Los Angeles DUI Attorney Blog

April 11, 2016

Deputy Disqualified, 104 DUI Court Cases Thrown Out

Anyone facing trial for a Los Angeles DUI would be well advised to tell the truth when taking the stand. Lying to a judge and jury lead to serious consequences, including perjury charges. But if the truthfulness of a police officer’s statement is in doubt, that can be good news for drivers whose convictions depend on his or her testimony.

To that point, the district attorney of Wake County, North Carolina, recently decided to dismiss charges against 104 drivers accused of DUI after a judge caught a sheriff’s deputy lying during his testimony during one trial. Prosecutors had planned to use Deputy Robert Davis as a witness in those DUI cases and in 71 other traffic cases, which the prosecutor also dismissed.

April 7, 2016

Tough Decision for DUI Driver: Alligator Teeth or Handcuffs?

by Michael Kraut

Drivers arrested for DUI in Los Angeles have usually demonstrated that they don’t make good decisions. Once you’ve made a poor choice, it’s surprisingly easy to make a tough situation worse – often, far worse!

Case in point: Richard Lange faced a decision recently in Montgomery County, Florida. Should he continue to flee from police and risk getting bitten by alligators? Or should he remain on safe ground and wait for rescue (and arrest on charges of DUI, among other things)?

According to The Courier of Montgomery County, Lange hit several cars on I-45 and left the scene of those accidents when deputies spotted the front end damage to his vehicle and saw that he was riding on only three wheels.
But Lange wasn’t ready to surrender. When police pulled him over, he ran and jumped into a nearby lake to avoid capture. Trouble was, the lake was full of alligators. Lange realized his mistake and swam to the island in the center of the water, where he stayed for four hours until police got a boat to rescue him. He still tried to appear innocent and reportedly asked the officers if it was a crime to go swimming.

April 5, 2016

Florida Judge Denies Reduction in 33-Year DUI Sentence

by Michael Kraut

Judges presiding in cases of DUI in Los Angeles may be more inclined to show clemency when defendants express true remorse for their actions and make a sincere effort to turn their lives around. But they’re less likely to be merciful when a defendant demonstrates that he continues to demonstrate the same behaviors that got him trouble in the first place.

Kenneth Jenkins recently learned that lesson in a Florida courtroom. The Palm Beach Post reported that Jenkins, convicted of causing the deaths of three people in a March 2008 DUI-related accident, asked for a reduction in his 33-year sentence. Circuit Judge Charles Burton denied that request.

Three years after his arrest, Jenkins, now age 33, pleaded guilty to DUI and to driving the wrong way on Interstate 95 near Delray Beach. His black Pontiac GTO caused a series of accidents before it eventually slammed into a 2008 Mercedes, killing three of the vehicle’s four occupants. The case dragged on while Jenkins’ original attorneys tried to determine whether the Mercedes’ driver had also been partly at fault for the accident.

March 31, 2016

Tennessee Appeals Court Reinstates DUI Charges Against Driver

by Michael Kraut

Motorists stopped for speeding often face other problems, including charges of DUI in Los Angeles. The police can use the results of a field sobriety test to support the charge, but what happens if the results of that test are not clear?

A ruling by Tennessee’s Court of Criminal Appeals will require Anthony John Silver to stand trial for driving under the influence, despite dispute over his performance on a field sobriety test. A Williamson County Circuit Court judge had thrown out Silver’s arrest, contending that the police officer on the case had inaccurately described what happened during the tests. The three-panel appeals court disagreed with that decision and reinstated the charges against Silva.

News agencies reported that Officer Adam Cohen of the Franklin Police Department pulled Silva over when he saw him driving 46 miles per hour in a 35 mph zone. Officer Cohen said Silva smelled like alcohol and admitted he had drunk three beers several hours earlier.

March 29, 2016

The Statistics are in: Interlock Devices DO Prevent DUI Deaths

by Michael Kraut

As states look for ways to further reduce deaths from DUI accidents, many are considering new requirements for ignition interlock devices (IID). For example, a bill now making its way through the Maryland State legislature would require first-time DUI offenders to install an ignition interlock device in their vehicles. (Drivers convicted of DUI in Los Angeles County already face that penalty for first offenses.)

A study from the University of Pennsylvania has shown that mandatory interlock devices do work as intended. According to an article in Medical Daily, Penn researchers found that mandatory in-car breathalyzers saved an estimated 915 lives between 2007 and 2013. They arrived at this conclusion by studying NHTSA data about the number of alcohol-related crash deaths, comparing states with mandatory ignition interlock laws with those that did not have them. The researchers reported that states with the mandatory interlock laws saved the life of one person in every 125,000.

March 21, 2016

District Court Requires Shorter Appeal in DUI Manslaughter Case

by Michael Kraut

If courts convicted you of a DUI in Los Angeles that caused serious injury and sentenced you to harsh penalties, you’d likely want to explore the possibility of appealing your conviction. But a court in Florida has ruled that one defendant needs to limit his appeal.

March 7, 2012 – West Palm Beach, Florida, U.S. – WEST PALM BEACH – John Goodman looks at potential jurors during the second day of jury selection in his DUI Manslaughter trial Wednesday. (Credit Image: © Lannis Waters/The Palm Beach Post/ZUMAPRESS.com)

In February, Florida’s Fourth District Court of Appeals ruled that attorneys for John Goodman, convicted of DUI manslaughter in 2014, had to keep their appeal down to 100 pages—12 more than they originally filed. Goodman’s lawyers are asking that the appeals court overturn his conviction or at least grant him a new (third) trial.

Miami’s Sun Sentinel reported that attorneys representing the State of Florida had argued that Goodman’s appeal was more than twice the length of the filings that appeals courts usually allowed. They contended that 85 pages should be the maximum number.

March 16, 2016

St. Patrick’s Day Celebrations Bring Out the DUI Drivers

by Michael Kraut

Planning to celebrate the March 17th holiday honoring the Irish saint? Better make sure that you have a designated driver–or at least an alternate form of transportation–for that night if you want to avoid charges of DUI in Los Angeles or any other jurisdiction. Police departments across the country are warning that they plan to be out in full force to ensure that the roads remain as safe as possible.

They have reason for concern. The WalletHub website recently posted some sobering statistics on DUIs on Saint Patrick’s Day. They report that in four years, from 2009-2013, 276 people died in DUI-related accidents on March 17th. (The Centers for Disease Control state that 30 people a day usually die in such accidents, so that’s more than twice the typical number of deaths.) The drivers involved tend to be more than just a little tipsy; WalletHub said that 75 percent of those involved in fatal accidents have more than twice the legal limit of alcohol in their blood.

The St. Patrick’s Day DUI accidents also occur more frequently–every 46 minutes, according to WalletHub, versus the CDC’s estimate that a DUI-related death occurs every 51 minutes on the average day.

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.

March 7, 2016

Video Release Embarrasses DUI Solicitor

by Michael Kraut

In earlier days, people arrested for DUI in Los Angeles could concoct an involved story about what really happened when they crashed their vehicles into a light pole or ended up in a highway median. It was always somebody else’s fault. But in the age of video surveillance, it’s getting harder and harder to make such stories believable.

Just ask Donnie Myers, the 11th Circuit Court Solicitor in South Carolina. Responding to a report of someone hitting a utility pole, a police officer tracked Myers down to his home. Found in his garage, Myers told police that he had been slightly hurt in the accident, which was caused by another driver who had forced him over. But the officer apparently doubted that story, since he smelled alcohol.