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Whether you’re a budding filmmaker at USC – hoping to become your generation’s next “George Lucas” — or you’re a UCLA grad student barely able to afford rent in Westwood, your recent UCLA DUI or USC DUI has been a catastrophe.ucla-dui-usc-dui-los-angeles.jpg

You’re afraid things are going to get worse, probably because you’re not yet 21-years-old.

It’s bad enough to get stopped for DUI “normally” – as someone who’s over 21, driving with a BAC of 0.08%. Even if you don’t hurt anybody, you can face license suspension, fees, fines, insurance rate spikes, jail time, tough probation terms, and beyond. (If you did hurt someone or did commit other crimes while DUI near USC or UCLA, prosecutors can have that much more to “throw at you.”)

If you’re a minor, your situation is actually even more complicated and fraught. According to CVC Section 23136 – the so-called “Zero Tolerance” Policy Section — if you’re younger than 21, and an officer stops you and tests your BAC at just 0.01%, you can lose your license for a full year, or suffer a full year delay in getting your license, if you haven’t passed your test yet.

0.01% is actually just one-eighth the limit of normal DUI in Los Angeles, as CVC 23152(b) defines it. An overly ambitious swig of mouthwash, a ketogenic (low carb) diet, or even a big helping of cough syrup can put you over this threshold.

Violating CVC 23136 is an infraction rather than a misdemeanor, but you can still lose your license.

Fortunately, you can talk to a UCLA or USC DUI defense attorney, like Michael Kraut of the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers, to represent you at your DMV hearing and help you challenge the suspension.

(You only have 10 days to do so, so get busy!)

If you are under 21, and you get caught with a BAC between 0.05% and 0.07%, you can be hit with an infraction, per California Vehicle Code 23140. This leads to fines as opposed to jail, but it still triggers the Golden State Zero Tolerance Policy and can lead to a full year of suspension of driving privileges.

Lastly, if you are under 21 and you tip over the legal limit of 0.08%, not only can you face the standard charges that an adult driver might face – such as $2,000 in fines, a year behind bars, up to five years of summary probation, etc – but you also face a zero tolerance suspension.

The loss of driver’s license means a ton, if you’re a college or grad student. At an East Coast university campus, perhaps you could just “walk everywhere.” But it’s devilishly difficult to get around Los Angeles – to attend classes, have a social life, do your job, etc – if you have no vehicle.

Fortunately, you do not need to stand helplessly by as events unfold. An experienced, intelligent, compassionate UCLA and USC DUI defense lawyer with the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers can help you meet your challenges and rebound from unfortunate events.

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Whether you got arrested for DUI in Glendale, after police stopped you for speeding on the 134, or police snagged you at a Pasadena DUI checkpoint near Old Town Pasadena, you’re facing a serious legal crisis. aldon-smith-dui-glendale.jpg

Join the club.

Aldon Smith of the San Francisco 49ers also just got busted for driving under the influence in California, after he smashed his truck into a tree. While such an event would render many people unable to walk or engage in vigorous activity, Smith took to the field against the Colts just two days later… and made five tackles on the way to a 27 to 7 defeat.

Jed York, the CEO of the 49ers, said that the team had the right to play him, despite his DUI: “our opinion is, if you’re sitting someone down and paying them to sit down when they’re going to seek treatment in the future, we didn’t feel like that was an appropriate punishment. We’re not trying to circumvent what the NFL will do. This is about making sure that Aldon has the opportunity to work on something, to get better…”

Last season Smith had 19 1/2 sacks – a record for the 49ers, and the second most sacks in NFL. But he’s apparently equally aggressive on and off the gridiron.

• In 2012, Smith got into a car accident in Santa Clara County, and he sustained a deep cut on his face.
• In June 2012, Smith and Delanie Walker (also on the 49ers squad) allegedly got intoxicated at Smith’s house and shot guns into the air to stop their party. Unsurprisingly, in shooting off their guns in a crowded area, they allegedly hit a man, who later filed a lawsuit against Smith.

