DUI Category Archives — Page 11 of 24 — Los Angeles DUI Attorney Blog Published by Los Angeles & Southern California Criminal & DUI Defense Attorney Michael Kraut

April 1, 2013

Burbank DUI Sports News: David Diehl of the New York Giants Pleads Guilty to DUI Charges, Avoids Jail…

Breaking Burbank DUI sports news — David Diehl, an offensive lineman for the New York Giants, has pled guilty to DUI charges, stemming from a June 2012 accident.

In early 2012, Diehl had been walking around with a shiny new Super Bowl championship ring on his hand. In early 2013, he’ll get to wear a SCRAM bracelet to complement that ring — a considerable step down, in terms of glory and pride.

According to the New York D.A., Diehl crashed his BMW after watching a soccer game at a bar. Police used a breath test to peg him at 0.182% BAC. (For those of you keeping score, that’s over 200% the Burbank DUI legal limit of 0.08%, as defined by California Vehicle Code Section 23152 (b)).

Per the guilty plea, Diehl will get to avoid jail time, provided that he stay out of trouble. He’ll have to dole out some cash — $300 in fines along with $1200 in restitution. And the special SCRAM bracelet will measure his alcohol consumption. Assuming he passes his six-month discharge program with flying colors — and passes through the NFL’s special substance abuse treatment program — his charges will be dismissed.

The 32-year old defensive lineman is obviously lucky to be alive. Many other people who get into Burbank DUI crashes (or crashes anywhere) end up dead or seriously injured.

Whether you are a sports celebrity, politician, or “working Joe,” the law entitles you to a thorough and sound Burbank DUI defense.

But how do you contrive and execute such a defense?

The answer is actually quite counterintuitive.

For instance, you might be under the impression that, if you blew a positive for DUI on a breath test, then you’re “stuck” with that positive reading. But depending on your circumstances, you may be able to challenge that number.

For instance, perhaps you’re on a ketogenic diet or you have diabetes. If so, chemicals on your breath may have interfered with the breathalyzer and led you to blow a “false positive.” Likewise, calibration errors, officer interpretation errors and other problems occur more commonly than most defendants (and even most police officers) appreciate.

For help unlocking the potential of your defense, connect today with the team here at the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers. Our experienced Burbank DUI defense team can help you plan a smart course of action and deal with your charges strategically.

March 25, 2013

Not a Good Adventure for Bonaventura: Constable Charged With DUI… Implications for Your Los Angeles DUI Defense?

by Michael Kraut

As someone who was recently arrested and charged with driving under the influence in Los Angeles, you’re feeling pretty sheepish and scared and regretful.

You wish you had use more common sense — handed the keys to a friend or associate or just cabbed it home. As much as you want to take responsibility for events — and speak with an experienced Los Angeles DUI attorney, ASAP — appreciate that you’re not the first person who’s ever been in this compromised position.

Plenty of other, normally law abiding folks get into DUI trouble in Los Angeles all the time. In fact, if you’ve been following our blog for any length of time, you’ve read endless accounts of celebrities, sport stars, politicians, and even legislators who’ve been busted for DUI.

Even police officers get in trouble for the crime!

Case in point. Consider the sad story of 50-year old John M. Bonaventura, the head of the Constable’s Office for Las Vegas Township. A Nevada highway trooper pulled over Bonaventura on US 95 near Boulder Highway, after he saw the “official constable vehicle” driving pell-mell all over the freeway.

Bonaventura’s speeding and DUI charges are actually just the tip of the iceberg.

Commissioners for Clark County (the home of Las Vegas — a.k.a. the “City of Sin”) are about ready to abolish the entire Constable’s office, which employs over 20 deputies. These officials perform work ranging from serving paperwork to evicting people. According to a local paper, the Las Vegas Review Journal, critics have hammered the Constable’s office for “creative accounting practices that circumvent county oversight, as well as for filming a profanity-laced pilot for a reality television show.” (quote from an AP article)

Perhaps the deputies were jealous of the modern day Keystone Cops on Reno 911. Maybe they didn’t realize that that show is actually a fictional comedy.

On a more serious note, as a Los Angeles DUI defendant, you may or may not have been negatively affected by police errors or bad police behavior. The vast majority of officers in Los Angeles County are hardworking and fair. Yet you should pull out all the stops during your Los Angeles DUI defense — investigate any angle that could lead to a reduction in your sentence or a dismissal of the charges.

Of course, this is no small task, even for experienced attorneys. Fortunately, you can turn to former city prosecutor Michael Kraut and his team at the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers in Los Angeles for adept, thorough, and insightful guidance on your case.

