motorcycles, and lightweight vans. Thus, they can inflict geometrically increased levels of force during accidents. A 20-ton truck travelling at 60 miles per hour that crashes into a wall will impart as much force on that wall as will a one-ton racecar that smashes into the same wall at 1200 miles per hour – over four hundred miles per hour faster than the speed of sound!

Consider those forces in light of a near tragedy out of a Beaverton, Oregon. 38-year-old Matthew Allen Hamilton almost drove his pick-up truck off of a Highway 217 overpass into traffic. The scene captured national attention: a red pick-up truck dangled precariously, stopped by destruction only by a surprisingly sturdy overpass guard rail.

It took police and rescue workers hours to rescue Hamilton and remove his truck from the guardrail. Once they plucked him down, they gave him a blood alcohol test, which found that he had a 0.50% BAC – that’s well over six times the Long Beach DUI limit. That’s a BAC level high enough to kill many people or at least make them comatose. So in some sense it’s remarkable that Hamilton even survived the drinking, let alone that he survived nearly driving off the overpass.

The drama behind this story notwithstanding, if you’ve been recently pulled over for driving under the influence in Long Beach, you can learn much from understanding Hamilton’s plight and possible best next steps.

1. Getting a Long Beach DUI charge can lead to public humiliation.

Hopefully, your arrest has not yet led to substantial public shaming – it hasn’t cost you clients, friends, prospective job opportunities, etc. But consequences like that can happen.

2. The fact that you survived your Long Beach DUI event means you got incredibly lucky.

You may not feel particularly lucky now, especially if you hurt someone else and/or if you face massive potential criminal penalties. But driving DUI is a dangerous game. In Hamilton’s case, slightly different physics would have resulted in his certain death.

3. You can take action, now, to start making things better.

Just because you are in a dangerous, helpless, or scary position doesn’t mean that you have to suffer helplessly forever. The team here at the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers in Long Beach can help you understand and craft an appropriate Long Beach DUI truckers’ defense and answer your questions about best practices.

December 7, 2012

It Sounds Like a Glendale DUI Mad Lib: Gérard Depardieu, Arrested for DUI, While Falling Off His Scooter, In Paris (All True!)

by Michael Kraut

Esteemed thespian, Gérard Depardieu, was arrested last week in Paris for driving under the influence, after he fell off a scooter and bashed his elbow.

This was not the Green Card actor’s first brush with the law… or the first time that he’s stirred controversy in a way that’s stimulated much tabloid tittering. Back in 1998, Depardieu smashed up his motorcycle and later tested to have a BAC of over five times the legal limit for Glendale DUI (or DUI anywhere) of 0.08%. Fortunately, he survived that crash with only minor injuries to his face and legs.

In 2011, Depardieu made the headlines again, this time in a far more spectacular fashion, for urinating in his seat on a plane bound to Dublin from Paris. Depardieu had asked to pee. The stewardess denied the request for security reasons. He insisted that he was “not a terrorist” and that he “just want[ed] to pee.” When the bottle into which he relieved himself overflowed all over the seat, he told all passengers within earshot that “the bottle was much too small. I’m an elephant!”

An elephant, indeed.

Depardieu’s colorful antics — and almost slapstick-ish-ly hapless responses to his legal situations — certainly have made for amusing TMZ stories. However, we can learn some serious lessons – lessons that might be vital for you, if you or a loved one faces charges of driving under the influence in Glendale or elsewhere in the Southland.

Lesson #1: Just because you’re famous and well-liked does not make you invincible.

Court dockets abound with tales of actors, CEOs, politicians, and even Glendale DUI defense attorneys facing the business end of the law. Just because this is your first time facing trouble – or just because you’re “well connected” — does not guarantee a good outcome.

Lesson #2: Where there’s legal “smoke,” there’s often fire.

You need to construct a meticulous and aggressive Glendale DUI defense. But you also want to pay attention to your patterns. Is this the first time you’ve gotten into a brush with the law? If not, why do you keep getting into sticky situations? It might behoove Depardieu to reflect on his two DUI-related bike accidents and his skirmish on the airplane. Self-knowledge is the best vaccine for legal problems — the surest way to prevent future Glendale DUI episodes.

