Long Beach DUI Defense Attorney

December 10, 2012

Quick Quiz: Is It Safe to Drive a Massive Truck DUI in Long Beach with a BAC of 0.50%?

If you drive a truck DUI in Long Beach or elsewhere in the Southland, not only could you face jail time and a license suspension, but you can also lose your job and face other industry penalties.

Prosecutors bring the hammer down on DUI truckers for a reason: trucks are the most dangerous vehicles on the roads. They are more massive than passenger cars, motorcycles, and lightweight vans. Thus, they can inflict geometrically increased levels of force during accidents. A 20-ton truck travelling at 60 miles per hour that crashes into a wall will impart as much force on that wall as will a one-ton racecar that smashes into the same wall at 1200 miles per hour – over four hundred miles per hour faster than the speed of sound!

Consider those forces in light of a near tragedy out of a Beaverton, Oregon. 38-year-old Matthew Allen Hamilton almost drove his pick-up truck off of a Highway 217 overpass into traffic. The scene captured national attention: a red pick-up truck dangled precariously, stopped by destruction only by a surprisingly sturdy overpass guard rail.

It took police and rescue workers hours to rescue Hamilton and remove his truck from the guardrail. Once they plucked him down, they gave him a blood alcohol test, which found that he had a 0.50% BAC – that’s well over six times the Long Beach DUI limit. That’s a BAC level high enough to kill many people or at least make them comatose. So in some sense it’s remarkable that Hamilton even survived the drinking, let alone that he survived nearly driving off the overpass.

The drama behind this story notwithstanding, if you’ve been recently pulled over for driving under the influence in Long Beach, you can learn much from understanding Hamilton’s plight and possible best next steps.

1. Getting a Long Beach DUI charge can lead to public humiliation.

Hopefully, your arrest has not yet led to substantial public shaming – it hasn’t cost you clients, friends, prospective job opportunities, etc. But consequences like that can happen.

2. The fact that you survived your Long Beach DUI event means you got incredibly lucky.

You may not feel particularly lucky now, especially if you hurt someone else and/or if you face massive potential criminal penalties. But driving DUI is a dangerous game. In Hamilton’s case, slightly different physics would have resulted in his certain death.

3. You can take action, now, to start making things better.

Just because you are in a dangerous, helpless, or scary position doesn’t mean that you have to suffer helplessly forever. The team here at the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers in Long Beach can help you understand and craft an appropriate Long Beach DUI truckers’ defense and answer your questions about best practices.

November 26, 2012

Long Beach DUI News Blotter: State Rep (and DUI Attorney) Gets Clobbered with DUI Charge

by Michael Kraut

It’s painful to be arrested for DUI in Long Beach or elsewhere in Southern California. It would probably be doubly painful if you represented defendants charged with driving under the influence for a living. And triply humiliating if you also served as a lawmaker.

Poor David Burnell Smith of Arizona recently suffered these three ‘stings’ simultaneously after Scottsdale police arrested him near Westland Road and Pima Road. They hit Smith with two charges of driving under the influence for impairment and for having a BAC in excess of 0.08% (also the limit for Long Beach DUI, as defined by California Vehicle Code Section 23152).

According to the Arizona Republic, Representative Smith – who had recently lost a primary race – was seen swerving around in his Chrysler 300, endangering other people on the road. After the police stopped him, he ‘stumbled’ out of his vehicle and refused to participate in FSTs (Field Sobriety Tests). He also inhaled (instead of exhaling) into a breathalyzer test before finally complying – and blowing a 0.137% BAC. Again, the legal limit for both CA and AZ is 0.08%. That reading was nearly double what’s allowed.

This would all be pretty embarrassing for a state representative, but Smith is also a lawyer who makes a living ‘fighting for those who have been arrested and/or charged with DUI.’

Smith claimed that he had swigged mouthwash before getting behind the wheel. As we’ve discussed at length on this Long Beach DUI blog, it is true that substances like mouthwash can throw off your breathalyzer test readings. Indeed, these tests are often surprisingly poorly calibrated, poorly executed, and poorly interpreted. An experienced Long Beach DUI defense attorney may be able to help you challenge the results and either reduce your charges or get them eliminated completely.

