Los Angeles DUI Attorney Blog

December 18, 2015

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

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.

December 14, 2015

The Damage Done By Los Angeles DUI Drivers

by Michael Kraut

Most arrests for DUI in Los Angeles don’t make the headlines. That’s actually good, because it means that the driver did not kill anyone, injure anyone seriously or cause extensive property damage.

But news reports from all around the country do carry stories every day about a DUI driver who has caused irreparable harm. In just a one-week time period, media sources reported on these incidents:

• A judge in Springfield, Massachusetts, revoked bail for a woman accused in an August crash that left a 16-year-old paralyzed from the chest down. The court had initially released Jomaris Colon on $2,000 bail. After Colon’s second probation violation, a judge ordered her back to jail for at least 90 days.

MASS Live reports that the victim, Alex Scafuri, had been skateboarding home from his school’s volleyball tryouts when Colon hit him. The 26-year old driver, who didn’t have a license, allegedly fled the scene after the accident.

The prosecutor claims to have videos from various stores that day that show Colon making alcohol purchases. Meanwhile, MASS Live website reports that Scafuri’s family is performing the painful task of clearing out all of the sports equipment that the teen will no longer be able to use.

December 9, 2015

Lack of Front Tires Gives DUI Driver Away

by Michael Kraut

Note to drivers who want to overindulge and drive anyway: If you are trying to avoid getting nabbed on a Los Angeles DUI charge, make sure that all the important parts of your vehicle are intact before you head down the road. If police spot you driving a vehicle without some vital part—like, say, front tires(!!)—they just may get suspicious and pull you over.

To wit, Fox 32 in Chicago recently reported about the arrest of Marco A. Nieves, who hails from the northwest side of the Windy City. A police officer in the suburb of Riverside spotted Nieves around 4 a.m. on the morning of November 29th. Nieve’s car had heavy front-end damage and was missing the two front tires. Although Nieves allegedly had been traveling slowly, the metal rims of the car were throwing sparks.

When the officer pulled Nieves over, the 46-year-old reported, in slurred speech, that he had been in an accident. Blood on his shirt seemed to confirm the story. Police, noting his glassy eyes and the strong smell of alcohol on his breath, gave him several field sobriety tests, which he allegedly failed. Nieves refused to take a breathalyzer test, however.

December 7, 2015

November’s High Profile Los Angeles DUI Cases

by Michael Kraut

The City of Angels attracts a fair number of celebrities who party too hard and end up facing charges of DUI in Los Angeles. The most recent case was Michael Weatherly, a longtime actor on the television show NCIS. He spent 15 hours in jail in early November after police pulled him over for speeding. Since Weatherly’s reported blood alcohol content measured above the legal limit of .08, he is now looking at two counts of DUI. Since Weatherly is a first-time offender, however, he’s not likely to face jail time.

Let’s also quickly survey two big out of state celebrity DUI cases.

December 4, 2015

Do Double Los Angeles DUI Drivers Get Their Vehicles Back Too Soon?

by Michael Kraut

Police officers who arrest motorists for DUI in Los Angeles occasionally run across drivers who don’t learn from their initial mistakes. As soon as these alleged DUI drivers are out of jail, they get behind the wheel again.

One woman in Somerset, Pennsylvania, may hold the record for the least amount of time between DUI arrests. She’s certainly a contender.

On Saturday, November 14th, around 5 p.m., Pennsylvania State police arrested Michele Leonard, age 47, on charges of DUI after she crashed her car in an intersection in Somerset Township. They gave her a breathalyzer test and took her to the station, where officers did the paperwork and then released her.

Leonard still apparently wasn’t thinking too clearly, because she gave $3 to a stranger to take her back to the crash site. She got back in her car and proceeded to drive away, only to lose control of her vehicle and smash the side of a parked car. She ended up traveling down a nearby driveway and through the owner’s shed, destroying both the building and many of the expensive tools inside.

November 30, 2015

The Worst Time to Get a Los Angeles DUI Charge: Christmas Eve

by Michael Kraut

As Black Friday recedes and Christmas rapidly approaches, Los Angeles DUI attorneys and law enforcement are bracing for a predictable but tragic escalation in the number of DUI arrests here in the southland.

Every year, as we’ve discussed numerous times, Angelinos (and others) find themselves arrested disproportionately during the holiday season. The best theory suggests that this uptick in arrests has to do with holiday revelry.

Here in Los Angeles, we are at least fortunate and that the roads don’t get covered with snow, ice and sleet during the holidays, although forecasters say that we might find ourselves doused with a rain shower or ten thanks to El Nino, and that can certainly make driving more treacherous.

November 27, 2015

Teachers Need Education on DUI

by Michael Kraut

Students who take drivers education in the Southern California area hear numerous warnings during their classes about the dangers of DUI in Los Angeles. But sometimes the teachers of these classes ignore their own good advice.

Take the case of 51-year-old, Richard Bull. The Fort Myers, Florida, CBS affiliate WINK reported on that when Bull attempted to pull into a McDonald’s parking lot in Alva, Florida, his vehicle jumped the curb and landed up in a ditch alongside the fast-food restaurant. When Lee County deputies reported to the scene, he allegedly compounded his problems by trying to convince them that someone else was driving his car and had taken off when they approached.

This scenario would have embarrassed anyone (once they were sober again), but the real problem in Bull’s case is that he teaches driver’s ed at the local Riverdale High School. He was even wearing a school tee shirt when arrested. The Lee County School District said that while it doesn’t fire teachers for DUI, it will probably reassign the (now former) driver’s ed teacher.
Even if they don’t teach driver’s ed, educators are expected to set a good example behind the wheel. But in Williamson County, Tennessee, a finalist for the state’s Principal of the Year got in trouble when he crashed his car in late October, causing some property damage.

November 25, 2015

Holiday Survey Highlights Attitudes Towards DUI

by Michael Kraut

Would you be able to tell if someone you knew was at risk for a charge of DUI in Los Angeles? Would you take away a friend‘s or a guest’s vehicle keys if you felt they had consumed too much alcohol to drive?

Just in time for the holiday season, The Foundation for Advancing Alcohol Responsibility released the results of a national poll it took in September 2015. The purpose was to gauge American’s alcohol awareness.

Apparently Americans still have a lot to learn. More than half of all adults in the U.S. (63 percent) don’t know that the legal limit for blood alcohol concentration in their state (and in every U.S. state) is .08 percent.

November 23, 2015

DUI Arrests Declining in Chicago—But Is That Really A Good Sign?

by Michael Kraut

If the number of arrests for DUI in Los Angeles decreased, would it mean that the roads are getting safer? Maybe not. A recent article in Illinois’ Daily Herald newspaper raised some questions about the real meaning behind a decline in DUI arrests in several suburban Chicago neighborhoods.

Columnist Jack Griffin wrote in a November 18th column in the Daily Herald that DUI arrests in 79 Chicago suburbs have been declining since 2007. Surveys compiled by the Alliance Against Intoxicated Motorists (AAIM) reported that police made 12,166 DUI arrests in 2007 and only 6,955 in 2014.

But what’s the reason for the declining arrests? Griffin spoke with one Chicago area attorney who thinks people simply don’t have the money to go out drinking. The police chief in the Chicago suburb of Lake Hills, however, believes people are becoming more conscious of the need to take a cab or have a designated driver when they plan on drinking. (Arrests in this suburb declined from 100-plus each year between 2007-2012 to 86 in 2014.)