The NFL’s personal conduct policy takes a Glendale DUI violation (or DUI violation anywhere) extremely seriously. But since Smith’s case had not been adjudicated, he was allowed to play against the Colts. Following that game, however, he was put on the non-football-injury leave of absence list.

As we reported in a separate post on Jacoby Jones and Pacman Jones, NFL players have gotten into some horrendous legal turmoil recently. (To refresh your memory, Jacoby Jones got smashed over the head with a bottle of champion (by a stripper, no less!) on a party bus. Pacman Jones, meanwhile, got hit with DUI charges and mouthed off to the officer arresting him.)

But the mayhem is not restricted to the NFL. Taylor Olander, a UConn basketball hero, recently also got suspended, after police busted him for driving under the influence without a license.

If you or someone you love has been arrested for driving under the influence in Glendale (or elsewhere in Southern California), consider getting in touch immediately with an experienced Glendale DUI defense lawyer at the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers. Mr. Kraut is a very experienced Harvard Law School educated ex-prosecutor. He is known for his excellent relationships with judges, prosecutors and other members of the Southern California legal system.

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As someone who has recently been stopped for DUI in Long Beach, you may or may not be a football fan. But before you construct your defense, you might be well served to stop and consider the fate of two NFL Players named Jones, both of whom recently got into serious legal hot water. Their tales can instruct and inform your own defense.pacman-jones-DUI-los-angeles.jpg

First, we have the sad situation of Adam Bernard “Pacman” Jones, who was arrested at 2:30 a.m. on September 24th, after police stopped him for driving 60 miles per hour in a 45 miles per hour zone in Cincinnati. The star cornerback for the Cincinnati Bengals was busted on charges of OVI (operating a vehicle impaired – similar to a Long Beach DUI charge) and also hit with a disorderly conduct citation for making “offensive comments” to police officers. Per Ohio Law, that means that Jones probably said something during his DUI stop that was “likely to be offensive or to cause inconvenience, annoyance or alarm to persons of ordinary sensibilities.”

This is not the first time that cornerback has gotten into brouhahas with the law. In July 2011, he was hit with a disorderly conduct at a Cincinnati bar, and he yelled profanities to police officers who arrested him. In June, he got busted on an assault charges – he allegedly hit a woman at a nightclub. He pled not guilty to that charge. Perhaps most disturbing is this report from ESPN: “last year, Jones was ordered to pay $11 million to two Las Vegas strip club employees injured in 2007, when a gunman who claimed that he was doing Jones’ bidding, opened fire outside a club after Jones and his entourage were kicked out. A club manager who was paralyzed from the waist down, and a bouncer was wounded. Jones said he had no role in the shootings and pleaded an equivalent of no contest to misdemeanor and conspiracy to commit disorderly conduct. The gunman is serving 4 to 10 years in prison.”

It should go without saying — but it is worth restating and emphasizing — that the more you complicate your Long Beach DUI charges by mouthing off to police officers or engaging in illegal activities, like leaving the scene of an accident, the more complicated your defense will be, and the more likely you are to wind up with severe punishments, like jail time, long license suspensions, and the like.

Meanwhile, similarly disturbing news came from the camp of the Bengals’ rivals — the defending Super Bowl Champions, the Baltimore Ravens. Jacoby Jones – one of the Ravens’ star receivers – got into a fight on a party bus, following the Ravens victory over Houston. And… wait for it… he got hit over the head by a stripper with a champion bottle.

Coach John Harbaugh had this to say: “in our household…nothing good happens after midnight.” He rhetorically asked his players “what you want to be known for? Do you want to be known as a football player or do you want to be known for that? I don’t think it’s anything to be proud of.”

So what do with all these celebrity arrests and brawls with strippers have to do with your Long Beach DUI charge?

The frank answer is that it may not. Perhaps you were just at the wrong place at the wrong time, and your DUI was a fluke on an otherwise unbesmirchable record. But one thing that the Jones’ saga indicates is that Long Beach DUI trouble – and trouble with the law in general – is not as “random” as many people would like to believe.

Fortunately, if you or your loved one has been arrested for driving under the influence in Burbank or elsewhere, the experienced team at the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers can help. Connect with former prosecutor and Harvard Law School educated Attorney Mr. Michael Kraut for incisive, insightful, and compassionate assistance.

