Driving Under the Influence

April 3, 2013

Finding Empowerment After Your Burbank DUI

Your recent Burbank DUI arrest has proven to you, beyond all doubt, one thing: namely, that you are powerless over the effects of alcohol.

Or at least so you believe.

Narcotics, alcohol, and other substances can cause otherwise rational, compassionate, good citizens to engage in all sorts of wild and destructive behavior. The Jeckyl and Hyde nature of addiction has led to the creation of many myths about what alcoholism really is, what addiction is, what causes these problems, and what potentially has the chance to treat them.

According to Dr. Lance Dodes, a Harvard University addiction specialist, some of the ways in which we think about alcoholism (and thus Burbank DUI treatment) may be misguided. For instance, Dr. Dodes argues that the nearly universal advice given to addicts — to admit that you are “powerless” over alcohol — may do more harm than good. Dr. Dodes’s alternative thesis about addiction argues that addictive/compulsive acts are often attempts to reassert autonomy during bouts of helplessness.

For instance, addicts often feel better the moment they make the decision to have a drink or engage in other types of impulsive behavior — as opposed to when a particular substance hits their bloodstream.

The decision itself seems to have the calming effect. This implies that root cause is psychological as opposed to physiological.

Likewise, Dr. Dodes sites the fact that the soldiers in the Vietnam War had extremely high heroin abuse rates. But when these soldiers came back home, the vast majority of them managed to quit heroin easily and simply — an extremely low recidivism rate that could not be duplicated in domestic patient populations.

This suggests that something about the war itself was driving the men to use heroin — again, implicating psychological as opposed to physiological impulses.

A Burbank DUI defendant might do well at least consider this alternative perspective.

What drives you to make bad decisions? What are the thoughts that run through your mind prior to your making the decision, for instance, to take a drink or smoke marijuana or engage in other compulsive behavior? Are they thoughts along the lines of “I hate my job, I’m frustrated with my marriage, I’m angry because some guy cut me off in traffic, etc.”?

If so, perhaps you might find it resourceful to reflect on those potential triggers and find ways to empower yourself differently.

Of course, on the practical side, you also need to deal with your Los Angeles DUI defense. Connect with the team here at the Kraut Law Group Criminal & DUI Lawyers, Inc. for attentive, thorough, and decisive help with your Burbank DUI defense.

March 25, 2013

Not a Good Adventure for Bonaventura: Constable Charged With DUI… Implications for Your Los Angeles DUI Defense?

by Michael Kraut

As someone who was recently arrested and charged with driving under the influence in Los Angeles, you’re feeling pretty sheepish and scared and regretful.

You wish you had use more common sense — handed the keys to a friend or associate or just cabbed it home. As much as you want to take responsibility for events — and speak with an experienced Los Angeles DUI attorney, ASAP — appreciate that you’re not the first person who’s ever been in this compromised position.

Plenty of other, normally law abiding folks get into DUI trouble in Los Angeles all the time. In fact, if you’ve been following our blog for any length of time, you’ve read endless accounts of celebrities, sport stars, politicians, and even legislators who’ve been busted for DUI.

Even police officers get in trouble for the crime!

Case in point. Consider the sad story of 50-year old John M. Bonaventura, the head of the Constable’s Office for Las Vegas Township. A Nevada highway trooper pulled over Bonaventura on US 95 near Boulder Highway, after he saw the “official constable vehicle” driving pell-mell all over the freeway.

Bonaventura’s speeding and DUI charges are actually just the tip of the iceberg.

Commissioners for Clark County (the home of Las Vegas — a.k.a. the “City of Sin”) are about ready to abolish the entire Constable’s office, which employs over 20 deputies. These officials perform work ranging from serving paperwork to evicting people. According to a local paper, the Las Vegas Review Journal, critics have hammered the Constable’s office for “creative accounting practices that circumvent county oversight, as well as for filming a profanity-laced pilot for a reality television show.” (quote from an AP article)

Perhaps the deputies were jealous of the modern day Keystone Cops on Reno 911. Maybe they didn’t realize that that show is actually a fictional comedy.

