DUI Category Archives — Page 10 of 24 — Los Angeles DUI Attorney Blog Published by Los Angeles & Southern California Criminal & DUI Defense Attorney Michael Kraut

September 7, 2013

Sordid Southern California DUI Case – Sheriff’s Deputy “Sold His Badge” to Bust Three Men for “Dirty DUIs”?

Most Southern California DUI arrests are fairly straightforward. For instance, maybe a police officer stopped you at a checkpoint on Westwood Boulevard after a UCLA game. Or maybe you got into a fender bender on Vermont near USC and got busted after you punted your field sobriety tests.

But some DUI stories are intense, enigmatic… almost worthy of their own mini series.

File in that second category the story of Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Deputy Stephen Tanabe!

The 50-year-old Tanabe stands accused of seven federal charges for his role in staging three separate DUI arrests. Tanabe allegedly worked with Christopher Butler, a private investigator. Butler worked for a string of divorced women, who wanted to make their ex-husbands look bad, so that they could have stronger positions in their divorce and custody cases.

Tanabe and his friends apparently worked with Butler to encourage these unassuming ex-husbands to consume alcohol at bars and then drive. Once the men left, waiting police officers immediately pulled them over and busted them for DUI. According to Tim Pori, Tanabe’s attorney, Butler was the real “masterful manipulator” behind the scenes. Indeed, the PI may have played a role in 9 other “dirty DUI” arrests in California on top of the ones that Tanabe allegedly participated in on November 2, 2010 and January 9 and 14, 2011.

As a reward for his participation, Tanabe apparently got a pricey Glock gun and cocaine.

Butler and Norman Wielsch, an ex-drug squad commander, are both testifying for the prosecution in Tanabe’s case to get a reduced sentence. Wielsch is serving 14 years in jail, and Butler faces an eight year prison sentence for crimes ranging from staging DUIs to extorting money from employees of an “illegal massage parlor” that the two men founded.

Tanabe, for his part, faces three wire fraud charges, three counts of extortion, and one count of “conspiring to deprive others of his honest services.”

Your Southern California DUI charges: Were you framed? Was any police misconduct involved?

Most Los Angeles DUI cases are straightforward. Most police officers are honest. They work hard to keep the community safe and protect people on the roads.

This isn’t to say that police officers don’t make mistakes (ranging from big Constitutional sized mistakes to smaller errors of process and procedure) or that the technologies they use (e.g. breathalyzers, blood tests, etcetera) are foolproof. Far from it!

But odds are high that your DUI was not “dirty.”

That said, you owe it to yourself and your family to explore all Los Angeles DUI defenses. For instance, if you blew a 0.10% on the breath test – well over the legal limit, as defined by California Vehicle Code 23152 (b) – your attorney might challenge the test results by a variety of strategies, outlined in this website.

For help, look to Attorney Michael Kraut of the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers. As a Harvard Law School educated Los Angeles DUI defense lawyer who worked for 14+ years as a prosecutor, Mr. Kraut understands how to structure and execute effective defenses.

August 28, 2013

Miguel Jontel Pimentel Arrested for DUI in Los Angeles

by Michael Kraut

Miguel Jontel Pimentel – better known just as “Miguel” – was recently arrested for driving under the influence in Los Angeles, according to California Highway Patrol reports.

The singer-songwriter and Grammy winner — known for singing hits like Kaleidoscope Dream and creating “Adorn” and “#Beautiful” with Mariah Carey — got pulled over in his 2013 BMW X6 in Marina Del Rey. Police stopped the 27-year-old at the intersection of Mindanao Way and Lincoln Boulevard at around 2 AM on August 12.

The police tested Miguel’s BAC at 0.10%, just a smidge above the Southern California DUI legal limit of 0.08%. The officers also said that he smelled like alcohol – one of the main symptoms of Los Angeles DUI. (Other symptoms include slurring of words; providing conflicting events of what happened; acting aggressively or inappropriately; bloodshot eyes; lack of balance; forgetfulness, etc.).

Miguel was released on a $5,000 bond later. He is due in court on September 9 to face his charges.