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A: You crash into a gas station window.

There are many good reasons why to avoid driving under the influence in Burbank (or elsewhere in Southern California). Among them include:

• Your license could be suspended for a year;
• You might have to go to jail;
• Your insurance rates might balloon and stay high for years afterwards;
• You might have to pay incredibly steep fines and fees;
• You might have to endure uncomfortable prohibition terms;
• You might have to pay to install an interlock ignition device in your vehicle;
• Perhaps most vividly, you might do crazy things, like drive your car into the glass window of a gas station.

Such was the fate of 33-year-old Evelina Igor Bennett of Boise, Idaho, who allegedly drove through a gas station on the 100 block of South Broadway. According to reports, police arrived at the gas station to find the woman sitting in the lot, smelling intensely of alcohol.

They put Ms. Bennett through the paces of Field Sobriety Tests. (Probably, they were very similar to the Burbank Field Sobriety Tests that you had to do — such as the finger to the nose test, the stand on one leg test, the horizontal gaze nystagmus test, and the count backwards by threes test.)

But more astonishing than her failure at the FSTs was the intensity of her alleged intoxication.

Her two breath tests show that – which were taken later at jail (after she had time to metabolize some of the alcohol) showed that she had a 0.382% and 0.395% BAC, respectively. That’s astonishingly high. You’re considered legally over the limit at just 0.08%.

In fact, at that level of intoxication, Ms. Bennett is lucky to have survived the night. It’s not uncommon for people with BACs of 0.40% and above to become comatose or to suffer severe and permanent health effects due to the alcohol.

Bennett had been convicted twice before for DUI – once in 2006 and once in 2007. If you’re arrested three times in the span of ten years for DUI in Burbank (or elsewhere in Southern California), prosecutors can charge your third DUI as a felony, even if it ordinarily would be just a misdemeanor. That means you could go to jail for over a year (among other things), instead of just a few days.

Sobering thoughts.

Fortunately, if you’ve been arrested for a similar crime, you don’t have to passively accept your fate. Connect today with a Burbank DUI defense attorney at the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers. Attorney Kraut is a very experienced former prosecutor who has a tremendous record for delivering results, even in tough, complex cases. Mr. Kraut served for 14 plus years as a prosecutor in the capacity of Senior Deputy District Attorney.

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As someone who’s been arrested for Pasadena DUI, you were probably more sympathetic than most when you learned that 50-year-old Dina Lohan (mother of actress, Lindsay Lohan) got arrested on September 12th for driving under the influence in Long Island, New York. Dina-Lohan-arrested-for-DUI-pasadena.jpg

Police pulled Dina Lohan over, after they saw her speeding. Based on her Field Sobriety Test performance (and other measures), they figured that she over the influence, and they arrested her just a few miles from her home in Merrick, New York. The bust came only a few months after 27-year-old Lindsay finished her 6th rehab stint connected to her Los Angeles DUI arrest.

On September 24, the elder Lohan entered a not guilty plea at New York’s Nassau County District to charges that she had been driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

Judge Joy Watson did suspend her driver’s license. But that apparently wasn’t a problem: Dina returned home in a chauffeur-driven Rolls Royce, and she is schedule to appear in court again on October 23.

Police said that Dina had been doing 77 miles per hour in a 55 miles per hour zone, and that she had a blood alcohol concentration of 0.20%. For those of you keeping score, that’s two and half times the legal limit for driving under the influence in Southern California.

A Family in Trouble
Lindsay and Dina are not the only members of the family to run a foul of the law. As this Pasadena DUI blog (and other sources) reported months ago, Lindsay’s father — Michael Lohan — has also been tormented by drug and alcohol issues, and he ALSO faces criminal charges.

What’s the Takeaway?

One salient takeaway from all the Lohan DUI drama is that dealing with addiction is complicated, emotionally challenging stuff. Fortunately, you don’t have to fight this battle on your own. An experienced, widely respected Pasadena DUI criminal defense lawyer with the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers can help you develop a sound strategy to deal with your charges.