On a more serious note, as a Los Angeles DUI defendant, you may or may not have been negatively affected by police errors or bad police behavior. The vast majority of officers in Los Angeles County are hardworking and fair. Yet you should pull out all the stops during your Los Angeles DUI defense — investigate any angle that could lead to a reduction in your sentence or a dismissal of the charges.

Of course, this is no small task, even for experienced attorneys. Fortunately, you can turn to former city prosecutor Michael Kraut and his team at the Kraut Law Group Criminal & DUI Lawyers, Inc. in Los Angeles for adept, thorough, and insightful guidance on your case.

Mr. Kraut has a special vantage on L.A. DUI cases because he served for nearly a decade and a half as a prosecutor. He maintains good relationships with his old prosecutorial colleagues as well as with other key people in the system.

March 15, 2013

Did You Try to Bribe Your Way Out of Your Los Angeles DUI? Hopefully Not! Look What Happened to This 24-Year Old…

by Michael Kraut

When you got pulled over on suspicion of driving under the influence in Long Beach, you felt terrible and scared.

You can be forgiven if you allowed yourself to envision doing “something, anything” to escape the charges, the humiliation, and the punishment. But there is a difference between thinking such thoughts (e.g. “if I hightail it out of here, I could reach the Mexico border by sunrise!”) and actually ACTING on them.

Unfortunately, sometimes when we’re extremely intoxicated or nervous, we can act impulsively on not-so-smart thoughts.

Consider, for instance, the following recent New York City DUI debacle. A 24-year old resident slammed his car into a mailbox in Lower Southampton. Witnesses saw the vehicle driving without its lights on in the middle of the night. When police finally pulled the young man over, he was “slumped in the seat and looked upset when he saw the authorities who stopped him.” The police tried to put him through the paces of a field sobriety test, but “he failed them all” and didn’t even “lift his feet off the ground when [the police] asked him to.”

After police arrested the man and took him into custody, he still failed to cooperate.

He later blew a 0.18% on a breath test (well over two times the legal limit for Long Beach DUI) and agreed to do a blood test at St. Mary Medical Center. But then he recanted and decided not to give blood. Finally, he was thrown back into police vehicle and taken to a station in Lower Southampton, where he shouted at a police officer and even bribed him with $1,000 to let him go.

Ultimately, police showered him with a litany of charges, including hit and run, property damage, DUI and refusal. His parents later picked him up at the station.

When you read a story like this, you probably feel some compassion. Unfortunately, many Long Beach DUI defendants do not get nearly enough empathy from society, from prosecutors, from bosses and colleagues, and even from spouses and family members.

You’ve been through a tremendous amount. You’d really like someone to listen to your concerns and help you develop a battle plan to fight back against the Long Beach DUI charges.

Look to the experienced team here at the Kraut Law Group Criminal & DUI Lawyers, Inc. to help you get a handle on your Long Beach DUI defense, and to move beyond this difficult and unexpected chapter in your life.

March 11, 2013

Parallels Between Your Long Beach DUI Arrest and the Meteorite That Blew Up Over Russia’s Ural Mountains

by Michael Kraut

Why on Earth would you want to waste time reading or thinking about a meteorite explosion, when you have a serious Long Beach DUI charge on your hands, and your freedom and future literally hang in the balance?

There’s a good reason why.

Many defendants, who face charges like driving under the influence in Long Beach, never take the time to process what they go through. As a result, they often make impetuous decisions that backfire, or they fail to “get into gear” early enough in the process. The end result is the same: driver’s license suspension, jail time, harsh probation terms, and worse.

Point is, you really need to take time to process what’s happened to you and come up with new ways to think resourcefully about your situation. Your DUI event was very disruptive and totally unexpected. No one starts off a day saying “I think I’m going go out and get into a Long Beach DUI accident tonight.” Accidents and DUI checkpoint arrests happen totally out of the blue.

