Tim Jennings of the Chicago Bears Nabbed for DUI While Speeding

The Los Angeles DUI community (and the rest of the country) may be focused on the NFL playoffs, but football fans have been temporarily distracted by yet another NFL DUI arrest.

Police say that Tim Jennings, a member of the Chicago Bears, had been speeding while DUI – he allegedly had been zipping along at 99 mph on a 65 mph highway in Georgia. The trooper that pulled him over said that Jennings had alcohol on his breath and that his eyes were a little red. Jennings admitted to the officer that he had consumed alcohol but had waited nearly ten hours before getting behind the wheel.

Jennings refused both a field sobriety test and a breathalyzer. The officer reported that the football star laughed through questioning and told him that he had been speeding to attend a parent-teacher conference.

In California, excessive speeding can lead to more complicated DUI charges. Calfornia law defines the crime of “driving recklessly” but leaves some ambiguity about what actually constitutes recklessness. Driving 20 to 30 mph over the speed limit will likely net you a “driving recklessly” charge, which can lead to harsher sentences, more jail time and longer license suspension.

Research confirms intuition: speeding is very dangerous. For every ten miles per hour increase after 55 mph, the average vehicle requires an additional hundred feet to make an emergency stop. Jennings, for instance, would have needed a football field’s extra space to avoid an accident.

Fleeing the scene of a DUI hit-and-run accident — especially after causing damage to property or hurting someone else — can result in a maximum sentence of ten years in prison. But even if police stopped you for a standard misdemeanor DUI, you could face diverse punishments, including jail time, mandatory installation of an interlock ignition device in your car, spikes in your insurance premiums, loss of your license and intense probationary terms.

Respond strategically to your arrest and charges by calling a former Senior Deputy D.A. and highly successful Los Angeles DUI defense attorney with the Kraut Law Group today for a complimentary consultation.

Did you get arrested for a DUI in Los Angeles? If so, contact Los Angeles criminal defense attorney Michael Kraut for assistance by phone at (323) 464-6453 or online. We’re located at 6255 Sunset Boulevard, Suite 1480, Los Angeles, California 90028.

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Chicago Driver Arrested After Trying to Bribe his way out of DUI

By guest-writer

A Chicago driver made life a bit more difficult for himself after he made an unsuccessful attempt to bribe his way out of a DUI arrest, according to a recent report from the Chicago Tribune.

Of course, trying to bribe the police officer may not have been the dumbest move Martin Johnson made on that fateful night.

Sources say that Johnson was arrested after allegedly speeding past a police station while under the influence of alcohol. When police finally caught up to his car, a brief search of the vehicle revealed that Johnson had an open bottle of liquor in the front seat.

Then things got really interesting. According to the police report, after the police pulled him over, Johnson said, “I’ll give you $5,000 if you’ll let me go.”

In response, one of the officers asked Johnson where he planned to get the money, at which point he handed over a flash drive and told the police officers to look into it.

When the police later went through the flash drive, they were surprised to discover extensive lists of credit card numbers, Social Security identities, and other types of sensitive financial information.

When the police asked Johnson where he had obtained the information, he finally made a wise choice, and simply told them to “talk to my lawyer.”

For his actions, Johnson will be charged with one count of bribery, one count of driving under the influence, and another county of driving on a revoked license.

Remarkably, Johnson has been arrested eight times since 2001 for driving with a revoked license, so he may be facing an eventual permanent driving ban if he finds the right judge.

In addition, Johnson has also been arrested for a DUI three times before. These arrests occurred in 2001, 2003, and 2006, according to a spokesman for the Illinois Secretary of State’s office.

And Johnson could face further charges stemming from his possession of all the financial information on the flash drive, although police authorities have not yet decided what they will charge him with.

The lesson other drivers can learn from Johnson’s mishap is that, if you are arrested for a DUI, it’s in your best interests to simply be a good sport and not give the police officers any trouble.

Attempts to bribe the police or escape from them altogether almost never have happy endings, and only compound the legal troubles that the arrestee will eventually face.

View the original article here

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Chicago DUI Accident Kills Law Student at Northwestern University

By guest-writer
The tragic death of a law student at Northwestern University has led to drunk driving charges for a 21-year-old Illinois man who allegedly struck the student with his vehicle at a Chicago street corner.
Last week, the Chicago Tribune reported that Bianca Garcia struck 32-year-old Jesse Bradley while he was walking in Chicago’s Old Town neighborhood, apparently in an effort to seek a late-night snack.
Sources say that Bradley was walking across a crosswalk on LaSalle Street when Garcia’s Jeep Liberty ran directly into him at about 2:30 a.m. on a Sunday morning. Doctors at Northwestern Memorial Hospital declared Bradley dead at 2:54 a.m.
After the accident, Garcia reportedly fled the scene of the accident by driving the wrong way down a one-way street, but police officers pulled her Jeep over a few minutes after the collision.
Police officers were suspicious of the car because it had serious damage to its front end, including a missing headlight, and there was a significant amount of smoke coming from the engine compartment, according to the police report.
After police pulled her over, Garcia refused to submit to a field sobriety test or a breathalyzer test, but this did not prevent Chicago prosecutors from bringing DUI charges against her.
Sources indicate that Garcia has been charged with felony aggravated DUI, misdemeanor DUI, and misdemeanor reckless driving. Police also cited her for driving the wrong way on a one-way street, and for driving with a license.
After the accident, Garcia decline medical attention, but sources say that she eventually was treated for injuries, along with a 20-year-old woman who was riding in the backseat of the Jeep, at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
Sadly, Bradley was beyond the point where treatment would help. According to the Chicago Tribune, Bradley had taken a semester off from law school, but was planning to complete his degree this summer before pursuing a career in corporate law.
As he awaited the completion of his degree, Bradley had taken a part-time job at a local Starbucks, which was partially due to his self-admitted addiction to coffee. Bradley had lived in Chicago for about five years.
In a recent interview, Bradley’s sister expressed feelings that were shared by the rest of his family. In her words, “it’s just bizarre. It really shows you how life can change in an instant. He was healthy. He was living. And he died. He should not have died at 32.”

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