Los Angeles DUI Attorney Blog

December 14, 2015

The Damage Done By Los Angeles DUI Drivers

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.)

November 16, 2015

Gotten Multiple Los Angeles DUI Arrests? How to Make Sure 2016 is “DUI Free”

by Michael Kraut

As the year winds towards the holidays, and you look back on 2015, you have to admit that this one wasn’t exactly your best. Your Los Angeles DUI arrest, in some sense, was the tip of the iceberg. Maybe you faced rejection at work or financial problems. Perhaps you had a big issue with a personal relationship or suffered a health setback that led you to take refuge in the bottle or in some other compulsive activity.

2015 is a year you would like to forget.

That said, you want to take away valuable lessons from what happened to avoid repeating mistakes going forward. In our society, we are taught to pay attention to our neighbors and friends — to measure our progress in relation to what others do. But it’s more accurate (not to mention more resourceful and compassionate) to measure our progress based our OWN past experiences.

To that end, let’s unpack your year. Ponder the following questions:

November 13, 2015

An Alternative and More Humane Approach to the Los Angeles DUI Problem?

by Michael Kraut

Drivers arrested for DUI in Los Angeles often have a history of repeated offenses. Taking away their drivers’ licenses doesn’t seem to prevent them from driving while intoxicated; neither does jail time. But each time they get behind the wheel, they not only put other people at risk of injury of death, but they also risk their own welfare and the well-being of any family members who depend on them for support.

What can be done, for real, to solve the problem at its root?

California’s Monterey County Superior Court is attempting a radically different approach that could, if successful, alter how we think about DUI treatment and prevention. According to reports on KSBW and in the Monterey County Weekly, the Court has recently launched a new Driving Under the Influence Court. Judge Sam Lavorto had the idea for this special court, which will operate on a therapeutic model, trying to get help for people who have alcohol problems so that they won’t repeat their offenses.