los angeles DUI

September 8, 2016

DUI Drivers As Fire Starters

Drivers arrested for DUI in Los Angeles often leave a very visible trail of damage in their wake: wrecked vehicles (theirs and/or others’), downed utility poles or traffic signals, broken windows in storefronts. But sometimes the damage spreads a lot further.

According to a story in the August 29th Los Angeles Times, 44-year-old Rene Ilene Hogan was driving under the influence when she started a fire that set ablaze 450-plus acres of grass and forest in Calaveras County.

Hogan was driving a 2002 Kia Rio but didn’t realize that her rear tire was flat. She continued traveling until the tire wore down to the wheel rim, causing sparks to fly. Some of the sparks hit the very dry grass along the highway, setting off several fires. Her Kia eventually caught fire as well, but Hogan kept driving, apparently oblivious to the damage she had caused and her own peril.

Motorists who saw her car on fire tried to alert her, but Hogan didn’t notice them. Finally, one car pulled in front of her, forcing her to stop. The driver and nearby residents managed to pull Hogan from the car before she suffered any burns. Police later charged her with driving under the influence of a narcotic analgesic and cannabis, as well as driving on a suspended license.

August 31, 2016

Minnesota Court Okays DWI Test for Drugs

by Michael Kraut

Suppose a police officer asks someone suspected of a DUI in Los Angeles to consent to a test to measure the blood alcohol content in their body. If the blood test turns up evidence of drug usage—which the officer did not mention in his request for that blood test—can the state use those results to win a DUI conviction?

The Minnesota Supreme Court recently addressed a similar question in a ruling in a 2014 DWI case. According to a report by Minnesota Public Radio, police requested a warrant to draw Debra Fawcett’s blood after she ran a red light and caused a two-vehicle crash. Fawcett admitted to drinking a few beers earlier in the day.

The test results showed that Fawcett’s blood was alcohol free. However, they also revealed that she had THC (the active ingredient in marijuana) and Alprazolam in her bloodstream. (Physicians often prescribe Alprazolam, better known by its trade name Xanax, for anxiety disorders.) Fawcett did have a valid prescription for the drug.

August 17, 2016

DUI Driver: It’s Jerry Springer’s Fault

by Michael Kraut

When police come upon an accident involving a DUI in Los Angeles, they may sometimes find that all the vehicle’s occupants have exited the car. That scenario can make it more difficult for the officers to figure out who was actually driving at the time of the crash. Thinking to confuse police (or maybe because they are confused themselves), the car’s occupants claim that someone else was behind the wheel.

But when Bernard Michael Drivdahl of Benson, Minnesota, stated that another driver was responsible for the destruction his car left behind, the police were pretty sure they could discount his story. For one thing, the 59-year-old Drivdahl was apparently alone when they picked him up. In addition, Drivdahl said that the person driving the vehicle was Jerry Springer.

TwinCities.com reports that on May 29th, an officer who suspected Drivdahl of driving under the influence began chasing his vehicle through the town. Speeds reached 70 miles per hour during the pursuit. Drivdahl eventually drove through several front lawns, crashed into a parked pickup and then hit not one but two homes. The damage could have been worse, however; the car broke a gas line in one home.
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July 29, 2016

DUI Driver Shuts Down BART Service

by Michael Kraut

Accidents involving drivers DUI in Los Angeles can snarl highways and city streets, resulting in backups that prevent motorists from reaching their destinations for hours. Involve a mass transit system like BART in a DUI crash, and the potential for transportation headaches gets even larger.

Opara Maurice Green crashed through a crossing gate and ended up running his 2006 Toyota truck onto BART’s tracks in West Oakland around 7:40 p.m. on Wednesday, July 20th. Green was lucky; the operator of a San Francisco-bound BART train was able to stop before hitting the truck. (Fortunately, no passengers suffered injuries in the unscheduled rapid stop.)

June 6, 2016

Terrifying Highway Encounter: Unlicensed DUI Teen Leads Police on High Speed Chase

by Michael Kraut

A growing number of drivers charged with DUI in Los Angeles and throughout California have been accused of operating under the influence of some drug other than alcohol. In one recent case in Los Banos, California, police arrested a young driver and charged him with operating under the influence of marijuana.

On Friday, May 28th, Los Banos police officers investigating a crash on Dove Street at Highway 165 called on the California Highway Patrol for assistance. According to the Merced Sun Star, a Los Banos officer had pulled over a 1998 Ford Windstar after he saw it swerving on the road. The driver did pull over and opened the sliding door of the vehicle, but then took off at high speed. The officer, who said the vehicle smelled strongly of pot, pursued the vehicle for a short distance, but it drove into an irrigation ditch and hit a dirt embankment.