It’s a serious step down from winning a Grammy for best R&B song and getting nominated for Best Rap Song and Song of the Year. But Miguel’s DUI arrest shows convincingly that no one is above the law and that being famous does not protect you from making bad or dangerous decisions.

Interestingly, Miguel’s BAC readings — he allegedly blew 0.10% and 0.11% on two breath tests — were not that far over the legal limit.

Depending on the circumstances, Miguel may be able to challenge those Los Angeles DUI results. For instance: it’s unlikely, but perhaps Miguel was on a crash diet or a ketogenic (very low carb) diet, in which case metabolic byproducts from the dieting might have unduly influenced the breath results.

Alternatively, perhaps the police officers asked him to blow very hard into the machine. If you blow hard into a DUI breath test, you can elevate the results beyond your actual, legitimate levels.

A breathalyzer test can also be challenged on procedural grounds. For instance, perhaps the tests weren’t calibrated correctly.

To build a defense to your Los Angeles DUI charges, get in touch with Michael Kraut of the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers today. Mr. Kraut is an ex-prosecutor who spent years serving in role of Senior Deputy District Attorney for Los Angeles – so he knows how prosecutors think, and he can use his knowledge and relationships to help you craft your defense.

August 26, 2013

Could You Get Arrested for DUI in Burbank with a 0.00% BAC, Like This Guy Did?

by Michael Kraut

Every effective Burbank DUI defense lawyer worth his or her salt knows the standard legal limit for BAC (blood alcohol concentration) is 0.08%. In other words, if you have this amount of alcohol or more in your system, you’re automatically DUI, per California Vehicle Code Section 23152. Of course, you can also be charged with DUI if you have less alcohol in your system (e.g. if you’re a minor and never should have been drinking in the first place). But the point is: everyone knows the 0.08% number. 0.00%20BAC.jpg

Consider that, as we discuss the sad story of a 61-year-old man in Arizona, who just got arrested for having a blood alcohol level of…0.00%.

That might look like a typo. But it’s not. The number once again: 0.00%.

The arrest of Jessie Thornton, a retiree living in the appropriately named community of “Surprise” Arizona, sparked a vitriolic conversation in the blogosphere about racial profiling. According to reports, the retired firefighter was on his way home at around 11 pm, when a police officer saw him cross a white line.

The officer allegedly told Thornton: “I can tell you’re driving DUI by looking in your eyes.”

Thornton had just been swimming in an L.A. Fitness gym nearby, and his eyes were bloodshot from the chlorine. But the officer thought that the bloodshot eyes indicated potential DUI (in his defense, bloodshot eyes are a classic symptom of Burbank DUI). So he had Thornton do a sobriety test. Thornton warned the officer that he had bad knees and a bad hip, and that he was about to go in for surgery. Understandably, he didn’t perform perfectly on the balance tests. Afterwards, officers placed him in handcuffs and asked him to sit down on the side of the road.

Thornton told a local ABC News affiliate “I couldn’t even sit on the ground like that, and they knew it and I was laying on the ground. Then they put me in the back of an SUV, and when I asked the officer to move her seat up because my hip hurt, she told me to stop whining.”

The police took the man to local station and gave him a breath test. He blew a 0.00% — not even a trace of alcohol in the system. But it didn’t stop officers from impounding Thornton’s car, suspending his license, and ordering him to take an alcohol education class. Thornton later managed to get the DUI charge dropped, unsurprisingly — a local drug and alcohol recognition expert told him “I would never have arrested you” — but he’s obviously outraged by the situation, and he’s since launched a claim against the City of Surprise for $500,000.

His attorney put it bluntly: “this is a case of D-W-B – driving while black.” Thornton told local reporters about his reasons for the suit: “it’s not totally about the money, although I already have [paid] more than $5,000 and that’s $5,000 that I don’t have.”

Your Burbank DUI charges may be less clear-cut. You may have actually been under the influence of alcohol – maybe significantly above the legal limit. But the case indicates an important point, which many prospective Burbank DUI defendants fail to realize. And that’s this: despite their best intentions, officers can and do make serious mistakes with respect to procedure and reporting and testing.

The good news is that attorney Michael Kraut of Burbank’s Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers and his support team are just a phone call or a click away. Connect with a Harvard Law School educated lawyer at the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers to construct your defense.

