Los Angeles DUI Attorney Blog

May 27, 2015

Man Loses More than $1,000 through Unfounded DUI Charge

The expenses associated with a DUI in Los Angeles are high and can include everything from fines and vehicle impoundment to the cost of getting an ignition lock system installed. Putting out that money is bad enough when the cops have some basis for charging a person with a DUI, but it’s even worse when an officer has lied about the evidence for the arrest.

Gavin Gabor of Salt Lake is fighting to get his money back after prosecutors dismissed the DUI case against him because of questions about the cop’s truthfulness. According to the website Good4Utah.com, Utah Highway Patrol Trooper Neil Green pulled Gabor over for failing to signal a turn. Green discovered there was an outstanding arrest warrant for Gabor for another traffic violation. He questioned Gabor and then arrested him for driving under the influence of drugs.

When Gabor appeared before a hearing officer, he heard Trooper Green testify that Gabor had failed a field sobriety test. But Gabor claimed that he couldn’t have failed the test, because Green never administered it. Gabor even bought a copy of the trooper’s dash cam video, which appeared to support his claim.

But the administrator didn’t believe the driver’s story, and Green lost his license for six months. He had to pay $300 to get his license back, $400 to get his vehicle out of impound and another $300 for a release title.

But Gabor wasn’t willing to let the case rest. He got a public defender, who succeeded in getting his case dismissed (although not before Gabor had paid all the money and done without his license). Meanwhile, the UHP began investigating the veracity of all of Green’s DUI arrests; the trooper later resigned.

Green has gotten some of his money back from the DMV, but he’s still fighting with the state Tax Commission, the agency that collected the impound and release fees, to return the money he paid to them.

How should you respond to your recent and disarming charges? Call a qualified Los Angeles DUI defense lawyer (and ex-prosecutor) with nearly two decades of relevant legal experience.

May 25, 2015

DUI Arrest Pits Cops Against Town Administrators

by Michael Kraut

Some people picked up for a DUI in Los Angeles or some other city may try to bluster their way out of a charge by claiming to have friends in high places who will get them off and make trouble for the arresting police officers. In almost all cases, of course, it’s a bluff that doesn’t do the alleged DUI drivers much good.

But one man in Chelsea, Oklahoma, did get a little help from some high-up friends—and the furor over his arrest has caused a big outcry in this small town of less than 2,000 residents.

When police office Nicholas Pappe pulled over local businessman Brian Haggard on suspicion of DUI, Haggard admitted to having had about eight beers before driving. But this fairly straightforward DUI arrest turned controversial when Haggard called his good friends for help. They happened to be the town’s police commissioner and Kenny Weast, the town’s city manager. (Weast shares ownership of a local bar with Haggard.)

Weast showed up while Pappe was questioning Haggard, and asked to take Haggard home without an arrest. But Pappe—who is a new police officer, on probation—refused to overlook the DUI infraction and charged Haggard with DUI. (The businessman’s blood alcohol content was well over the legal limit at .106.)

The controversy came to the attention of the Chelsea city council, which voted 4-1 to let Weast keep his job, despite his interference with an arrest. Pappe, meanwhile, could lose his position if the city council votes to dismiss him.

Chelsea’s assistant police chief said that the action has been disheartening for his officers, who have also received death threats. Haggard, meanwhile, said it is the police who are ruining the reputation of the town.

Los Angeles DUI defense lawyer, Michael Kraut, of the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers is standing by to offer critical insight into your case and potential defense options. Call him and his team today to begin regaining control over your case and your life.

May 20, 2015

Stairs More Deadly Than Motor Vehicles?

by Michael Kraut

Most people understand that someone who meets the criteria for a DUI in Los Angeles has a good chance of getting hurt if he or she gets behind the wheel. But people in Wisconsin–and perhaps in other states as well–are more likely to get hurt from falls when they’re under the influence than from driving a motor vehicle.

According to an article in the Madison, Wisconsin, Capital Times, officials recorded 349 deaths in Wisconsin from alcohol-related falls in 2012 (the latest year for which figures are available). Meanwhile, they recorded only 223 alcohol-related traffic deaths that same year. The Wisconsin Alcohol Policy Project (part of the University of Wisconsin Law School) gathered the data for this report.