Mr. Kraut has a special vantage on L.A. DUI cases because he served for nearly a decade and a half as a prosecutor. He maintains good relationships with his old prosecutorial colleagues as well as with other key people in the system.

March 20, 2013

Hollywood DUI Disaster for American Idol Winner’s Family — Phillip Phillips’ Mom Busted in Albany, Georgia

by Michael Kraut

If you recently got arrested for drug DUI in Hollywood or elsewhere in the Southland, you have plenty of company.

Often, DUI events represent the tip of the iceberg — the manifestation of longer brewing and ultimately very tragic situations.

Consider, in that context, the recent stop and arrest of Cheryl Phillips, mother of singer Phillip Phillips, who won Season 11 of American Idol. Phillip Phillips has been very public about his troubled relationship with his family. Last November, his parents needed financial help. But the newly crowned American Idol winner refused to pitch in. So the parents had to sell their pawn shop.

February 27, 2013

Reduce Your Risk of Burbank DUI by Reducing Your Commuting Time!

by Michael Kraut

Ever since you got arrested for driving under the influence in Burbank, you’ve been racking your brain. How should you handle your case? How can avoid ever again experiencing the humiliation of getting arrested? Here’s an intriguing and potentially hugely useful (over the long term) strategy for shielding yourself from further trouble:

Slice down your commuting time.

Whether you live in the Valley and commute to Sony to work on a production lot, or vice versa; you probably spend far too much time in your car stuck in traffic jams on the 101 or 134. You already hate driving, the entertaining DJs on KROQ notwithstanding. Statistically speaking, the more time you spend on the roads, the more likely it is that you will be involved in a Burbank DUI accident, either as a victim or as a wrongdoer.

It’s just simple math.

Especially if you drive late at night, when you chop down your commuting time, you reduce your overall exposure tremendously–not to mention add time “back” to your life.

The side benefits also include: you will burn less gas (save money), expose yourself to less pollution (better for your lungs and long-term health); and commit a not-insubstantial act of kindness towards the environment.

So how can you reduce your commuting time?

(Don’t worry, we’re going to get to Burbank DUI defense strategies in a second)

Here are some ideas:

1. Move a little closer to work.

You may only be five miles or so from work, but your morning and afternoon commutes can still take you upwards of an hour, depending on when you go and what horrifically clogged surface streets or freeways you choose.

2. Change up your work hours to make the commute less brutal.

3. Explore alternative routes to work.

Odds are slim that you’ve found the “ideal” routes to places around your neighborhood just by random chance. By finding shortcuts, you might shave off a few minutes every day on your driving time.

4. Shop more on the internet.

5. Do more grocery shopping in bulk (fewer trips to the store)

6. Carpool with friends.

7. Take public transportation from time-to-time.

Get creative to shortcut your route. Meanwhile, while you’re working on that, you obviously need to work on your Burbank DUI defense. The team here at the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers is extremely experienced, compassionate, and well connected. Attorney Kraut is a Harvard Law School educated ex prosecutor. He really cares about educating defendants–not only about their rights but also about their resources. You want to get out of trouble and stay out of trouble for good. Find out more about attorney Kraut and his team here on this website, or connect with them today for a free consultation.

February 22, 2013

Arrest of Top Illinois Government Watchdog Proves No One’s Above Getting a DUI in Beverly Hills (Or Anywhere Else)

by Michael Kraut

If you were recently busted for DUI in Beverly Hills, you’re probably hugely embarrassed as well as frightened about serving time in prison, seeing your license suspended, and so forth.

Whether you’re a film producer, celebrity, entertainment executive, or even somebody who works outside of the industry (believe it or not, people like that do exist here in Beverly Hills), you’re vexed. You are not the “type of person” who gets into trouble with the police.

Perhaps your arrest was a fluke. Maybe you had one too many cocktails at an advertiser’s fundraiser on Wilshire and then got behind the wheel when you really shouldn’t have. Then the police stopped you, and the drama began. Or maybe you only had one or two drinks but, for whatever reason, the police pulled you over and you blew a 0.09 BAC on the breathalyzer test–above the limit for Beverly Hills DUI. So now you’re in this awful situation.

Understand this: What happened to you can happen to anybody.

Consider the case of 61-year-old William Holland, the Auditor General for the State of Illinois, who was cited several weeks ago for driving under the influence in the town of Springfield. The arresting officers noted that the Auditor General “had a very strong odor of an alcoholic beverage on his breath,” as well as “red bloodshot glassy eyes.” As regular readers of this blog know, these are classic symptoms of Beverly Hills DUI, as well.

