A Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officer has been charged with driving while impaired after a Union County traffic stop on New Year’s Eve. State troopers said 44-year-old Matthew Thompson was driving his Ford Explorer at around 6 p.m. Monday when he was stopped for swerving.
Read more: http://www.dailyadvance.com/ap/staten/charlotte-officer-charged-new-years-eve-dwi-1630195 2015-02-18
As someone recently arrested for a Los Angeles DUI, you may find it instructive to read about the heartbreaking case of former Marine sergeant, Jared Hale, who was just sentenced for a causing a deadly DUI crash in 2012. Hale served at Camp Pendleton; he had been driving with three friends when he crashed the vehicle at Dana Point. All passengers suffered fatal injuries.
The Marines had all been in their early 20s at the time of the crash, and according to case reports, they had all been drinking at Hennessey’s Tavern, a local watering hole. Hale was supposed to be the designated driver that night, but reports say that he ended up with a BAC level of .18% — more than twice California’s legal limit.
The court denied Hale an alternative sentence, including treatment time in lieu of prison. Hale’s attorney argued that his drinking had been a clumsy attempt at self-medicating. Therapists had diagnosed him with post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of his experiences in Sangin, Afghanistan. His lawyer cited a state law that asks courts to take into consideration whether military related injury or trauma might have indirectly or directly influenced bad decision making or behavior.
The presiding judge responded that, although Hale’s case was unfortunate, “the court does not find his story plausible or believable.” Hale will be serving an 11-year jail sentence.
Crashes that involve alcohol are considered aggravated DUI in California. When someone dies as a result of a crash that involved intoxication, authorities may seek different charges. Police reports can play a vital role in determining which charges are brought against an individual. A DUI attorney will also conduct an investigation of charges in a deadly DUI crash, which is why securing representation early is an important step to protect your rights. If you or someone you love faces a deadly DUI crash charge, obtaining key evidence early could help exonerate you or help you plead down to lesser charges.
Do you need assistance constructing an appropriate response to a DUI charge? Look to the Kraut Law Group’s Michael Kraut for insight and peace of mind. Mr. Kraut is an experienced Los Angeles DUI attorney with many relevant connections in the local legal community.
If police stopped you for Los Angeles DUI, you may be worried and anxious. Contact Harvard Law School educated, ex-prosecutor Michael Kraut for assistance at (323) 464-6453 or online. Our team is located at 6255 Sunset Boulevard, Suite 1480, Los Angeles, California 90028.
Super Bowl Sunday is an unofficial holiday here in the United States, and as a result, many people take the liberty of enjoying some beers during the biggest football game on the planet. Unfortunately, this can lead to some unfortunate events during Super Bowl Sunday, such as people consuming alcohol and then getting behind the wheel of a car.
In past years in Minnesota, the DUI numbers have not been pretty on Super Bowl Sunday. For example, since 2010, an average of 190 people have been arrested for drinking and driving on Super Bowl Sunday. However, this year it was a much different story.
Only 65 people were arrested for driving under the influence on Super Bowl Sunday, a marked decline from the average numbers posted since 2010. It's also part of a fantastic trend in the state of Minnesota regarding drunk driving overall. 2014 saw about 1,500 fewer DUI arrests than 2013. Public awareness campaigns and the reception by our state's great citizens has led to a dramatic drop in the number of drunk driving cases.
And yet, no amount of public awareness or public knowledge will ever truly eliminate drunk driving from our state. There will always be mistakes made by people who simply have a little too much to drink, think they are okay to drive, and then do so.
While acknowledging this reality, it's also important to acknowledge that people who are accused of drunk driving have rights, and that they are innocent until proven guilty.Â
Source: WCCO, "Super Bowl Drunk Driving Arrests Down Significantly In Minnesota," Feb. 2, 2015
Tags: Drunk Driving Charges
New Year’s Eve witnesses more than its fair share of Los Angeles DUI arrests.
Between 2002 and 2008, at least 140 people were killed in DUI crashes on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. In fact, 42% of traffic-related deaths during New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day are consistently related to DUIs. This statistic includes intoxicated pedestrians who inadvertently walk in front of cars.
Russ Rader of the Institute for Highway Safety cited New Year’s as “the worst day for impaired drivers” in a recent article. In fact, half of fatal New Year’s crashes involve a driver who is DUI. Statistics have only increased since this article was written in 2011, with one person killed every half hour due to DUI and one person injured every minute. These statistics also tend to skyrocket after midnight on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, when people are likely traveling home from celebrations.
In recent years, Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) found that, out of the 300,000 people who receive DUI charges every day including New Year’s, 4,000 or fewer wind up arrested. MADD also reports that over half of high school sophomores admit to drinking alcohol. Thus, parents should be particularly vigilant about their teens’ consumption during the holiday season.