August 23, 2013

Boating DUI in Marina Del Rey News: Erin Brockovich Busted for Boating DUI out in Las Vegas

by Michael Kraut

Some disappointing Marina Del Rey boating DUI news. Erin Brockovich — the clean water activist, whose life story inspired Julia Roberts’ 2000 movie “Erin Brockovich” — has been arrested for DUI on Lake Mead near Las Vegas.

According to news outlets, the law clerk struggled to dock her boat, calling attention to local authorities. Police tested her blood alcohol concentration at over twice the legal limit of 0.08%.

A spokesperson from the Nevada Department of Wildlife discussed the case: “she was obviously struggling to put the boat in the slip, and if you’ve had any experience, it’s a simple enough operation.”

July 26, 2013

So You Got a Second DUI in Pasadena. At Least You’re Not a High Profile Public Official, Like Todd Huff from Baltimore…

by Michael Kraut

You recently got arrested for your second Pasadena DUI within 10 years.

You know the drill. You’re scared of what lies before you because you’ve been down this road before. You’re especially agitated, since you know that prosecutors like to hit recidivists (repeat offenders) hard to “teach them a lesson” and keep Southern California’s roads safe.

Prosecutors and judges around the country are especially tough on second offenders. Consider the sad situation of Baltimore County Councilman, Todd Huff, who was arrested back in February on York Road in Towson, after police stopped him and tested his BAC at 0.20%. (For reference: the legal limit in Baltimore and in Pasadena for DUI is 0.08% — that means that Huff tested at 2.5 times the legal limit!)

Circuit Judge Timothy Martin just handed down Huff’s sentence: one year suspended prison sentence with 26-weeks of alcohol school, as well as random urine monitoring.

Huff’s DUI defense attorney asked Judge Martin to give probation before judgment, but the judge was unimpressed. Why? Because Huff had been involved in a different DUI case 18 years prior. That DUI hit and run caused an injury, and the Councilman had had an alcohol restriction on his driver’s license.

Judge Martin said: “That old offense doesn’t disappear in my thought process.”

The judge also did not like the way that Huff behaved after his arrest.

(If you’ve been reading this Pasadena DUI blog, you will notice this common theme: often, when people get arrested or flagged down for DUI, they engage in dangerous, irrational, or aggressive behaviors that radically complicate their legal cases.)

In any event, Huff called his friend, Police Chief Jim Johnson, the night he was busted for DUI. Huff later told the judge that he just called his friend to apologize, but Judge Martin said that this argument was “not very persuasive… I hardly buy that.”

As part of the plea agreement, prosecutors dropped additional charges, such as headlight violations and negligent driving charge. The local prosecutor was happy with the sentence – saying that it “accomplished the goal of public safety.”

But if you’re facing a second Pasadena DUI charge, you’re probably concerned about the precedent. If the court could be so brutal with a high level councilman, what will happen in your case?

Truth be told, prosecutors can hit you with extra punishments as a recidivist – these include: increased jail time, longer time in alcohol school, and more intense probation terms, steeper fines and fees, and beyond.

Fortunately, you don’t have to struggle with constructing your defense on your own. Harvard Law School educated attorney Michael Kraut of the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers is standing by to give you the insight and strategic roadmap you need to get clarity and rebuild.

Connect with Mr. Kraut and his experienced, respected team today for help.

July 24, 2013

Beverly Hills DUI Showdown: “Teen Mom” Star Pleads Not Guilty to DUI… and Sells Sex Tape to Vivid for $1 Million!

by Michael Kraut

Hopefully, your Beverly Hills DUI story is less dramatic – and less publicly fraught – than Farrah Abraham’s.

The ex-star of MTV’s Teen Mom was pulled over in March for driving under the influence in Nebraska (as this blog and many other media sources reported). At the time, she blew a BAC of 0.147% — that’s nearly twice the legal limit for DUI in Beverly Hills of 0.08%, as outlined in California Vehicle Code Section 23152. In the weeks since, she has piled on an array of excuses. A recent TMZ article tallied them as such:

• People just kept feeding her drinks;
• She was “put in a bad situation” by her sister;
• She was only parking her car, not driving;
• She had a sober friend with her;
• She had a bad cough and couldn’t blow properly.