Likewise, the meteorite that exploded over the city of Chelyabinsk, Russia in the Ural Mountains on February 15 was totally unexpected. The blast literally shocked the world. (Curiously, the event happened around the same time as a 130,000 ton asteroid zipped by the Earth — nipping our whiskers at just 17,000 miles distance). The fireball nevertheless created a mini-disaster, injuring 1,100 people or so (mostly due to glass blown out from the explosion) and damaging 3,000 area buildings.

Russia — and the rest of the world, actually — got lucky.

Had the meteorite gone slightly off course, it could have exploded over nearby nuclear weapons plants or chemical weapons facilities and thus either set off another Chernobyl-type disaster or caused toxic agents to be released en masse into the atmosphere.

Your Long Beach DUI event was very similar to a meteorite strike — it was unexpected and unwanted, and it’s left you dazed and feeling out of control.

To regain some control and perspective, get in touch with the Kraut Law Group Criminal & DUI Lawyers, Inc. today. Michael Kraut is a highly reputable, widely respected ex-prosecutor who now works as a Long Beach DUI defense lawyer. He and his associates can help you respond knowledgably to your crisis and build a sound and structured defense.

February 27, 2013

Reduce Your Risk of Burbank DUI by Reducing Your Commuting Time!

by Michael Kraut

Ever since you got arrested for driving under the influence in Burbank, you’ve been racking your brain. How should you handle your case? How can avoid ever again experiencing the humiliation of getting arrested? Here’s an intriguing and potentially hugely useful (over the long term) strategy for shielding yourself from further trouble:

Slice down your commuting time.

Whether you live in the Valley and commute to Sony to work on a production lot, or vice versa; you probably spend far too much time in your car stuck in traffic jams on the 101 or 134. You already hate driving, the entertaining DJs on KROQ notwithstanding. Statistically speaking, the more time you spend on the roads, the more likely it is that you will be involved in a Burbank DUI accident, either as a victim or as a wrongdoer.

It’s just simple math.

Especially if you drive late at night, when you chop down your commuting time, you reduce your overall exposure tremendously–not to mention add time “back” to your life.

The side benefits also include: you will burn less gas (save money), expose yourself to less pollution (better for your lungs and long-term health); and commit a not-insubstantial act of kindness towards the environment.

So how can you reduce your commuting time?

(Don’t worry, we’re going to get to Burbank DUI defense strategies in a second)

Here are some ideas:

1. Move a little closer to work.

You may only be five miles or so from work, but your morning and afternoon commutes can still take you upwards of an hour, depending on when you go and what horrifically clogged surface streets or freeways you choose.

2. Change up your work hours to make the commute less brutal.

3. Explore alternative routes to work.

Odds are slim that you’ve found the “ideal” routes to places around your neighborhood just by random chance. By finding shortcuts, you might shave off a few minutes every day on your driving time.

4. Shop more on the internet.

5. Do more grocery shopping in bulk (fewer trips to the store)

6. Carpool with friends.

7. Take public transportation from time-to-time.

Get creative to shortcut your route. Meanwhile, while you’re working on that, you obviously need to work on your Burbank DUI defense. The team here at the Kraut Law Group Criminal & DUI Lawyers, Inc. is extremely experienced, compassionate, and well connected. Attorney Kraut is a Harvard Law School educated ex prosecutor. He really cares about educating defendants–not only about their rights but also about their resources. You want to get out of trouble and stay out of trouble for good. Find out more about attorney Kraut and his team here on this website, or connect with them today for a free consultation.

February 18, 2013

Long Beach DUI News Update: Country Singer Randy Travis Pleads Guilty to DUI, Won’t Get Jail Time

by Michael Kraut

If you’ve recently been arrested for driving under the influence in Long Beach, odds are that you’ve been too busy to read the celebrity gossip news.