To avoid DUI fatalities and harsh sentencing, people should limit their alcohol consumption over the holidays. A good rule might be one drink per party, or perhaps two if glasses are less than standard size. Sober drivers should always be designated before parties, and everyone should have the number of a cab company (or Uber app) saved in his or her cell phone.
Teenagers should not drink at all during the holiday season or otherwise. If a teen suspects that party drinks have been spiked, he or she should seek help from an adult chaperone. Teens should never leave their drinks unattended. They should also educate themselves on the signs and symptoms of alcohol poisoning and call 911 if they suspect poisoning has occurred.
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.
If you’ve been arrested for driving under the influence in Los Angeles, contact former-prosecutor Michael Kraut for assistance at (323) 464-6453 or online. Our team is located at 6255 Sunset Boulevard, Suite 1480, Los Angeles, California 90028.
The California Highway Patrol is reporting that drunk driving arrests in Los Angeles County as well as throughout California have more than doubled during this past New Year’s holiday as compared with last year’s.
The numbers, however, are a little misleading since last year’s New Year’s crackdown included two less days than this year.
This past New Year’s crackdown lasted from 6:01 pm on December 31st to 6:00 am on Sunday, January 4th. During that time, CHP officers in Los Angeles County made 219 arrests. Last year, Los Angeles County saw less than half of this year’s numbers with a total of 104 DUI arrests.
Throughout California, CHP made 1,072 arrests over the New Year’s holiday period. This number also more than double from last year’s 457 arrests during the same period.
Bear in mind that the numbers from this year are actually fairly comparable to last year’s.
Unfortunately, California saw 14 deaths during the 84 hour period. Even though last year’s period was two days shorter, it saw the same number of deaths as this year. Los Angeles County suffered two of the 14 deaths this year. Last year it only saw one.
These numbers only reflect those arrests made by the CHP, not other law enforcement agencies
In the five days leading up to New Year’s, police across Colorado arrested 164 people as of yesterday afternoon.
Read more.
2015-01-06
I don’t mean to sound like a broken record, but the holidays are not over and law enforcement will be out in full force this New Years to catch drunk drivers who are bringing in the New Year with a little too much to drink.
Throughout Southern California, law enforcement will increase saturation patrols and DUI checkpoints in high traffic areas.
Just as was the case with Christmas, my suggestions are the same:
- Find a designated driver.
- Use public transportation.
- Plan to stay the night.
- Don’t drink.
However, with New Years, the Automobile Club of Southern California is offering its free “Tipsy Tow” service.
From 6pm on Wednesday, December 31st to 6am on New Year’s Day, motorists, bartenders, party hosts, or passengers can call 1-800-400-4AAA for a free ride and tow home for up to seven miles. An Automobile Club contracted roadside tow service will be dispatched to take the would-be driver and their vehicle home.
“Drivers should be aware of the high crash risk from drinking and driving associated with holidays, and we encourage them not to get behind the wheel if they’ve been drinking,” said the Auto Club’s senior traffic safety researcher Steve Bloch.
People often opt to drive home after drinking rather than other transportation option because they don’t want to leave their vehicle behind. Tipsy Tow, however, is unique in that it transports both the driver and their vehicle.
The service does not include rides for passengers. And any person who receives a ride further than the seven miles can expect to pay the rate charged by the tow company.
Don’t bring in the New Year with a California DUI. Be safe and find an alternative ride home.
Happy New Years!
Annie Dookhan, a former forensic chemist at a state forensic laboratory in Massachusetts, pleaded guilty to 27 counts of falsifying test results, misleading investigators, and tampering with evidence. She was sentenced this week to 3-5 years in prison. followed by 2 years of probation. In the course of her career she filed reports in approximately 40,000 criminal cases, which are now under review.
This is an extreme case, but it highlights the need for defense lawyers to carefully scrutinize state police laboratory results and methods to uncover mistakes resulting from incompetence, negligence, and fraud in criminal cases. Newpaper stories are replete with cases of laboratory mistakes that have resulted in erroneous convictions.
The amicus brief filed by the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and the National College for DUI defense in Bullcoming v. New Mexico, co-written by Leonard R. Stamm said:
"Forensic evidence is not uniquely immune from the risk of manipulation." Melendez-Diaz, 129 S. Ct. at 2536. The recent report by the National Research Council of the National Academies, Strengthening Forensic Sciences in the United States: a Path Forward (2009) (NAS Report), confirmed what defense lawyers have long known: because forensic analysis is a product of human discretion, it is vulnerable to incompetence, error and sometimes even fraud. See also Solomon Moore, Science Found Wanting in Nation's Crime Labs, N.Y. Times, Feb. 5, 2009, available at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/05/us/05forensics.html (last visited Dec. 1, 2010). As the NAS Report revealed, forensic analyses "are often handled by poorly trained technicians who then exaggerate the accuracy of their methods in court." Id. The NAS Report verifies that forensic science is anything but infallible, and is instead fraught by very human errors leading to problems such as sample contamination and inaccurate reports. Id.