The newspaper story notes that DUI-related fatalities in Wisconsin have declined significantly since 1979, when 593 people were killed in such crashes. By 2013, yearly fatalities had decreased to 185. Fatal falls related to alcohol, on the other hand, have increased by 36 percent since 2004.

The Wisconsin Alcohol Policy Project links this increase to the aging of Wisconsin’s population. Older people have continued to drink, even as they become less steady on their feet and/or take medications that make them more susceptible to alcohol’s effects.

There is one positive aspect to this development. Unlike DUI drivers, who can kill or severely injure several other people when they’re out on the road, someone who falls because they are intoxicated usually injures only themselves.

A recent study in the American Journal of Public Health identified Wisconsin as the hardest-drinking state in the country. In 2011, the annual alcohol consumption in the Badger State was 634 drinks per person for those over the age of 14. That compared to an average 468 drinks per person in the U.S.

Do you need help defending against a drug or DUI charge? Michael Kraut of Los Angeles’s Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers is a trustworthy, highly qualified former prosecutor. Call a Los Angeles DUI attorney today to strategize for your defense seriously.

May 18, 2015

DUI Drivers Run Out of Gas and into Trouble

by Michael Kraut

Anyone who’s ever run out of gas while traveling knows just how much of a problem it can be to get the car to a safe place, call for help and wait until that assistance arrives. But if cops show up and discover that drivers have another problem—like enough alcohol in their systems to be arrested for a DUI in Los Angeles—those drivers are more likely to be headed to jail instead of to the nearest gas station.

Just ask Jason Kinthiseng of Cortland, New York. When his car ran out of gas around midnight on May 4th, he flagged down an officer who was returning from handling another call. It didn’t take Sergeant Christopher Marinelli long to figure out that at that moment Kinthiseng needed a breathalyzer test more than he needed gas for his vehicle. Kinthiseng’s blood alcohol content measured .18–more than twice the legal limit. The news story doesn’t mention whether or not Kinthiseng eventually got gas for his vehicle, but he did get a charge of aggravated driving while intoxicated.

Then there was 30-year old Jovanna Dawn Talks from South Dakota. Her running-out-of-gas incident not only yielded two counts of DUI but also three counts of abuse or cruelty to a minor and one count of hit and run.

Talks had her three young children–all under five years old–in the car with her when she rear-ended a 2001 Ford Edge at an intersection in Argus. Instead of stopping, Talks allegedly kept driving and got onto I-229, where she ran out of gas. It was 3:20 a.m. when the police found her and her kids in the car, resulting in the charges against her.

Do you or a family member need insight from a qualified Los Angeles DUI attorney? Contact Michael Kraut of the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers to set up your free consultation.

May 13, 2015

You Don’t Need a Car for a DUI Arrest

by Michael Kraut

When police arrest someone for a Los Angeles DUI, the suspect is usually driving something like a sedan, an SUV, a motorcycle or a truck. But that doesn’t mean that DUI arrests are limited to people driving this type of motor vehicle. The three people mentioned below could tell you that the determining factor is not what you drive but what your blood alcohol content is when you’re driving it.

In Clay City, Kentucky, police arrested 57-year-old Billy Strange for driving a lawn mower while intoxicated. Strange was moving along Third Street around 10 p.m. on the night of Friday, May 2, when police pulled him over. His blood alcohol content was .151—well above the state’s legal limit of .08.

Then there was Jay Doyle Wallace of Rogersville, Tennessee. Police found him at the scene of an accident on Highway 70 north on April 11th. But he hadn’t wrecked a car—Wallace was driving an Agco Allis farm tractor at the time. He claimed the accident had been caused by another vehicle swerving into his lane of traffic. Police charged Wallace, who had two prior DUI arrests, with a third-offense DUI, failing to exercise due care and violating the state’s implied consent law, since he refused a blood alcohol content test.

But a 40-year-old man from Scotland may have the distinction of most unusual DUI in recent months. Officers found Paul Hutton driving a pink child’s Barbie car down a road in Clacton-on-Sea in Essex at 10 p.m. at night. Hutton said he had been drinking while customizing the car for his son, and he didn’t realize he was over the limit when he decided to drive over to a friend’s house to show off the vehicle. (His BAC was twice the legal limit.) Since it was Hutton’s second DUI (we assume the first was for driving a regular vehicle), he lost his license for three years.