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As someone who’s hoping to defend against a Los Angeles DUI charge, you need solid, objective facts.uncommon-los-angeles-dui-facts.jpg

According to one survey from 10 years ago, 1.4 million drivers on U.S. roads get busted for DUI annually, and crashes that are “alcohol related” lead to $45 billon of damages a year.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) reports that over 100,000 people died in alcohol related crashes between 2000 and 2005. Of course, the definition of “alcohol related” is somewhat misleading. A crash can be considered “alcohol related,” even if the driver who caused the accident had not been drinking. For instance, let’s say you consumed a few drinks (not enough to be over the legal limit for DUI in Los Angeles of 0.08%). Then a sober driver blew through a stop sign and hit your car. That would be an “alcohol related” accident, even though the sober driver caused it, and you weren’t over the limit.

Of course, unsurprisingly, drivers who are under the influence are much more likely to cause these crashes – one large study found that fewer than 70% of sober drivers caused their collisions, while 94% DUI drivers were deemed responsible.

If you drive at more than twice the legal limit (say, 0.16% BAC), you’re 300 times more likely to get into a crash that kills someone that you’d be if you were sober. A “sobering statistic,” if there ever was one.

Alcohol is not the only factor that can lead to dangerous driving.

A lack of sleep, distraction, drugs, prescription medications, and even negative volatile emotions scan all radically escalate your likelihood of getting into a serious collision. Some studies even suggest that certain common activities may be way worse than driving under the influence.

For instance, one Virginia Tech study from several years ago found that truckers who texted were something like 21 more times likely than non-texting truckers to get into collisions. That means, perhaps, the texting while driving is even more dangerous than DUI driving.

Of course, the stigma against texting is nothing compared to the stigma against DUI driving.

Even though it’s not legal to text while behind the wheel in L.A., look around the next time you come to a stoplight on the corner of Wilshire and Fairfax (for instance). You will likely see at least one driver buried in his or her phone.

Technically speaking, why does DUI create such risk? Alcohol does multiple things to your capacities, none of them good:

• It inhibits co-ordination. If you see a deer or bike rider dart in front of you, you need to coordinate your body to avoid hitting that animal or person. But if you’re under the influence, your coordination is more slack, so you’re at greater risk for a collision;
• Alcohol damages your judgment. How fast is too fast on the road? It is that a stop sign or a yield sign? Your ability to make judgments like these are mission critical. Unfortunately, alcohol can deeply impair these abilities.
• Alcohol can affect your vision. We don’t let blind people drive for a reason – you need acute visual senses to navigate safely. Drinking a lot of alcohol can effectively render you — if not blind, than certainly less than 20/20 sighted –and thus make you more dangerous.

After Your Los Angeles DUI – What to Do Next?

The team at the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers can help you appreciate the charges against you and build a strong defensive case. Mr. Kraut is an ex-prosecutor, who retains robust and friendly relationships with his former prosecutorial colleagues. He is well-known and respected by judges, police officers, and other important players in the Southern California legal defense community.

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If you think that your DUI in Burbank has been a depressing turn of events, try being a Cleveland Browns fan.burbank-dui-bernie-kosar.jpg

All kidding aside, Cleveland sports fans received some pretty harsh news last Sunday, tempered only slightly by a victory against AFC rivals, Cincinnati Bengals. Police in Solon, Ohio arrested 49-year-old Bernie Kosar, an ex-Browns quarterback, for driving under the influence. Police stopped him for speeding around 2:45 am, and officers noted a smell of alcohol on him. As regular readers know, that’s a key symptom of Burbank DUI. (Other common symptoms include: bloodshot eyes, inability to balance, strange/awkward behavior towards officers; slurred words; emotional outbursts. When combined with other evidence – such as failures on field sobriety tests and DUI Burbank positive breath or blood tests, it can be enough to put you behind bars!)

Kosar has been an outspoken advocate of retired NFL players who’ve struggled with brain injuries incurred while playing. But his public troubles are well known. He’s struggled financially, gone through a divorce and gotten addicted to painkillers. Kosur claims that his NFL-induced brain injuries have caused him to slur his words.