The brief also listed some cases that made news in DUI cases:
A few recent incidents in DUI cases around the country show that blood analysis identical to the type used in Bullcoming is vulnerable to error or even fraud. For example, a recent investigation conducted by the Colorado Springs Police Department's Metro Crime Lab discovered 206 false high blood alcohol tests in 2007 and 2009 alone, all attributable to a single chemist. John Ensslin, Final tally on flawed DUI: 206 errors, 9 tossed or reduced, Colo. Springs Gazette, Apr. 19, 2010, available at www.gazette.com/articles/report-97354-police-discuss.html (last visited on Nov. 26, 2010). Nine DUI convictions were dismissed as a result, but it is impossible to know how many individuals were erroneously convicted. Id. The investigation revealed that a particular chemist had inserted low levels of n-propanol into many of her blood samples, resulting in a correspondingly higher calculation for the ethanol levels in the samples.Anthony Lane, Unsolved Mysteries in the CSPD's Crime Lab, Colo. Springs Indep., Apr. 19, 2010, available at http://www.csindy.com/colorado/unsolvedmysteries/content?oid=1699431 (last visited on Nov. 27, 2010). Yet "going back to 2002, supervisors consistently rated [the chemist] as 'effective' or 'excellent,' with no hint of problems." Id. The improper addition of the internal standard could have been discovered through cross-examination. Other instances of ethanol testing errors have been reported in the press. For example, in Tooele County, Utah, a driver who had consumed no alcohol was reported to have a 0.19 blood alcohol level. Retesting produced 0.00 results. Subsequent review showed that the analyst had improperly transposed numbers, resulting in the erroneous reading. Nicole Gonzales & Marc Giauque, Homicide Charge Dropped Following Blood Test Mistake, Jan. 28, 2009, available at http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=5442828 (last visited on Nov. 24, 2010).In Washington State, the supervisor of the State Police toxicology laboratory was found to have falsified certifications that she had tested solutions used to calibrate and test breath alcohol machines. Other individuals in the laboratory covered up the fraud. City of Seattle v. Holifield, No. 83277-3, 2010 WL 4008889 (Wash. Oct. 14, 2010); see also Tracy Johnson& Daniel Lathrop, Allegations May Cast Cloud Over DUI Cases: State lab manager quits after she is accused of signing false statements, Jul. 31, 2007, available at http://www.seattlepi.com/local/325706_dui31.html (last visited on Nov. 25, 2010). See alsoJaxon Van Derbeken, Lab Employee to Take the 5th in Alesia and Tim Evans, Toxicology gaffes likely to affect cases, Dec. 6, 2010, available at http://wap.indystar.com/detail.jsp?key=774876&rc=th&full=1 (last visited on Dec. 6, 2010).
Forensic lab errors have resulted in imprisonment in many serious criminal cases. The Innocence Project lists 311 DNA exonerations since 1989, about half of which are attributable to errors in forensic science. See http://www.innocenceproject.org/Content/DNA_Exonerations_Nationwide.php.
If you are facing criminal or traffic charges in Maryland state or federal court, call Leonard R. Stamm of Goldstein & Stamm, P.A. at 301-345-0122 for a free consultation.
Leonard R. Stamm
Goldstein & Stamm, P.A.
6301 Ivy Lane, Suite 504
Greenbelt, MD 20770
301-345-0122
(fax) 301-441-4652
www.dwiattorneymaryland.com
www.marylandduilawyer-blog.com
marylandduilaw@gmail.com
Author: West's Maryland DUI Law
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A Tampa Bay resident who has reportedly been a binge drinker for more than 30 years has somehow survived long enough to tally his ninth DUI conviction, according to an incredible report from the Tampa Bay Times.
And a Florida judge who had little sympathy for a man with a clear disease has sentenced him to 10 years in prison for his latest brush with the law, in which the man was caught driving drunk despite the fact that his license had been permanently revoke.
According to sources, 48-year-old James Vernon Smith pleaded with Judge Kimberly Fernandez for mercy before she announced his sentence.
Wearing an orange jumpsuit and clad in shackles around his wrists and ankles, Smith asked the judge not to throw him in jail, and claimed, “I’m more than just a drunk. I’m a son, I’m a brother, I’m a father and there’s still good left in me.”
Despite this plea, Judge Fernandez said the man’s conduct “simply demonstrates a flagrant disregard for the law,” which led to her decision to levy a 10-year jail sentence and five years or probation.
After he is released from jail, Smith will also receive psychiatric and alcohol evaluations, although his DUI lawyer argued that Smith should receive more treatment immediately, rather than jail time.