As a frequent contributor to respected media, like The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times and Good Morning America, Los Angeles DUI attorney Michael Kraut of the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers understands what it takes to build successful defenses in complex DUI cases. Contact him and his team today to schedule a consultation.

May 11, 2015

This DUI Driver Isn’t a Fast Learner

by Michael Kraut

How many times can police charge a driver with a Los Angeles DUI before that driver gets the message that he (or she) is doing something wrong?

Many people change their ways after cops arrest them just once for that offense. But one driver from Rhode Island doesn’t seem to have understood that he was doing something wrong.

John Lourenco may have set a record for being arrested for DUI four times in 30 hours, especially since he managed to do it while driving four different vehicles. According to the Smoking Gun website, the 53-year-old’s DUI odyssey began in Providence on a Sunday afternoon in late September, when his Dodge pickup truck hit an SUV carrying two children. Fortunately, the accident didn’t cause any serious injuries to the kids. Lourenco was released to the custody of his elderly parents.

Lourenco’s next three arrests came in Cumberland. Around 7:15 on Monday morning, morning, with a blood alcohol level of .22, he rear-ended another vehicle while behind the wheel of a Chevy Malibu. Four hours later an officer pulled Lourenco over as he was driving a 1970 Plymouth Barracuda. The final time the police picked Lourenco up he was using a dump truck as his vehicle of choice—and he was still drunk. In just 30 hours, Lourenco had managed to hit three cars and a tree. Each time the police called his parents to come pick him up.

The DUI repeat offender got his day in court in late April 2015. The judge sentenced him to two years in the state prison, which will give him plenty of time to consider the error of his ways.

Locating a seasoned and qualified Los Angeles DUI defense lawyer is a critical part of the process of reclaiming your life, your time and your peace of mind. Call ex-prosecutor Michael Kraut for a free consultation right now.

May 6, 2015

DUI Driver Tries for Revenge with Fake Affair

by Michael Kraut

Some drivers pulled over for DUI in Los Angeles may fantasize about getting even with the cop who arrested them. They may be too impaired at the time of their arrest to realize this isn’t a good idea, but when the alcohol fumes dissipate their plans for revenge usually disappear as well.

That wasn’t the case with one Illinois man arrested on February 2 for DUI, reckless driving and fleeing police. The 37 year old driver threatened a local Sheriff’s Deputy, who corralled him on a road near Decatur Airport after a brief chase.

According to the Decatur Herald Review, the driver threatened revenge because his wife was less than pleased after receiving a call from her jailed husband. The driver told the deputy that he had ruined his life and his marriage.

So the driver tried to destroy the deputy’s marriage by faking a series of letters to the deputy’s wife. He pretended to be a female corrections officer who was having an affair with the deputy. At one point the driver even sent a pair of pink women’s panties to the deputy.

The deputy immediately alerted his superiors, who began an investigation. They finally traced the letters to the driver through an Easter card he sent asking him to take the supposed affair to the next level. After discovering that Walmart sold the card, investigators were able to use surveillance video and credit card information to link it to the driver.

Revenge will not be sweet for the driver, who has already lost his license for three years for refusing a breathalyzer test and faces DUI charges. Now he’s also looking at felony charges for threatening a witness and for forgery.

Do you need assistance constructing an appropriate response to a DUI charge? Look to the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers’ Michael Kraut for insight and peace of mind. Mr. Kraut is an experience Los Angeles DUI attorney with many relevant connections in the local legal community.

May 4, 2015

More Arrests for Stoned Driving? Cannibuster Could Make It Happen

by Michael Kraut

Testing drivers for an alcohol-related DUI in Los Angeles is a relatively straightforward process that may involve a breathalyzer and blood tests. But when pot is a driver’s choice for getting high, it’s been a lot harder for police to identify just how much cannabis is in a driver’s bloodstream and what constitutes impairment.

Two biomedical engineering graduate students from the University of Akron in Ohio claim to have solved that problem. According to CBS News, Mariam Crow and Kathleen Stitzlein said they’ve invented a “Cannibuster” that can quickly gauge the amount of THC-the psychoactive ingredient in pot–in someone’s system.