Lesson #3: You’re only at the beginning of your Glendale DUI saga: the decisions you make starting right now can radically affect your future.

If you put up a limp or non-existent defense to charges, you could wind up losing your license, serving substantial jail time, and seeing your entire future in many ways collapse. With a well-orchestrated and strategic defense, you may be able to beat back the charges or at least position yourself to maximally benefit from your experience.

Get in touch with the team here at the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers in Glendale to go over your best strategies and tactics for resolving your situation.

November 19, 2012

Expect More Pasadena DUI Arrests: CA Office of Traffic Safety gets $450,000 Grant for 100 DUI Task Force

by Michael Kraut

The California Office of Traffic Safety recently received a grant of $450,000 to enforce DUI laws in Pasadena and elsewhere.

The 100 DUI Task Force, as it’s known, has been charged with a litany of tasks, including conducting DUI checkpoints and saturation patrols and running programs to target repeat offenders. The Task Force is very active during holidays known to be flashpoints for DUI activity in Pasadena and elsewhere, such as New Year’s Eve, Cinco de Mayo, Saint Patrick’s Day, and Super Bowl Sunday.

On the one hand, we should applaud the work of this Task Force and be grateful that police officers are out there, putting their lives on the line, searching for ways to improve public safety and get dangerous drivers off the road.

November 16, 2012

Lakers Ebanks Busted for Driving Under the Influence in Hollywood – More Woes for L.A. Basketball

by Michael Kraut

Devin Ebanks, a reserve forward for the L.A. Lakers, got busted for Hollywood DUI last week, according to CHP records.

The 23-year-old was stopped at Hollywood Boulevard and El Centro Avenue at around 2:30 in the morning, after an officer saw him commit a traffic violation. Ebanks was later released on $5,000 bail. Apparently, he had just been chilling out at a Roxbury night club to celebrate a woman’s birthday. (He told his followers on Twitter to join him at the club.)

Notwithstanding the arrest, Ebanks managed to play for the Lakers against the Golden State Warriors the very next day; he’s on contract with them for $1.4 million — an agreement he made back in August. Ebanks has only averaged an anemic 2.5 points in 2012, however, and he is still reeling from accusations that he sexually assaulted a woman in 2011.

DUI in Hollywood Defenses

How should someone like Ebanks build and follow through on a Los Angeles DUI defense? You need to take a look at the charges in context. For instance:

• Does the defendant have any prior criminal convictions, especially for past DUIs?

The more DUI convictions you rack up, the more ‘legal ammunition’ prosecutors have to throw at you. For instance, if you get convicted for two+ Hollywood DUIs within 10 years, prosecutors can try to transform a misdemeanor DUI charge into a felony charge;
• What happened during and after the stop/accident/arrest?

Were you stopped and booked at a checkpoint? Did you get into an accident before getting arrested? Did police put you through a field sobriety test and arrest you after seeing you exhibit symptoms of Hollywood DUI? How were the DUI tests calibrated and conducted? Were there police errors? Were there any factors that could have thrown off your breathalyzer reading?

• Did complicating or quirky factors play a role?

For instance, did someone else crash into your car or cause the accident somehow? Did your vehicle malfunction and cause you to swerve off the road, thus prompting the police attention that led to your Hollywood DUI arrest?

An efficient, smart DUI defense strategy

Hollywood DUI criminal defense lawyer, Michael Kraut, of the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers, and his team are standing by to help you understand your challenges and construct an intelligent response. Get in touch with Attorney Kraut today for a free consultation.

October 22, 2012

Failed A Beverly Hills DUI Breathalyzer Test? Maybe It Wasn’t the Alcohol That Did It! (Wait Till’ You See What This Woman Drank…)

by Michael Kraut

As someone who recently failed a breathalyzer test for driving under the influence in Beverly Hills, you are probably feeling ashamed, humiliated, and terrified about the potential legal consequences.

Even if you didn’t cause any damage or hurt anyone – and thus you cannot be subjected to punishments per California Vehicle Code section 23153(a) or 23153(b) – you no doubt fear going to jail, having your license stripped, and paying potentially thousands of dollars in fines and fees (and that’s the tip of the iceberg).

On the other hand, you may be prematurely judging yourself as “guilty.”