That being said, it’s a mistake to assume that you will be able to easily eliminate your DUI charges – or even successfully challenge breathalyzer test results. DUI law is extremely nuanced, and prosecutors are neither dumb nor particularly overly accommodating.

Fortunately, you can turn to Long Beach DUI criminal defense lawyer Michael Kraut, and his team at the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers here in Long Beach, for an insightful, thorough, and strategic defense. Attorney Kraut has delivered big successes for his clients in complex DUI cases. He also worked as a prosecutor for the city for nearly a decade and half. So he understands how prosecutors think and work, and he maintains excellent relationships, which he leverages to help his clients get good strategic outcomes.

October 15, 2012

Long Beach DUI Lessons from Scary Injury Crash in Rancho Cucamonga – Three High School Girls Hurt

by Michael Kraut

If you injured someone while driving under the influence in Long Beach or elsewhere in Southern California, you likely feel tremendous regret and panic. Whether the accident was your fault or not – or only partially so – you are probably confused about your legal rights, and you want to know what you can do to protect yourself.

Consider the following news item to help place your arrest into context.

Last week, in Rancho Cucamonga, 29-year-old Cory Holker apparently lost control of his silver Toyota Camry on Base Line Road as he tried to pass another car. The Camry flipped over a curb, smashed into a tree and spiraled around and hit three Alta Loma High School girls – two freshman and one sophomore. A local resident heard the accident and the screams and called 911. All three girls were taken to the hospital with injuries – and one had to be pried out from underneath the car – but fortunately, all three are expected to survive.

Holker, on the other hand, faces a difficult road ahead of him, legally speaking.

He allegedly failed a breathalyzer test at the scene – and even though Long Beach DUI breathalyzer tests are notoriously unreliable, as we’ve talked about many times on this blog, it’s still not a great piece of evidence for him to “explain away.” In addition, he was cited for speeding, failing to wear a seatbelt, and following another car too closely. Holker also has a substantial record of citations, and he now faces a felony Southern California DUI count as well.

When most people read stories like these in the news, they immediately feel empathy and sympathy for the victims – as well, they should. It’s easy for the not-involved to demonize DUI drivers, especially drivers who hit and hurt other people who do other ìdumb/illegal stuffî while DUI. But it’s important to be compassionate – not just towards victims, but also towards defendants. The reality is that there is often much more to most Long Beach DUI cases than meets the eye – or that can be conveyed through a simple news blurb or blog post.

Consider your situation, for instance.

Even if you believe that you were in the wrong or guilty of DUI or other driving-related crimes, odds are you do not see yourself as a cartoonish villain or in morally black and white terms. Your situation is complex, and you’d like a little bit of compassion as you struggle to understand what motivated you, what you can do in the future to prevent getting into similar situations, and what you might be able to do to repair any harm that you may have accidentally caused.

The team here at the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers has tremendous experience and a unique perspective on Los Angeles DUI cases.

Attorney Kraut is a Harvard Law School educated ex-prosecutor – he spent the bulk of his career prosecuting DUI cases – and that experience gives him a powerful and informed perspective on the whole process. It’s helped him to be a more effective and intuitive Long Beach DUI defense attorney. Find out more about Attorney Kraut’s credentials and record for service here on this site, or get in touch with his team today for a confidential consultation about your defense options.

October 10, 2012

It Should Be Commonsense Not to Allow Your 14-Year-Old Daughter to Drive DUI in Los Angeles…

by Michael Kraut

Just because you’ve recently been arrested for driving under the influence in Los Angeles doesn’t mean that you have no knowledge of right and wrong or no standards. Far from it! In fact, odds are, you probably resent being lumped in with other DUI defendants!

Understand that there is an enormous spectrum, when it comes to DUI offenses. On the one hand, there are the perennial, serial DUI offenders who get arrested and convicted multiple times. But this “species” of Los Angeles DUI defendant is surprisingly rare, and even people who fall into this category generally deserve more respect, empathy, and support.

On the other end of the spectrum, you can find people who commit minor mistakes – or who actually make no mistakes at all but rather wind up as victims of overzealous officers at Los Angeles DUI check points.

But anyone with a moral compass might wonder about what happened recently up in Napavine, Washington, where local state patrol officers arrested a 14-year-old girl from Portland, who had allegedly flipped a van while driving under the influence. The incident took place the Sunday before last on Interstate 5, near the town of Chehalis.