To fill you in… last summer, country singer Randy drove his Trans Am off the road in Tioga, Texas, smashed into barricades, and then emerged and fell asleep on the ground… naked! When police found him, they tested him for DUI. Not shockingly, he had a 0.21% BAC — nearly three times the legal limit for driving under the influence in Long Beach (and Texas, for that matter).

Travis also allegedly threatened police officers, netting him a retaliation charge.

Last week, a judge in Sherman, Texas handed down a sentence based on the singer’s guilty plea. Travis will face two years of probation on top of a $2000 fine and a suspended jail sentence of 180 days. In addition, he will need to spend 30 days in an alcohol facility and do 100 hours of community service. During the probation, he must install an interlock ignition device (IID).

If he violates terms, he will go to jail.

These punishments are above and beyond what the typical DUI defendant might get in Texas. According to a local district attorney, Joe Brown, Travis “will be unable to leave the [alcohol treatment] facility for 30 days. His fine and community service requirements are more than double what is usually received, and his probation term is the maximum available, and longer than the usual 18 months. All of that is appropriate in light of his behavior with the officers.”

Travis also made headlines when he placed himself in the middle of an argument between a woman and her estranged husband. Also, back in February 2012, police arrested him for public intoxication near Dallas.

Travis recently split from his wife and ex-manager of many years; undoubtedly he’s going through some super emotionally turbulent times.

And that brings us to a key issue that Long Beach DUI defendants need to know!

If you’re going through an emotional struggle, you are not alone. You may need help not only with your Long Beach DUI defense but also with the core problems causing the helplessness in your life that’s driving you to make bad decisions and self-medicate with alcohol or drugs.

Begin the journey towards healing and rehabilitation by connecting with a Long Beach DUI defense attorney at The Kraut Law Group Criminal & DUI Lawyers, Inc. for a sensible, effective and free case consultation.

February 6, 2013

Were You Arrested for Driving Under the Influence in Glendale on Super Bowl Sunday? (You’re Not Alone!)

by Michael Kraut

Everyone can admit that the Har-bowl was pretty epic, and kudos to Joe Flacco and the Ravens for pulling off a crazy playoff streak. But Super Bowl Sunday is traditionally one of the most dangerous days of the year for DUI. Other than New Year’s Eve and a handful of other holidays – like St. Patrick’s Day, Labor Day weekend, the 4th of July, et cetera – the Super Bowl is one of the scariest days to navigate the 101 (or any freeway or surface street, for that matter) because of all the unsafe drivers out there.

Why is this so? Why do so many people get arrested during the holiday?

Perhaps it has to something to do with all the Bud Light commercials. Statistically, when more people drink and party, more people drive DUI and get arrested for the crime – it’s just a number’s game.

Of course, you’re not just “a number” – you’re a human being whose California driver’s license now may be on the line. You may also be at risk for serious fines, probation, jail time, spikes in your insurance rate, and a variety of other unpleasantries. So what can you do?

First of all, recognize that you may have a lot of legal resources available. For instance, let’s say that you failed a Glendale breathalyzer test — you blew a 0.12%, which is 1.5 times the legal limit for Glendale DUI, as codified by California Vehicle Code Section 23152 (a) and 23152 (b). You might be under the (false) impression that the breathalyzer results are set in stone. That is, they cannot be challenged because breathalyzers are technical instruments and thus never fail.

That’s not true. Surprisingly compelling research suggests that breath tests fail way more often than most people believe. On this Glendale DUI blog, we’ve talked a lot about how different factors (such as your dietary habits, gender, medications you might be on, etc) can throw off your breath test readings one way or another.

One really fascinating (and illustrative) way this can happen involves the depth of your test breath. If you breathe in really deeply, and then blast out a huge jet of air into the breathalyzer test, you can score a BAC reading that’s way higher than your legitimate BAC reading (if you were to measure it perfectly). This is often why police officers ask you to take a deep breath before you blow into a breath test – they know the game.