In fact, a surprising amount of research suggests that many breathalyzer tests for Beverly Hills DUI and DUI elsewhere, can be flawed and potentially extremely misleading. A variety of factors can lead to false positives. For instance, if you are diabetic, you may wind up in a pathological metabolic state known as ketoacidosis, in which you produce compound known as ketones; these can cause a “positive” to register on a Beverly Hills DUI breath test.

A similar “skewing towards the DUI positive” can happen if you’re on a restricted carbohydrate diet. Low carb dieters often enter a metabolic state known as ketosis, during which they produce similar compounds to the compounds that diabetics produce when they are in ketoacidosis. In fact, one of the big (and misguided) criticisms of low carb diets has to do with confusion over healthy ketosis and unhealthy ketoacidosis. These are actually two very different metabolic states.

Getting back to the point… many different things can throw off a breathalyzer reading, including what you have recently eaten, how the officer calibrated the machine, how deeply you blow into the machine, and so forth.

Sometimes people do really weird things that can ALSO influence BAC readings.

Consider, for instance, a crazy story reported out of Middletown, Connecticut, where a local woman nearly crashed her car on October 5th after losing control. Local police put her through the paces of a field sobriety test and also gave her a blood alcohol test. They found that she had a BAC of 0.17% — which, as regular readers of our Beverly Hills DUI lawyer blog know, is over twice the legal limit for DUI here in Southern California, per CVC 23152(b).

What’s interesting about this woman is that she drank half a bottle of hand sanitizer before getting behind the wheel.

You read that right: half a bottle of hand sanitizer. Yikes!

According to reports, the amount of alcohol she consumed was equal to 32 shots of vodka. No wonder she had a BAC of 0.17%! One wonders whether the woman suffered from a condition known as Pica, which is a disorder characterized by a craving to eat nonfood items, such as sand, dirt, plastic, metal, and all sorts of other crazy stuff.

In any event, if you need help dealing with your Beverly Hills DUI case, get in touch with attorney Michael Kraut today to set up a free and thorough case consultation.

October 1, 2012

Burbank DUI News Blotter: Three Year Jail Sentence for Women Who Caused Three Accidents in Just One Hour

by Michael Kraut

January 10th was not a good day for 23-year old Allison Smolinski. If you’ve been arrested for driving under the influence in Burbank or elsewhere in the Southland, chances are (hopefully) your event was less dramatic and devastating than Ms. Smolinski’s.

According to news reports, Smolinski piloted her 1997 Nissan Pathfinder into three different accidents within a single hour, climaxing with her smashing the SUV into a house in Wheaton, Illinois. People inside the home had been watching TV, and fortunately no one inside was hurt.

But Smolinski suffered a neck injury, and her passenger, a 27-year old male, sustained a major gash to his head. Prior to the explosive conclusion to the accident-spree, Smolinski allegedly smashed a car on Blanchard Street and banged into another car on I-290. Reports suggest that she might also be implicated in a rollover crash on another highway, I-355, where witnesses said that some driver had been “swerving all over the road.”

Smolinski has been in jail since January. Since she has already served several months in prison, and she only need to serve 85% of the total jail sentence per state law, she might be eligible to get parole in only two years or so.

Nevertheless, Smolinski’s situation is a dramatic example of how Burbank DUIs or DUIs anywhere in Southern California or the rest of the country can radically alter one’s future in ways that you could hardly predict. Imagine, for instance, if your family member got hurt or even killed in the rollover accident on I-355. Imagine if Ms. Smolinski had smashed into your home instead of the home on Wheaton Street.

The big question before you is: How can you pick up the pieces of your life and reputation after your Burbank DUI arrest?

This is not an easy question to answer.

In fact, the relevant laws, such as California Vehicle Code Section 23153(a) and 23153(b), which cover injury DUIs in Burbank, are pretty subtle. If you don’t have a respected and compassionate Burbank DUI criminal defense lawyer on your side, such as Michael Kraut of the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers here in the Valley, you may have a difficult time intuiting the right way to build a defense and fight your charges.

Don’t make a major strategic mistake – get in touch with a member of the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers today to go over what you can do — and, even more key, what you shouldn’t do — to defend against your charges and start to pick up the pieces after your overwhelming experience.