You might think that this was just a case of a rebellious teenager borrowing her parents’ van and going for a joy ride. Nope. Initial report suggests that circumstances were far weirder. In the van with her was a 51-year-old Portland man and a 16-year-old runaway girl.

The driver and both passengers suffered minor injuries in the rollover. But local reports from KATU suggest that it’s not yet clear how the three people know each other.

The 14-year-old girl, meanwhile, faces charges of driving without a license, driving DUI, and being a minor in possession of marijuana.

Who knows what was actually going on up there?

If you’ve been tasks with defending against similar (or even more severe) charges pursuant to your Los Angeles DUI arrest, you might appreciate the revelation that this case appears to be far more complicated than superficial analysis reveals. Indeed, many DUI cases are wrapped up with strange subtleties, and only a thorough investigation and detailed legal work can help defendants get cleared or at least put up their best possible defense.

Attorney Michael Kraut of the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers spent a significant portion of his life working as a city prosecutor (14 plus years as Senior Deputy District Attorney), so he has a really good feel for how prosecutors like to go after Los Angeles DUI defendants.

Attorney Kraut now uses that knowledge to help people like you with creative, legally taut defenses to their DUI charges. Get in touch with attorney Kraut and his team today to go over what he can do to protect your interests.

October 8, 2012

Did a “Pink Elephant” Cause Your Long Beach DUI Crash, Too?

by Michael Kraut

Your recent Long Beach DUI accident and arrest was humiliating enough.

Hopefully, no one got hurt. And hopefully, you did not compound your woes by offering a preposterous explanation for your behavior, like 31-year-old Samuel Phipps recently did when Delaware State Police stopped him on I-95 and hit him with his seventh lifetime DUI charge.

The 31-year-old told State Police that he had smoked a kind of drug known as “wet” – which consists of a marijuana cigarette laced with the PCP – prior to taking a ride in his Land Rover the Friday night before last. As he cruised southbound on I-295, he hallucinated and thought he saw a pink elephant in the road. Thus spooked, he veered off into the guardrail near Route 141.

According to a Delaware State Police statement, the trooper who found Phipps interviewed the driver, who told him “that the accident was a result of… swerving to avoid an elephant he observed running in the path of his vehicle.”

Phipps was busted for his unlucky number seven DUI offense and hit additionally with the charge of driving without insurance. Instead of being sent to jail, he was committed to the Howard R. Young Correctional Institution and held on a bond of $21,000.

If, like Phipps, you’ve been hit with multiple counts of driving under the influence in Long Beach or elsewhere, you could be facing substantial jail time, even if you did not hurt anyone and prosecutors thus cannot charge you per California Vehicle Code Sections 23153(a) or 23153(b).

In fact, as your number of DUI arrest/convictions increases, so does the leverage of prosecutors.

If you get convicted for three DUIs within a 10-year span in California, for instance, your third DUI – which would ordinarily be a misdemeanor – can be charged as a felony count, even absent any other legal violations. Plus, other penalties get ratcheted up: you’ll face longer time in alcohol school, a longer license suspension, stricter/longer probation terms, more fines and fees, and likely a bigger spike in your auto insurance rates, assuming that you can still drive and carry insurance.

Of course, if you’re getting arrested three or four or seven times for DUI – or for other crimes – you may need more than the help of a good Long Beach DUI defense attorney. You may also need therapy to deal with other crises in your life that may be compelling you to take refuge in alcohol or medications.

The team at law offices of Michael A. DeMayo can help you appreciate what you might be up against and give you practical, sensible, actionable advice.

Learn more about Attorney Kraut’s background as a Harvard Law School educated former prosecutor here on our website, or connect with us now for a free, completely confidential evaluation of your Long Beach DUI case.

September 21, 2012

Avoid Long Beach DUI by Using Your New iPhone 5 Safely

by Michael Kraut

No one wants to get charged with Long Beach DUI – or DUI anywhere in Southern California, for that matter. But if you’ve just recently bought a new iPhone 5, and you are drooling over the awesome features and making fun of your friends who still have “dinosaur” iPhones – it might behoove you to engage in a little prophylaxis.