Other common signifiers of potential alcohol use and DUI include:

• Slurred speech;
• Inability to answer officer questions;
• Failure to perform mentally or physically on field sobriety tests (like the finger to the nose test or the count backwards by 3 test;)
• Strange behavior–such as overly aggressive behavior towards officers.

Of course, as we’ve discussed before on this blog, alternative explanations for the “DUI symptoms” can exist.

For instance, if you’re exhausted from a hard day of negotiating with potential ad buyers, you might exhibit signs of fatigue, non-responsiveness, and bloodshot eyes. If you get really nervous in front of police, you might be unable to answer certain questions.

The point is not to suggest that your Beverly Hills DUI arrest wasn’t cut and dry–perhaps it was.

Rather, it’s that you should understand that anyone can make substantial errors behind the wheel. Holland was a powerful and widely respected (by both sides) watchdog–someone the government trusted to ensure and fair behavior. He helped prosecutors impeach and ultimately convict former state governor Rod Blagojevich, who began a 14 year prison sentence last year for a slew of corruption charges.

Connect with a Beverly Hills DUI defense attorney at the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers for an insightful, thorough, and creditable defense help. Mr. Kraut and his team can help you get your life back on track and put the unfortunate and humiliating event behind you for good.

February 4, 2013

Jason London and Carmine Giovinazzo: A Tale of Two Celebrity DUIs

by Michael Kraut

Our Burbank DUI news blotter often rehashes intriguing stories about celebrities arrested for driving under the influence and other crimes.

We’re not trying to be a poor man’s “TMZ” — rather, we write to help defendants (and their loved ones) understand the law little better and to find resources and new ways of thinking about their DUI charges.

But nothing teaches better than a good story.

January 23, 2013

Criminal Minds Actor Now a Criminal Defendant: Thomas Gibson Busted for Driving Under the Influence in Downtown Los Angeles

by Michael Kraut

If you were recently arrested for driving under the influence in downtown Los Angeles or USC, you may relate to the travails of 50-year old Thomas Gibson, a local actor famous for his roles in Dharma & Greg and Criminal Minds.

On January 6, Gibson steered his Audi SUV onto a race course sectioned off from traffic. Witnesses told news sources that Gibson scared several runners in the half-marathon.

Fortunately, no one was hit or injured.

When police asked Gibson to take a different route, he failed to heed their warnings and drove off. Ultimately, the police stopped him under suspicion of Los Angeles DUI at 1:37 a.m. Police noticed that Gibson had the odor of alcohol on his breath. The actor refused to take a breathalyzer test. The police took him into custody and held him on a bail of $15,000.

It’s understandable why Gibson might have refused the breathalyzer test.

As we’ve discussed multiple times before, breathalyzers yield surprisingly inaccurate results, given their ubiquity both in real life and “in the movies.” Breathalyzer tests, for instance, do not discriminate between men and women. They can yield artificially false positives if you blow into them too hard. In other words, let’s say you’ve had a few drinks, but you’re not technically over the legal limit for Los Angeles DUI, as defined by California Vehicle Code Section 23152(b), of 0.08% BAC.

Perhaps your “real” BAC is more along lines of 0.06% — borderline, but not over the limit.

A police officer, however, may ask you to blow as hard as you can into the breathalyzer. So you do, but because you blow so hard, you force the machine to give you a reading of, say, 0.09% BAC. Now you’re considered technically “over the limit,” and you could be prosecuted and convicted of a misdemeanor – or a felony under certain circumstances – and subject to all sorts of horrific punishments, such as jail time, the stripping of your CA license, fines and fees, and other inconveniences.

Breathalyzers can also be thrown off if you’re on a special weight loss diet.

When the body goes into so-called “fat burning mode” – and/or if you’re a type II diabetic – your body produces metabolic compounds known as ketone bodies. When you have enough of these ketone bodies floating around in your system, they can influence a breathalyzer test and fool the test into thinking that you’re under the influence, even when you’re stone-cold sober or just borderline. For instance, a ketogenic dieter who has a real BAC of 0.06% might end up tripping a positive for DUI because of her metabolic byproducts.

If you or somebody you know has experienced a legal crisis that’s similar to Thomas Gibson’s, consider getting in touch with the team here at the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers. Michael Kraut is an ex-prosecutor who is well-known and respected for his insight and successes with DUI cases. News sources like the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, KTLA and CBS all routinely ask Mr. Kraut for his opinions on important DUI stories, and he has won respect not only from clients, but also from judges and prosecutors.