May 2, 2016

More Restrictions on DUI Drivers In Free State

by Michael Kraut

Since the passage of AB 91 in 2010, California has required all drivers convicted of DUI in Los Angeles, Alameda, Sacramento and Tulare Counties to install ignition interlock devices (IIDs) in their vehicles if they want to qualify for a restricted driving license. Mothers Against Drunk Driving has supported this effort and similar policies adopted by other states.

Now Maryland legislators have passed their own version of the IID law. In their 2016 session, which ended in mid-April, Maryland legislators unanimously adopted Noah’s Law, named in honor of a Montgomery County police officer struck and killed by a drunk driver last December. Ironically, Officer Noah Leotta was working at a sobriety checkpoint at the time.

The new law will apply to anyone, including first-time offenders, who have a blood alcohol content of 0.08 or higher. They’ll need to keep the IID for six months or lose their license. Anyone who refuses a breathalyzer test at the time of arrest will have to install the IID for nine months after conviction or give up their driving privileges for that time.

April 20, 2016

Navy Hero [Who Claims He Killed Osama Bin Laden] Gets Nabbed For DUI

by Michael Kraut

Police officers are not selective about who they arrest for DUI in Los Angeles and other cities. Celebrity, political figures—even people who have distinguished themselves for their courageous actions—may find themselves facing these charges.

According to media reports, former Navy SEAL Rob O’Neill faces DUI charges in Montana after police officers in Butte-Silver Bow County found him passed out in a car in the parking lot of a convenience store. O’Neill claimed that he was the person who killed Osama bin Laden when the Navy Seals cornered him in a house in Pakistan.

April 13, 2016

Will 13th Strike Finally Get DUI Driver Out?

by Michael Kraut

Everyone knows that in baseball the rule is three strikes, and you’re out of the game. But life isn’t always like baseball, and drivers convicted multiple times of DUI in Los Angeles often get behind the wheel and pose threats to others. Of course, California isn’t the only state with this problem, as illustrated by a recent incident in Denham Springs, Louisiana.

Before March 19th, 53-year old Jeffrey Blough had managed to rack up 11 DWI arrests and eight DWI convictions between 1983 and 2016. He had served time in jail and in prison, and he was on probation for one of those DWI offenses, when he crashed his Black Suburban into another vehicle while driving in Denham Springs. Police arrested him for DUI and took him to the station. Somehow, though, they did not pick up the fact that he had a long history of similar offenses and convictions. They let him go after charging him.

March 14, 2016

DUI Driver on Probation After Sending 2 Men into Ravine Goes Back to Jail

by Michael Kraut

Most people who spent time in prison after a conviction for a Los Angeles DUI would try to do everything they could to avoid going back behind bars. But one woman in Maryland wasn’t willing (or able) to take advantage of her opportunity to remain free.

The Washington Post reported that a judge is sending 40-year-old Kelli Loos back to jail–at least temporarily–after she violated her probation in a 2009 DUI conviction by trying to drive while she was under the influence of alcohol.

Loos allegedly had a BAC of 0.20–more than twice the legal limit–when she slammed into a vehicle carrying Gradys Mendoza and Franklin Manzanares in July 2009. The impact sent their vehicle flying over a guardrail and down into a 60-foot ravine, killing both men. Loos, apparently oblivious, continued driving until she had another accident in Virginia that brought her to a halt.

After Loos pleaded guilty to two counts of vehicular manslaughter and one count of leaving the scene of an accident, a judge sentenced her to 20 years in jail. Loos got out on probation after serving four years of her sentence. But before Loos could drive again, she had to get an ignition interlock device installed on her vehicle. Prosecutors brought her back into court on parole violation charges after the IID registered at least three occasions on which Loos tried to drive while under the influence.

March 9, 2016

Town Wants to Fire Highway Superintendent After His DUI

by Michael Kraut

Elected officials convicted of crimes–like a DUI in Los Angeles–frequently end up resigning their positions due to their constituents’ disapproval of their actions. But others hold onto their jobs, despite the public outcry. The only recourse that citizens usually have is to vote them out during the next election.

But the town of Scriba, New York, is taking a different tack when it comes to their new highway superintendent. They’re hoping to replace the elected position with an appointed one and in the process rid themselves of the current holder of that position, Michael Barry. The officials are planning to hold a special election to make that change in the current law; if it passes, they’ll dump Barry and appoint someone new in his place. After that, the officials say they’ll go through the whole special election process again to change the position back to an elected one.