As we talked about in our last blog post, people who text or otherwise manipulate their iPhone 5s while driving – particularly while driving while under the influence of alcohol or drugs – are at a highly elevated risk for causing accidents and injuries. To prevent disaster — or to clean up your act after you’ve been charged with Los Angeles DUI — consider these tips for enjoying your iPhone 5 safely:

1. Shut off the phone – and the ringer – for short trips.

You need your iPhone 5 with you to provide an emergency communications channel for your family. But if you’re just hopping in the car for a short jaunt down the 405 — which means that you must be driving in middle of the night, since that’s the only time when the 405 is not log jammed with perpetual sig-alerts! — just turn off the phone. Don’t give yourself the temptation to check your phone or hear a call. Rip the band-aid off.

2. Track your “near misses.”

If you’ve become addicted to texting while driving or chatting on the phone while driving — and you know it’s time to stop before you get hit with a driving DUI while distracted in Long Beach charge — then start to notice/track your bad habits. Any time you catch yourself checking your phone — or even getting the urge to check your phone! — make a mental note, and then write in a journal afterwards about the experience. Get to understand yourself. Without appropriate self-knowledge – into your behaviors, habits, and yearnings – you’re going to be fighting an uphill battle. Pay attention to the triggers that drive you to make dangerous choices, and figure out how to deal with those triggers before you even get behind the wheel.

3. If you’ve gotten into a car crash while DUI in Long Beach or while texting, now is the time to begin to change your ways.

Yes, some damage might have been done – and you might have even caused injuries or damage. And, yes, you may inevitably have to face penalties, such as fines and fees, license suspension, insurance rate bumps, and even jail time. But you can choose to learn lessons from your experience and thus become a safer driver and a better Long Beach citizen.

You don’t have to go through this by yourself!

Connect with the team here at the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers in Long Beach for powerful assistance. Attorney Michael Kraut is a former prosecutor and well respected Long Beach DUI criminal defense lawyer. Get in touch with him and his team to coordinate an appropriate strategy.

September 10, 2012

Laguna Beach and Long Beach DUI News – Talan Torriero, Star of Laguna Beach Reality Show, Busted For DUI

by Michael Kraut

25-year-old Talan Torriero was arrested for driving under the influence in Laguna Beach last Wednesday morning. Police pulled him over around midnight, after they saw the reality show star take a left against signs that prohibited left turns. Per the Los Angeles Times, after the police stopped Torriero, they saw signs characteristic of a Long Beach DUI – presumably red, bloodshot eyes; slurred speech; sluggish answers to officer questions, etc.

Torriero was then subjected to DUI field sobriety tests – like the finger-to-nose test, the horizontal gaze nystagmus test, the walk the line test, count backwards by threes test, etc. Apparently, the actor did not exactly pass with flying colors, and he was booked on DUI charges.

Torriero, who works as an actor, is known for his high profile liaisons with Kimberly Stewart (daughter of rocker Rod Stewart) and Nicole Scherzinger of the Pussycat Dolls. His court date has been set for October 15th at Harbor Court in Newport Beach.

September 3, 2012

O Lordy! Sad Long Beach DUI Arrest, as San Francisco’s New Archbishop Hit with Two Misdemeanor DUI Charges

by Michael Kraut

The archbishop-designate of San Francisco, Rev. Salvatore Cordileone, has officially been accused of driving under the influence, according to blogs that cover Long Beach DUI news and other media sources.

The 56-year-old was stopped late on the 25th of August at a checkpoint near San Diego State University. Allegedly, he failed his field sobriety test. A blood alcohol test clocked him at above the legal limit for Long Beach DUI of 0.08% BAC. After Rev. Cordileone’s arrest; his mother, who had been riding in the car, drove home, after she proved that she had not consumed alcohol and that she had a valid license.

After the DUI, Rev. Cordileone issued a public apology and expressed extreme regret for the “shame and disgrace” the arrest created for him and his family and church.

Rev. Cordileone is still scheduled to be installed as San Francisco’s metropolitan archbishop in October. For the past three years, he has served as the fourth Bishop of Oakland.