While QB’ing for the Browns, Kosar took his team to the AFC Championship game three different times. But he got in trouble with the Browns’ organization earlier this year, when he lashed into the St. Louis Rams during a pre-season broadcast. He called Tavon Austin, a wide receiver for the Rams, “horrible,” and he also said “Bless me Father for I have sinned. I have to watch [backup quarterback Kellen Clemens] the whole fourth quarter.”

What You Can Learn from Kosar’s Saga about Your Burbank DUI

Kosar’s story indicates how vulnerable we all are to periods of despondency, dependence, and just bad luck. It takes a single act of careless judgment on one particular day to create terrible circumstances that can alter your life and damage other people.

Kosar’s story also suggest that head injuries may indeed be capable of inducing serious behavioral changes, such as loss of impulse control. If you know someone who has gotten arrested for DUI in Burbank — and that person has been sick or recently injured — you may need medical help as well as legal assistance.

For help with the legal piece, consider turning to experienced former prosecutor, Michael Kraut, of the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers, for a free and thorough DUI defense consultation. Mr. Kraut is an ex-prosecutor with excellent connections with the Los Angeles legal community.

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The night that you were arrested for DUI in Pasadena is a night that you would love to forget. pasadena-dui-symptom-bloodshot-eyes.jpg

Unfortunately, the police officers who booked you likely kept a detailed, objective log of what happened – including what you said and did before, during, and after the arrest.

The so-called symptoms of DUI are in some sense universal. When a person consumes too much alcohol, he or she can develop “tell tale signs” of being under the influence, such as:

• Bloodshot eyes;
• Inhibited motor skills;
• Slow response to stimuli;
• Slower pupil reaction time (as measured by something called the horizontal gaze nystagmus test);
• Odor of alcohol on your person;
• Falling, stumbling and general clumsiness;
• Tendency to react emotionally and inappropriately to questions or circumstances.

Of course, there are more objective ways you can measure Pasadena DUI, such as a breathalyzer or blood test. But when you really examine this list of particulars, you might notice something peculiar: Barring the BAC numbers, any other “symptom” can be caused by numerous other things.

For instance, you can get bloodshot eyes if you hang upside down on a bar in gymnastics practice, spend too much time in a smoky room, get sick, get fatigued, or have an allergic reaction to food, medication, or pet dander. In other words, in and of itself, the Pasadena DUI “symptom” of bloodshot eyes doesn’t tell you that much.

You can go down the list!

There are many reasons why people stumble and fumble and get clumsy. Consuming alcohol can obviously cause this problem, but so can fatigue, a medical problem, muscular dysfunction, a seizure, etc. Maybe you’re just not very coordinated – even while sober!

This doesn’t mean that what you said or did following an arrest can all be “explained away” through exotic explanations. But it does mean that the court will want to see the totality of the evidence against you.

You can even exude the odor of alcohol, if you’ve been drinking mouthwash or cough syrup or working at a chemistry lab.

So what can you do now?

Your Pasadena DUI charge weighs heavily. You want to resolve the situation efficiently and legally, so you can get back to your “regularly scheduled” life. Connect with a Pasadena DUI criminal defense attorney with the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers to plan your strategy. Mr. Kraut is an ex-prosecutor (educated at Harvard Law School) who retains fantastic relationships with police officers and judges and other officials in the Southern California law community.

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Your Los Angeles DUI came at a strange time. After years of struggling to achieve some goal – perhaps a raise at your job, a successful relationship, or the conception of a child – you finally “broke through” and “made it.” For instance, maybe after sweating away, writing spec screenplays for 10 years, you finally optioned an original creative work to a big studio.armonty-bryant-dui-los-angeles.jpg

Given the great news in your personal or business life, an outsider might think that you’d be at minimal risk for doing something dangerous and destructive, like driving under the influence in Los Angeles.

But sometimes, rapid positive change can stimulate destructive behavior, just like unexpected negative change can do.

That sounds paradoxical, so let’s take a look at example.