January 21, 2013

Serious Pasadena DUI Drama – Sacramento Man Says “Not Guilty” to Violent Hit-and-Run on Girlfriend, Her Companion, and Her Four Dogs

by Michael Kraut

As someone who’s recently been arrested for driving under the influence in Pasadena, you’re probably worried about being classified with far more aggressive, recidivist offenders in people’s minds. Maybe you’re a student at UCLA who just “did something stupid” after partying with friends out in Old Pasadena or having one too many drinks at the Cheesecake Factory. Or maybe you’re an executive who got arrested for Pasadena DUI unfairly (you believe) at a checkpoint.

In no way, shape or form does your case resemble the situation of Paul William Walden, a 31-year-old man who stands accused of driving into his girlfriend, a companion, and the girlfriend’s four dogs last July 16th. According to the Sacramento Bee, the accident – which occurred at 80 miles per hour (!) in broad daylight on a well-lit crosswalk – took the life of a 21-year-old man and killed all four dogs belonging to 23-year-old Gemily West. Last week, Walden pled not guilty to a spate of charges that included DUI, hit-and-run, vehicular manslaughter, and murder.

Walden had been a three time DUI recidivist.

The Sacramento Bee said he killed 21-year-old Harison Long-Randall, who was walking with Gemily and her dogs “in a well-lit Carmichael Crosswalk…witnesses said the car that hit Long-Randall and his girlfriend…was traveling at about 80 miles per hour and never slowed down before or after impact.”

The CHP arrested Walden several days after the accident. He had been driving under a suspended license. Since his arrest, he has been held in custody. Long-Randall’s parents, Chris and Gail, have attended all 18 hearings.

This is a very sad and difficult situation. We cannot obviously comment intelligently about the case without examining the evidence in detail. However, if you face a charge of driving under the influence in Pasadena, you may feel resentful that you would in any way be lumped in as somehow “the same” as someone who purposely ran over his girlfriend and her dogs and her companion at 80 miles per hour.

So what can you do?

One of the most resourceful steps you can take is to connect with an experienced Pasadena DUI criminal defense lawyer, like Michael Kraut of the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers. Mr. Kraut spent a substantial part of his career (14+ years) working for the city as a prosecutor. He rose to the level of Senior Deputy District Attorney before becoming a specialist in criminal defense. He knows what prosecutors typically do in cases like yours, and he can equip you to make a precise and accurate defense.

Your life ever since your arrest has been undoubtedly difficult and disconcerting. But you do not need to struggle with your uncertainties alone. Get in touch with the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers today for a free 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 31, 2012

Glendale DUI Madness: Yet Another School Bus Driver Arrested for Driving While Intoxicated

by Michael Kraut

Your Glendale DUI charge is serious, and you may feel deeply ashamed and regretful for what’s happened.

But at least (hopefully) you weren’t driving a school bus while DUI, like 67-year-old Ethel Quade Ressler allegedly did.

Local authorities say that the St. Mary’s County bus driver was driving recklessly with 12 kids already loaded onboard. Officers called to the scene noticed alcohol on Ms. Ressler’s breath – a classic symptom of driving under the influence in Glendale or elsewhere. They then put her through the paces of a field sobriety test, which she failed. After the arrest, Ressler tried to hurt herself, so authorities took her to the hospital.

The woman had been driving school buses for 47 years for her school district – nearly five decades! – and had never gotten a DUI or failed a drug test.

Obviously, we can’t discern the deeper details of her case from simple news blurbs. However, the story certainly implies that there might have been something deeper going on in her life that led her to make a mistake and get arrested for DUI.

We live in a society in which we like to catalog and punish “bad guys” and reward “good guys.” But this woman spent nearly five decades of her life in service to the school district, during which time, she apparently carefully shuttled children to and from their homes and school. Prior to the DUI arrest, she was probably considered “one of the good guys.”

A single mistake can cause a kind of polar opposite shift in public opinion.

After all, we certainly don’t want school bus drivers toodling around Glendale DUI. Yet DUI defendants deserve empathy and support as well. That’s one of the reasons why the team here at the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers is so passionate about providing good service.

Whether this is your first arrest or fifth, you likely need diverse and empathetic assistance with what’s been going on in your life. Attorney Kraut is an ex-prosecutor for the city, and he brings to bear an intelligent and compassionate perspective. He also has a reputation for being extremely aggressive and smart about building and executing Glendale DUI defenses.