Lessons for You, if You’ve Recently Been Arrested for DUI in Long Beach

The archbishop-designate’s legal travails highlight a point that often gets lost in discussions of Long Beach DUI punishment and prevention: many who get arrested for misdemeanor DUI crimes have little to no criminal history. It may be tempting to reflexively blame the DUI defendant (or yourself, if you are the defendant) for some kind of moral failing. But so many elements beyond morality play into risk for DUI. For instance:

• Our body’s sensitivity to alcohol – you may not be cognizant of how you process alcohol; and, thus, you might engage in risky behaviors that you don’t realize are risky;
• Social pressures – if it’s “socially normal” in your group to drink a little at dinner and then drive, and you are someone who can’t process alcohol well, while your friends can – you might be pressured into engaging in risky practices;
• Momentary lapses of judgment or discernment – no one is perfect. We all have times when we cut the line or bend the rules;
• Unfair or poorly done police work – sometimes Long Beach DUI breathalyzer tests fail, for instance; and sometimes even the most respectful and savvy police officers make errors of judgment or misperceive what you’ve been doing.

For help dealing with your problems, connect with a Long Beach DUI criminal defense attorney at the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers (444 West Ocean, Suite 800 Long Beach, California 90802 Phone: (562) 531-7454). Mr. Michael Kraut is one of the most respected and well-known DUI criminal defense lawyers – in addition to attending Harvard Law School and serving as a former prosecutor, he has gotten great reviews from his past clients.

August 8, 2012

If Arrested for DUI in Long Beach, Do NOT, Under Any Circumstances, Spit in the Police Officer’s Face

by Michael Kraut

When you got arrested for driving under the influence in Long Beach, you were not exactly pleased. No one is.

The decisions you make after you get stopped, however, can have an enormously profound impact on your ability to fight the charges — i.e. to get them dropped or pled down to lesser offences — as well as on your capacity to regain emotional equilibrium after the event.

For an extreme example of what “can go wrong” after a DUI arrest, let’s turn our attention northwards to Boise, Idaho. Last week, police arrested 53-year-old James P. Krapp (real name) for driving under the influence and a host of other crimes.

July 23, 2012

Long Beach DUI News: Ugh, Yet Another Revered Sports Celebrity Busted for DUI – This Time It’s Jason Kidd of the New York Knicks!

by Michael Kraut

Everybody knows that you’re not supposed to drive under the influence in Long Beach or anywhere else in the country.

Yet it seems like sports celebrities, in particular, have been forgetting this fundamental rule.

In a recent post, we talked about the rash of recent NFL-related DUIs. Today, we’re going to go to a different sports league — the NBA — and take a look at the arrest of Jason Kidd, a celebrated guard for the New York Knicks. According to repots, Kidd piloted his Cadillac Escalade into a telephone pole in South Hampton, New York and then continued to blaze a trial into the woods. The 39-year-old Kidd was taken to a local hospital (South Hampton Hospital) for treatment for his minor injuries and also tagged with a misdemeanor DWI charge. Kidd recently signed a three year contract with New York – worth $9.5 million. He is a 10 time NBA All Star.

Not exactly role model behavior.

Kidd apologized to his fans via his Twitter account: “I regret any disruption my accident last weekend may have caused members of the community and want to thank the local authorities… I’d also like to thank my family and friends for their support.”

Why are so many NFL players, NBA players, and other sports figures getting arrested for crimes like driving under the influence in Long Beach and elsewhere in the Southland?

The answer could be diverse. It could have to do with high adrenaline living that characterizes many sports celebrities. It could have to do with a lack of proper education about the dangers of DUI or how to prevent it. Unfortunately, there is lot of misinformation – and a lot of condescension – with respect to DUI out there.

If you or someone you care about was recently arrested and charged with DUI in Long Beach, you will likely encounter some serious friction – not only from the authorities but also from friends and family members who should support you better.

Defining and building an effective DUI defense means getting the right people “on your team.” Long Beach DUI defense lawyer Michael Kraut of the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers in Los Angeles (444 West Ocean, Suite 800 Long Beach, California 90802 Phone: (562) 531-7454 ) is an esteemed, experienced attorney who can talk to you about your case and help you develop a sound defense to get your life back together.

Connect with Attorney Kraut – a Harvard Law School educated former city prosecutor – today to being your path to a more sober and safe future.