To understand how to deconstruct the case against you and build a powerful defense, get in touch with the Glendale DUI defense team at The Kraut Law Group Criminal & DUI Lawyers, Inc.. Attorney Michael Kraut is not only a scholar of the law — he is Harvard Law School educated — but he is also renowned in the community for being able to take on tough, complex cases.

January 29, 2013

Arrested for DUI in Hollywood? The Saturation Patrol Might Have Gotten You!

by Michael Kraut

If you were recently stopped and arrested for driving under the influence in Hollywood at a checkpoint or outside a bar or a club, odds are that you encountered police on one of the following locations:

• Alvarado Street and Beverly Boulevard
• Roscoe Boulevard and Noble Avenue
• 77th Street
• Atwater Village
If you indeed got arrested at one of those places, you might be wondering… how did we know that?

The answer is simple: a recent LA Weekly article published the Los Angeles Police Department’s most recent saturation patrols and checkpoint planning. These patrols are designed to nab drivers who are out partying. Note the hours of the patrols (e.g. 7 p.m. to 3 a.m.; 8 p.m. to 2 a.m., etc). These hours are the most “fecund,” if you’re trying to find and arrest drivers under the influence of alcohol in Hollywood or basically anywhere else.

What exactly happens at a DUI checkpoint? Or what’s supposed to happen?

First, police will look for symptoms of Hollywood DUI, which can include but are not limited to: slurred speech, loss of balance, trouble answering officer questions, incongruencies in your answers, strange emotional behavior, bloodshot eyes, loss of words (aphasia), inability of your pupils to follow a light (a.k.a. failure of the horizontal gaze Nystagmus test), and an odor of alcohol on your breath.

These “symptoms” may seem obvious enough. If you saw someone exhibiting some or all of them, you might easily suspect that that person was under the influence.

However, the situation is not always so clear cut!

Imagine you’re driving home on Hollywood Boulevard at 3 a.m. after a long TV show shoot. Your brain is totally fried because you’ve been screaming at your line producer all day. You’re not thinking clearly because the caffeine from all those grande mocha lattes has worn off. So you make up a bad lane change.

And then a police officer stops you and pulls you over.

Even though you haven’t touched alcohol in days, surprisingly enough, you exhibit many so-called “classic” symptoms of DUI, such as bloodshot eyes, inability to remember words, irascibility, perhaps even trouble balancing. If you haven’t eaten in a while, you may look bad or stumble due to blood sugar issues.

Believe it or not, even if you haven’t consumed alcohol, if you’ve been producing ketone bodies – i.e. if you’re diabetic or on a very low calorie or low carb diet – you may register as positive for alcohol consumption on a breathalyzer.

Of course, your situation is possibly different.

Maybe you did indeed drink alcohol — or even do marijuana or take prescription drugs — before you hopped into your vehicle. You want to minimize your penalties and optimize your chances for getting gentle treatment from the court system.

Every Hollywood DUI defendant’s case is a unique puzzle.

You need customized, insightful, and knowledgeable help with the defense. Fortunately, you have a possible ally: Harvard Law School educated Hollywood DUI criminal defense attorney, Michael Kraut. He and his esteemed team can help you battle back against your charges and regain peace of mind.

December 31, 2012

Glendale DUI Madness: Yet Another School Bus Driver Arrested for Driving While Intoxicated

by Michael Kraut

Your Glendale DUI charge is serious, and you may feel deeply ashamed and regretful for what’s happened.

But at least (hopefully) you weren’t driving a school bus while DUI, like 67-year-old Ethel Quade Ressler allegedly did.

Local authorities say that the St. Mary’s County bus driver was driving recklessly with 12 kids already loaded onboard. Officers called to the scene noticed alcohol on Ms. Ressler’s breath – a classic symptom of driving under the influence in Glendale or elsewhere. They then put her through the paces of a field sobriety test, which she failed. After the arrest, Ressler tried to hurt herself, so authorities took her to the hospital.

The woman had been driving school buses for 47 years for her school district – nearly five decades! – and had never gotten a DUI or failed a drug test.