The Cannibuster measures THC levels through a saliva sample taken from a suspected impaired driver and passed through a series of chambers before yielding a reading. Colorado and Washington, two states that have legalized the use of marijuana, have established five nanograms of THC per milliliter of blood as the threshold for impairment. Police now rely on blood tests to measure the THC levels, but there’s been no good way to take a reading when they pull over a driver suspected of DUI.

The Cannibuster researchers have received grant money to continue refining their device, and hope to conduct field tests later this year.

Even if the technology proves effective, however, there’s likely to be some controversy ahead. For one thing, it’s not clear how valid the current THC limits are in actually determining if a driver is impaired due to pot. According to an article in the New York Times last year, European studies suggest that the five nanogram threshold is too high, and that a better limit would be closer to one nanogram THC per milliliter of blood.

Designing and executing an effective defense against DUI charges (even simple ones) is not intuitive. Fortunately, you can trust the seasoned, highly successful Michael Kraut. Call a DUI lawyer in Los Angeles with nearly two decades of experience.

April 29, 2015

Daredevil Does Damage While DUI

by Michael Kraut

People who enjoy a few too many drinks before getting behind the wheel may attempt to show off their driving skills—speeding along busy highways, taking tight turns, and similar maneuvers that are likely to get them involved in an accident or picked up for a Los Angeles DUI.

So what happens when a real-life driving daredevil allegedly drinks too much before speeding in his SUV? A four-car pile up.
Like his father, stuntman Evel Knievel, Robbie Knievel has made a career of daredevil motorcycle jumps. But he was driving a 2005 GMC Yukon when he ran a red light in Butte, Montana, on the evening of April 21. According to the Montana Standard, he was traveling at high speed when he rammed into a Honda Accord, which hit a Ford Taurus, which hit a Hummer.

Knievel sped away in his SUV, parked it a few blocks away and was walking down the street when the cops caught up with him. Knievel refused a breathalyzer test, so the officers got a warrant for a blood alcohol test. They charged him with felony DUI because he has three previous drunken driving convictions. He also faces the misdemeanor offenses of leaving the scene of an accident, operating a vehicle without an interlock device and running a red light.

Photos of the daredevil’s arraignment show him sporting an orange jail jumpsuit, a big change from his trademark red, white and blue performance outfits. Knievel, who is 52, could be looking at some fairly serious consequences due to the DUI charge—up to five years in prison and $50,000 in fines.

What should you do if you or someone you love faces a serious DUI count? Will you go to jail? Will you lose your license? Call Los Angeles DUI defense lawyer Michael Kraut immediately to understand your options and craft a strategic response.

April 27, 2015

Drivers Can Run But They Can’t Get Away

by Michael Kraut

Motorists who cause an accident while driving under the influence may try to escape the consequences by fleeing the scene. But their respite from arrest is usually brief, and they’re picked up and charged with a Los Angeles DUI or some similar offense.
But it’s not always easy to make a clean getaway. Just ask William Yeckering of Owens, Illinois. He rammed into another vehicle while allegedly driving under the influence and tried to run away. But he had made the mistake of hitting a car owned by 6’ 2” high school football player Evan Williams.

The senior guard and defensive tackle put his on-field skills to use by chasing after Yeckering and bringing him to the ground. Williams held Yeckering down until police arrived at the scene.

Williams was dressed up for his impromptu chase—he and his date were leaving the prom when Yeckering hit their car.

The abrupt end to the chase wasn’t the only unpleasant surprise that Yeckering faced that evening. When police arrested him, they found he had a gun in his car, for which he did not have a permit. They also discovered that he had four previous DUI driving arrests—and that he was driving on a suspended license.

Whether or not alcohol is involved, leaving the scene of an accident in California can get a driver charged with a hit and run misdemeanor or felony. For a misdemeanor charge, involving damage to property, fines can run to $1,000 and drivers face six months in county jail. When a driver leaves the scene of an accident involving personal injury, the fines can go up to $10,000 and the driver could end up in state prison for as long as four years.

As a frequent contributor to respected media, like The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times and Good Morning America, Los Angeles DUI attorney Michael Kraut of the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers understands what it takes to build successful defenses in complex DUI cases. Contact him and his team today to schedule a consultation.