She pled not guilty to charges of disorderly conduct, refusal to go through a field sobriety test, and DUI. She is due in court on Mary 31st.

Farrah Abraham’s DUI drama is not her only “big news story” – she also inked a deal with Vivid Entertainment to sell a sex tape (or, say observers, a “faux sex tape”) for seven figures. It’s titled: “Farrah Superstar: Backdoor Teen Mom.”

Again, not every Beverly Hills DUI case is as dramatic, fraught, and tabloidy.

But Abraham’s saga has certainly sparked a lot of chatter in the blogosphere and beyond. Is it fair that a woman who behaves so irresponsibly fashion can get rewarded for her outlandish behavior to the tune of $1 million? That’s a question for the pundits and celebrity gossip columnists to debate. But it’s probably a more sophisticated moral debate than meets the eye.

In any event, if you’re someone who faces a DUI in Beverly Hills charge, you probably care less about the tabloid exploits of this teen mom than you do about your own freedom and potential defense strategies:

• Will you lose your license?
• Will you be sent to prison? If so, for how long?
• What can you do to thwart the prosecutor’s charges or at least plead them down to something more manageable and reasonable?

Look to Beverly Hills DUI defense attorney Michael Kraut of Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers for assistance with your urgent DUI matter. Mr. Kraut is a widely respected figure in the Los Angeles DUI defense community, and he’s also a Harvard Law School educated ex-prosecutor.

July 12, 2013

Beverly Hills DUI Golf Cart Stories: Back in the News! (Unfortunately, This One Involved a Significant Injury…)

by Michael Kraut

Our Beverly Hills DUI blog has catalogued numerous instances of “golf cart DUI.”

At first blush, this crime sounds funny – like something out of a Caddyshack outtake. But it can actually be a quite dangerous situation.

Consider, for instance, a recent scary case out of Charlotte County, Florida, where deputies arrested Nickoles Chanza (22) for driving a golf cart while DUI and injuring somebody. Chanza and three friends were tooling around in a golf cart in the neighborhood of Harbour Heights on Sunnybrook Road, when the driver took a rapid left turn and onto Marine Terrace and tipped the cart. Nicholas McDaniel, 21, was not strapped in; he fell off and hit his head hard on the pavement.

Rescue workers took McDaniel to Lee Memorial Hospital, where he was listed in critical condition. Chanza, for his part, was arrested and hit with a DUI with serious bodily injury charge as well as improper operation of golf cart.

He was jailed on a $25,000 bond.

Not such a “funny situation” in this context.

And that leads us to a bigger point, which is that Beverly Hills DUIs often are “a lot less bad” than they could be:
• If you were under the influence — and you got stopped at a checkpoint — be thankful that you didn’t hurt anyone or do serious damage.
• If you did hurt someone, be thankful that you didn’t kill someone.
• And if you did kill someone – hopefully you didn’t, but if you did – be thankful that you didn’t kill more people or kill yourself.

The fact is that driving under the influence is fundamentally a dangerous act.

Fortunately, you can make progress towards not only “cleaning up” after your Beverly Hills DUI arrest but also with respect to improving your civic awareness.

Get in touch with ex-prosecutor and highly effective Beverly Hills DUI defense attorney, Michael Kraut, today to discuss your charges and develop an effective action plan going forward.

July 3, 2013

Repairing Your Relationship with Your Spouse After Your Long Beach DUI

by Michael Kraut

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.

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.

May 22, 2013

Criminal Charges for Two Motorcycle Officers Who May Have Lied Under Oath about Los Angeles DUI Stop

by Michael Kraut

Breaking news in a story that has riveted the Los Angeles DUI defense community:

Two LAPD police officers, Phillip Walters and Craig Allen, face charges of falsifying a police report and perjury under oath. The officers were involved in a stop at Highland Park in 2010 as members of a DUI Task Force. A fellow officer, Cecilio Flores, saw a female driver go through two different stop signs, so he pulled her over. Flores said the woman had an odor of alcohol on her and bloodshot eyes – “classic” symptoms of Los Angeles DUI. He radioed Allen and Walters to help him with the stop. (This is technically known as a “hand-off.” In even more colloquial police terms, it’s called a “gimme.”)