Obviously, we can’t discern the deeper details of her case from simple news blurbs. However, the story certainly implies that there might have been something deeper going on in her life that led her to make a mistake and get arrested for DUI.

We live in a society in which we like to catalog and punish “bad guys” and reward “good guys.” But this woman spent nearly five decades of her life in service to the school district, during which time, she apparently carefully shuttled children to and from their homes and school. Prior to the DUI arrest, she was probably considered “one of the good guys.”

A single mistake can cause a kind of polar opposite shift in public opinion.

After all, we certainly don’t want school bus drivers toodling around Glendale DUI. Yet DUI defendants deserve empathy and support as well. That’s one of the reasons why the team here at the Kraut Law Group Criminal & DUI Lawyers, Inc. is so passionate about providing good service.

Whether this is your first arrest or fifth, you likely need diverse and empathetic assistance with what’s been going on in your life. Attorney Kraut is an ex-prosecutor for the city, and he brings to bear an intelligent and compassionate perspective. He also has a reputation for being extremely aggressive and smart about building and executing Glendale DUI defenses.

December 25, 2012

Long Beach DUI Debacle: Wrongfully Accused DUI Defendants File Class Action against Utah Trooper, Lisa Steed

by Michael Kraut

In a recent piece we did on this Long Beach DUI blog several months ago, we discussed the peculiar case of Utah Highway Patrol trooper, Lisa Steed, who was fired in November for unfairly arresting innocent people on charges of driving under the influence.

Steed had actually been named a Utah Highway Patrol “trooper of the year” – owing in part to her big arrest numbers. Documents filed with Utah’s Third District Judicial Court suggest that she might have wrongfully charged and arrested literally HUNDREDS of people over the years.

Some of these people pled guilty in court because they could not afford to pay for a DUI defense. The class action against Steed argues that State of Utah owes these DUI defendants substantial damages: they lost property and jobs and suffered untold toil. For instance, one of Steed’s victims, Thomas Romero, said he got pulled over because he had a burned out taillight. Steed suspected he was DUI, but a blood alcohol test revealed that he had a 0.00% BAC.

That’s right: 0.00% BAC. Nada.

Nevertheless, Romero lost his truck to the impound lot. He told reporters “that night when I got pulled over, lost my truck, lost everything I have, my motor home, everything. That hurts.”

Another supposed victim of Steed’s zealousness, Julie Tapia, recounted her horrific tale: “[Steed] never did give me a sobriety test on the spot, even though I asked for it, because I’m like, I haven’t done anything wrong unless I’m drunk on a hamburger, fries and a milkshake. I don’t even drink.”

Steed, meanwhile, has appealed with Utah’s State Personnel Office to try to regain her employment in the Police Department.

If you’ve recently been arrested for driving under the influence in Long Beach or elsewhere in the Southland, odds are the trooper who pulled you over did not flagrantly flout rules of conduct, like Steed allegedly did.

However, officer mistakes are less uncommon than you may realize!

For instance, as we have talked numerous times on this Long Beach DUI blog, breathalyzer tests are notoriously troubled. Diabetics, for instance, release chemical compounds on their breath called ketones, which can adversely affect BAC reading. In other words, you can have consumed zero alcohol and still score a positive on a breath test because of those ketones. Likewise, if you are on certain special diets, you can register a false positive.

Other factors that can throw off your Long Beach DUI breathalyzer test results include: your gender, whether you’re on any medications, whether you have certain medical conditions, the depth into which you blow into the machine (super deep breaths can cause an exaggeratedly positive BAC reading), and much more.

Given that the difference between a dismissal of your charge and a conviction according to California Vehicle Code Section 23152 can hang in the balance, you likely can benefit hugely from a creditable, thorough Long Beach DUI Criminal Defense. Attorney Michael Kraut of the Kraut Law Group Criminal & DUI Lawyers, Inc. and his team would be happy to provide a free and confidential case evaluation to help you strategize and make sound decisions regarding your legal future.