Los Angeles DUI Attorney Blog

January 15, 2016

Courts Rule For and Against Accused in Two DUI Cases

The results of court cases in other states may not directly impact the outcome of Los Angeles DUI arrests, but they sometimes indicate the direction in which the judicial wind is blowing across the U.S.

The State of Georgia has already made it harder for prosecutors to win DUI convictions because of a ruling that people suspected of DUI may be too intoxicated to give their true informed consent to a breathalyzer test. Now an administrative law judge has thrown out the state’s attempt to suspend the license of a driver accused of DUI.

Atlanta Police Officer Justin J. Brodnik pulled David Leoni over for exceeding the speed limit by 20 miles per hour. The officer smelled alcohol on Leoni’s breath and noticed that his eyes were watery. (Leoni said he had just woken up from a nap.)

Despite the fact that Leoni answered questions without any difficulty and didn’t have trouble passing a balance test, Brodnik arrested him for DUI. That meant the Department of Driver Services automatically suspended his license. The law judge ruled that the watery eyes and a moderate smell of alcohol weren’t enough to prove that Leoni was impaired, so he ordered the state to restore Leoni’s license.

January 13, 2016

Dumb Decisions By DUI Drivers to Start Off 2016

by Michael Kraut

Sometimes people who’ve had a few too many seem to go out of their way to make poor choices. Take the case of Juan Pablo Garcia, a 22-year-old Uber driver arrested for a DUI in Los Angeles on New Year’s Day.

As a Uber driver, Garcia didn’t have to pick up passengers, but he decided to respond to a 1 a.m. call from 19-year-old Arlene Mendez, who was looking for a ride. According to CBS Local Los Angeles, Mendez later related that she felt uncomfortable with Garcia’s driving almost from the start. Her fears increased when she peered over the back seat and saw that Garcia was hitting 80 miles per hour on city streets. Garcia ignored her pleas to slow down and ended up slamming into another vehicle, overturning his own car in the process. Fortunately, Mendez wasn’t seriously hurt.

January 11, 2016

New Year’s Eve DUI Accident Injures DC Pedestrians

by Michael Kraut

Last November, a man eventually charged with DUI in Los Angeles killed two people and injured several others when his car hit a minivan and then swerved onto a sidewalk. A similar accident—fortunately non-fatal so far—occurred in the District of Columbia on New Year’s Day.

Twenty-five year old Malik Lloyd was apparently trying to turn from northbound 17th Street onto L Street in the early morning hours of January 1. Lloyd’s depth perception must have been off, however, because instead of making the corner he ended up skidding his car across the road, jumping the sidewalk and crashing into a floral planter and utility pole. His car continued down the sidewalk for several more feet, hitting seven people who were standing outside the “Bar Code” nightclub. Emergency crews took the victims to the hospital. Most were released, suffering only minor injuries, but one, the bar’s bouncer, was in critical condition the next day.

January 6, 2016

Minnesota Court Rules Warrants Required For DUI Urine Tests

by Michael Kraut

Under California law, police officers arresting a driver for a Los Angeles DUI don’t use a urine test for determining blood alcohol content at the time of an arrest. AB 2020, which became effective in January 2013, requires law enforcement officials to employ the more accurate blood test. The idea behind the law is that relying on the more reliable blood test will prevent DUI defendants from contesting the charges against them (if they’re based on a urine test).

But Minnesota still permits urine tests for DUI—and it just got a little harder for police officers to get that type of evidence when they suspect a driver of DUI. According to the Metropolitan News-Enterprise, the Minnesota Court of Appeals ruled on December 28th that a state law that makes it a crime for a driver to refuse a urine test without a warrant is unconstitutional. This court said that making it a crime to refuse a blood or urine test in a DUI case implicates a defendant’s fundamental right to be free from unconstitutional searches. The court reversed the conviction of a driver found guilty of refusing to submit to a blood or urine test.

January 4, 2016

Three Wildest DUI Stories from This Decade [So Far]

by Michael Kraut

When it comes to stories about driving under the influence in Los Angeles (and elsewhere), strange arrests and odd situations seem to take center stage. Some of the stories are so unbelievable that you have to wonder whether they are just urban legends. Here are three of the decade’s wildest, jaw-dropping DUI stories:

1. Crocs brand founder arrested in 2012. George Boedecker, the 51-year-old Crocs shoe brand founder, apparently was so intoxicated when police pulled him over that he tried to convince officers that he was dating Taylor Swift. The story gets even crazier; he gave cops obscenity-laced excuses until they decided to arrest him on DUI charges.