Allen and Walters put the woman through a field sobriety test, booked her on charges, and took her to jail. Then Allen started up the paperwork… and that’s where all the trouble began.

According to prosecutor Rosa Alarcon, “[Allen] wrote that he was in the area when they pulled over the vehicle … he didn’t mention Flores.” Walters, for his part, testified at a DMV hearing that he saw the woman driving, when he didn’t.

Walters and Allen said that they both just made mistakes – they didn’t follow procedure correctly. But prosecutors countered that they committed perjury. After the two officers admitted to their errors, Charley Beck, the LAPD’s Chief, released this statement: “I do not believe that their intent was evil, just extremely misguided… the character of our organization is defined by the conduct that we condone. These actions were entirely unacceptable.”

Allen was fired from the force, and Walters remains on suspension from the LAPD. Interestingly – as Allen’s defense lawyer pointed out – “there was no motive… there was nothing to gain” from perjury
Who really knows what happened – why the officers did what they did. But the incident speaks to a broader point, which defendants charged with driving under the influence in L.A. need to understand: DUI arrests often get chaotic. Even observant officers can accidentally (or very occasionally, on purpose) mischaracterize what took place.

The key to building a sound defense, therefore, lies in your ability to examine all relevant evidence critically in context and respond intuitively and appropriately to the charges. That may sound like a tall order. Fortunately, you don’t have to work on this problem by yourself.

The team here at the Los Angeles’ Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers is standing by to assist you with your challenging legal situation and help you feel comfortable, focused, and motivated to fight back and move forward with your life. Attorney Kraut is an ex-prosecutor, whose opinions have been featured in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, KTLA, and other big media.

May 3, 2013

Long Beach DUI Sports News: Trumaine Johnson of St. Louis Rams Busted for Misdemeanor DUI in Missoula

by Michael Kraut

Although this blog focuses on Long Beach DUI cases, we’ve been covering a surprisingly sizable number of cases out of the Big Sky State of Montana recently.

To wit, The Associated Press is reporting that Trumaine Johnson, a cornerback with the St. Louis Rams, got arrested for a misdemeanor DUI, after police saw him driving without his headlights.

Like many Long Beach DUI defendants do, he refused a breath test. Police booked him into jail. He later secured his released on a $700 bond. The former University of Montana star had a great first year with the Rams, racking up 31 tackles and 2 interceptions as a first year player. Not bad.

Obviously, without knowing any more details, we can only speculate on what happened — why he got the DUI. Perhaps, for instance, he would have passed the breath test had he chosen to take it. As we’ve reported in multiple posts, DUI breath tests are surprisingly unreliable – in both directions. For instance, if you exhale very lightly into a machine — or if the machine isn’t calibrated — you can blow a negative, when really you’re technically positive for Long Beach DUI. On the other hand, if you blow a very deep breath — or if you’re on an intense ketogenic diet, or if you have diabetes — you can easily blow a false positive.

It’s easy to get lost in technical details.

To that end, consider investigating your Long Beach DUI charges with the help of a qualified, respected attorney. You might also aim to focus on the deeper reasons for your Long Beach DUI stop. Perhaps the police treated you unfairly. Perhaps you weren’t even under the influence – or just barely under the influence.

In an ideal world, you want not only to beat the charges but also to prevent similarly embarrassing/danger situations from happening again.

To protect yourself (and others), you need to be very honest with yourself (and with your attorney) about what exactly happened, why, and what you can do to avoid trouble in the future.

These questions can touch on deep, troubling topics.

That’s why the most respected Long Beach DUI defense attorneys are excellent listeners – they often need to do both the “nuts and bolts” work of executing a defense and the “softer” work of counseling clients to help them become safer, more conscientious drivers.

For help managing your Long Beach DUI case, connect with the astute, thorough team at the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers. Attorney Michael Kraut is a former prosecutor (Senior Deputy District Attorney) who has tremendous experience on both sides of high level DUI cases.