In the words of Smith’s attorney, the “reality is that he will go sit in a prison cell for the next eight years and he won’t receive the help he needs.”
The attorney also observed that a mental health counselor employed by the state said that Smith suffers from several mental disorders which went undiagnosed until last week but have had a significant impact on Smith’s behavior.
In fact, the mental health counselor also observed that Smith’s mental illnesses likely contributed to his binge drinking, and that the man needs serious psychiatric help in order to remedy his problems.
While the judge listened respectfully to the lawyer’s arguments, she was ultimately swayed by the extreme disregard for DUI laws displayed by Smith, and decided that a more severe punishment was warranted.
In addition to his time in jail, Smith will also be required to perform up to 100 hours of community service and he will have to give speeches to younger people about the dangers of driving while intoxicated.
Sources say that Smith lives in Louisiana and works an underwater welder. He also has two daughters who live in Florida.
Racecar legend Al Unser Jr., who is the youngest member of the iconic Unser racing family, was convicted for his second DUI in less than five years, according to a report from the Los Angeles Times.
Unser, who has won the Indianapolis 500 twice, pled guilty this week to Albuquerque prosecutors’ charges that he was drag racing while intoxicated during an incident last September.
During that incident, New Mexico state police saw Unser, who was driving a 2011 Chevrolet Suburban, racing another car on a state highway at roughly 3 a.m. The two cars were traveling at speeds of more than 100 mph in a 60 mph zone, according to the police report.
While the other car evaded police, officers eventually caught Unser, who had a blood alcohol level that was twice the legal limit. Sources say that, when police arrested him, Unser lamented that they had “caught the slower driver.”
Sources suggest that Unser pled guilty to a few lesser counts in order to avoid being tried for charges of aggravated DUI and reckless driving.
As part of his plea agreement, Unser was sentenced to three months in jail, but a friendly judge reduced this sentence to a year of supervised probation. As a result, Unser will remain a free man, but he will have to report frequently to his probation officer.
The 49-year-old racecar driver was lucky to avoid jail time after being convicted for his second DUI, especially given the extreme nature of his arrest. Speeding down a road at 100 mph while drunk is often a ticket to extended jail time.
In 2007, Unser was involved in a crash on another New Mexico freeway after which police discovered that his blood alcohol level was three times the legal limit.
After this accident, Unser lost his driver’s license for 90 days, paid a $1,000 fine, and attended a few classes that discussed the perils of drunk driving.
Not surprisingly, some observers are upset with what they perceive as preferential treatment for Unser, whose family is from Albuquerque and considered local racecar royalty.
According to Anna Duerr, a spokeswoman for Mothers Against Drunk Driving, “[c]elebrities and sports figures need to be treated just like any other driver” because drunk drivers “kill 10,000 people each year and injure 350,000.”
In response, the DUI attorney for Unser says that his client has apologized for his poor judgment and is “taking steps to make sure it doesn’t happen again.” Of course, an attorney for Unser made a similar statement after the incident in 2007.
Former Massachusetts State Senator Dianne Wilkerson has been sentenced to serve 3 1 years in state prison for accepting $23,500 in bribes. Wilkerson had pleaded guilty to criminal charges of eight counts of attempted extortion last year.
In 2008, she was caught inserting $100 bills in her bra as part of a kickback scam. Wilkerson was accused of taking eight cash payments between 2007 and 2008 from undercover agents and a witness who was secretly working with the FBI. The former state senator was captured on approximately 150 video and audio recordings saying she was going to use some of the money at a casino, as well as to embark upon a sticker campaign in the wake of losing the 2008 Democratic primary.
While prosecutors had pushed for Wilkerson be sentenced to four years in prison, her legal team had argued for less time. The sentence that Wilkerson received is in line with federal sentencing guidelines.
The former state senator, who has been ordered to turn herself in on March 11 so she can start serving her federal prison term, said today that the believes that she was pursued by corrupt federal prosecutors who didn’t like the fact that she was among the politicians that challenged the status quo. Originally, Wilkerson had faced 32 charges of allegedly taking bribes, but the government agreed to drop 24 of the criminal charges. Mail fraud and wire fraud and conspiring to extort cash were among the charges.
Wilkerson sentenced to 3 1/2 years in corruption case, Boston.com, January 6, 2011
Wilkerson guilty of attempted extortion; prosecutors recommend up to 4 years, Boston.com, June 3, 2010
Related Web Resources:
White-Collar Crime, Federal Bureau of Investigation
White-Collar Crime: an overview, Cornell University Law School
Having an experienced Boston white-collar crime lawyer representing you can greatly affect the outcome of your criminal case for the better. Your Massachusetts criminal defense attorney can help win a not guilty verdict or negotiate a successful plea agreement for you. He or she may also be able to get the charges against you dropped or your sentence reduced.