2. Wisconsin man didn’t see repeat offenses as a crime. A 53-year-old from Wisconsin, Daniel Frisch, has a history of DUI. He and about 30 other people in the state have a whopping total of more than 30 DUI convictions apiece. Frisch never killed anyone during his intoxicated excursions, but time in prison may not have changed his outlook much. According to reports, he never viewed himself as an alcoholic and never thought about his drinking and driving as a crime. He does admit, however, that his numerous convictions have taken away his chance at living a normal life.

December 28, 2015

Must Read, Jaw Dropping DUI Stories from 2015

by Michael Kraut

Unfortunately, crazy DUI stories span every state and continent, and the impact of driving while under the influence of drugs and alcohol affects all ages, genders, ethnicities, and religions. Here are three more of the most astonishing DUI stories 2015 had to offer:

1. Woman drives into the homecoming parade. In Oklahoma last October, Adacia Chambers drove into an Oklahoma State University parade crowd. She killed three adults and one 2-year old and injured 47 more. The 25-year-old faces four counts of second-degree murder and 46 charges of felony assault. She could face life in prison if convicted on all counts. While alcohol was not a factor, she allegedly had been driving under the influence of drugs.

December 23, 2015

DUI Driver Involved In Cover-Up Conspiracy

by Michael Kraut

Drivers convicted of a Los Angeles DUI may fear the consequences if they’re picked up a second or third time for driving under the influence and/or for causing an accident. Under the California Vehicle Code 23550, repeat DUI offenders could end up spending up to a year in jail and paying a fine of up to $1,000. If they severely injure or kill someone, the penalties are much more severe; under California Penal Code 191.5 a driver convicted of DUI with gross negligence could face up to 10 years in jail.

Joshua Daniel Taylor could be looking at that sentence if he ends up standing trial for the death of 38-year-old Rocio Leamon on August 13th. The mother of three was trying to safely cross a road in the Lake Murray/San Carolos area. She had done the right thing, pushing the signal button and waiting for the pedestrian signal before stepping into the roadway. Continue reading

December 21, 2015

Police Chief Calls for Tougher DUI Penalties After Officer’s Death

by Michael Kraut

The most devastating cases of DUI in Los Angeles involve the deaths of innocent bystanders. Every day, DUI drivers throughout the U.S. kill other motorists and pedestrians who have simply been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Police officers, especially those working on traffic or DUI patrols, face even greater risks. They’re often the targets of DUI drivers who accidentally (or sometimes on purpose) run them down.

One of the most recent incidents involves a young, 24-year-old officer in Montgomery County, Maryland. Officer Noah Leotta, who had been with the department just two and a half years, tried to pull over Luis Gustavo Reluzco for a traffic stop. But Reluzco hit the officer instead, forcing him to the ground and causing a severe head injury. Leotta’s parents eventually had to make the heartbreaking decision to remove their son from life support. Leotta died on December 9, just six days after receiving his injuries.

December 18, 2015

Could Hawaii DUI Ruling Signal Changes in Other States’ DUI Laws?

by Michael Kraut

Have you been convicted of a Los Angeles DUI based on a breathalyzer test that you took only because you didn’t want to lose your license? You may be particularly interested in a recent decision by the Hawaii Supreme Court, which ruled that the state’s “implied consent” laws regarding BAC tests are unconstitutional.

In the case of the State of Hawaii vs. Yong Shik Won, the justices found that officers had coerced Won into taking the test. He originally refused but changed his mind when police had him sign an implied consent form that stated under Hawaii law he must take a breathalyzer test or face 30 days in prison and a $1,000 fine. Won took the test, which resulted in his DUI conviction.
Won appealed his conviction based on the fact that officers had not read him his rights before administering the BAC. His attorneys argued that this was a warrantless search, and that under Hawaii’s constitution the state cannot compel someone to submit to a search when consent was gained “by explicit or implicit coercion, implied threat or covert force.”

December 14, 2015

DUI Arrests in Los Angeles Drop But Fatalities Up in 2015

by Michael Kraut

While police are making fewer arrests for DUI in Los Angeles and the rest of the state, they’ve been seeing more deaths as a result of DUI-related accidents.

The Sacramento Bee took a look at California’s DUI statistics from 2013 (the latest figures available from the state) and compared them with results from previous years. It found that the number of DUI arrests had declined from 188, 327 in 1998 to 160,388 in 2013. The rate of DUI arrests decreased from 908 per 100,000 licensed drivers in 1998 to 651 per 100,000 licensed drivers.
That’s the good news. But there is a downside. The Bee analysis found that while there were 1,417 motor vehicle deaths related to drugs and alcohol in 2010, that number increased to 1,699 in 2013.

San Francisco had the smallest rate of DUI arrests in 2013, with a rate of just 2.5 percent per 1,000 drivers. But if you want to avoid sharing the road with a driver under the influence of drugs or alcohol, steer clear of Inyo County, where they have a DUI arrest rate of 16.3 percent.