In early May, Armonty Bryant, a new defensive end drafted by the Cleveland Browns, got arrested near East Central University in Oklahoma and charged with DUI. Per the police report, he made a left without signaling, attracting the attention of a police officer. The officer tried to get Bryant to take a breathalyzer test 10 separate times before the athlete agreed. Both Bryant and his passenger got arrested.

Bryant is no stranger to legal trouble. In 2012, police arrested him for felony distribution of marijuana in a school zone, a charge to which he pleaded no contest. Cleveland nevertheless chose him in the seventh round (217th pick overall) because, as the Browns coach put it “[he has moved] passed the mistakes that he has made and he’s ready to move on. He has matured.”

Bryant even released a statement about his past activities, shortly after the draft: “I feel like it was just a stupid move on my part. I should have been more mature about the situation and more focused on football, which is something I really want to do with my life. Now that I’ve gotten that second chance, I feel like I won’t let anyone down.”

Given that Bryant had turned his life around – he went from nearly-going-to-jail to playing-in-the-NFL – why on Earth would he have jeopardized everything by driving DUI?

This brings us back to the earlier point, which is that stressful events (even positive, exciting events) can lead us to take dangerous actions.

It’s not necessarily that we “get lost in the celebration of the moment” but rather that the wrenching changes caused by big life events (positive and negative) can make us feel helpless and out of control.

So what can you do, now that you’ve been hit with a Los Angeles DUI?

The team here at the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers in Los Angeles has extensive experience helping people like you move beyond their mistakes and fight charges vigorously.

Mr. Kraut is a former very high level prosecutor. He rose to the ranks of Senior Deputy District Attorney for L.A. He can help you figure out exactly what to do next, so you can start the process of putting your arrest behind you.

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As someone arrested for DUI in Glendale, you’ve been beating yourself up pretty badly. bishop-McManus-los-angeles-dui.jpg

You’re not the only one showering you with negative emotions. Odds are high that you’ve encountered at least one friend or relative who responded to the news of your arrest in a less than congenial or compassionate manner – either judging you outright for “being a bad person who can’t get it together” or by making subtle but still painful digs.

The Glendale DUI experience is more diverse — and more human — than many people realize, however.

For instance, did you know that a Roman Catholic bishop from Rhode Island recently got arrested for DUI, after he consumed wine at dinner and then hopped in his car? It’s true. Out in South Kingston, Rhode Island, Robert McManus, a bishop for Worcester, got arrested for DUI and for leaving the scene of an accident. The 61-year-old bishop admitted that he “made a terrible error in judgment.” William Murphy, the former Speaker of the Rhode Island House, is representing McManus in court.

When most people think about Glendale DUI arrests, they conjure up caricatures.

They might picture a wastrel — a no-goodnik whose “life is a mess.” An irredeemable “criminal” who’s not at all like normal, law-abiding people. Or they think of “hot messes,” like Lindsay Lohan or presumptuous pols or narcissistic sports stars.

Does a 60-something high priest from Rhode Island fit your mental profile of “DUI driver”? Probably not! The reality is that the diversity of people arrested for this crime is astonishing, but that diversity is just not reflected in news stories or in tabloids.

Changing How You Think about And Reflect on Your Glendale DUI

We live in a society that emphasizes the judging, shaming and punishment of “wrongdoers.” This moralizing is built into the very fiber of our legal system. But this kind of thinking is not particularly resourceful. It can be downright destructive.

As we discussed above, Glendale DUIs are often the surface manifestations of deeper issues.

For instance, a person who loses his job might feel helpless and thus drawn down into a spiral of destructive behavior (including driving DUI). To turn things around, he will need not only to face down the charges but also to address the root issues making him feel helpless.

Of course, in some cases, DUIs really are “random.”

For instance, Bishop McManus may, indeed, have just “had a bad night.” You never know.

In any case, it’s useful to at least probe your DUI to try to understand its root cause, so you can address it and save yourself hassle in the future.

Connect with Attorney Michael Kraut of Glendale’s Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers today for assistance with your case. A Harvard Law School educated ex-Deputy District Attorney, Mr. Kraut can offer powerful and comprehensive help with your Glendale DUI defense.

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