DUI Defenses

Published on: February 27, 2016

Seven Flee Vehicle After California DUI Accident; One Man Dies While Running from the Crash

Fleeing the scene of an accident involving a DUI in Los Angeles is never a good idea. But for one California man the decision to run instead of remaining with the vehicle had deadly consequences.

In the early morning hours of Monday, February 22, police responded to reports that a vehicle had overturned and landed on its roof on the connector ramp from I-280 northbound to southbound Highway 87. According to the Fremont Patch, instead of waiting for help to arrive, the driver and her six passengers managed to get out of the SUV and started running away.

The California Highway Patrol officers who arrived on the scene quickly corralled four of the passengers and other police officers got hold of the driver and another passenger. But an as-yet-unidentified vehicle struck the remaining passenger, a 20-year-old man from San Jose, who ran into the northbound lanes of Highway 87. That man died, and the driver that hit him fled the scene of the accident.

Published on: February 25, 2016

Courts Punishing DUI Drivers With Multiple Offenses [Including Montana Man Who Killed Teacher]

by Michael Kraut

Judges are doling out some harsh punishments for drivers who don’t learn their lessons after their first DUI conviction. State laws offer guidelines for punishment; under California Vehicle Code 14601.2, for example, people with a second conviction for a DUI in Los Angeles may face up to 180 days in jail and a $2,000 fine. But judges do have some leeway, and many are choosing to be severe.

In Montana, a man who violated his parole after killing a 27-year-old teacher in a DUI-related accident will serve 10 years in prison. DailyInterLake.com reports that Jason DeShazer spent 3 ½ years in jail on a negligent homicide conviction before his release. He was arrested again in September 2015, when police picked him up for a DUI on a motorcycle and with driving without a license. In another incident in that same month, police who had stopped him on suspicion of DUI found him with methamphetamine and heroin in his vehicle. The judge ordered DeShazer back to prison to serve out his original negligent homicide sentence; he still awaits trial on the newer charges.

Published on: February 23, 2016

DUI Arrest Challenge: Was Driver’s Right to Due Process Per the 14th Amendment Violated?

by Michael Kraut

Over the past year or so, anecdotal evidence suggests that lawyers who represent DUI drivers in states across the U.S. have been getting more aggressive in contesting their clients’ convictions. Now there’s another lawsuit–this time filed in Florida–which anyone who has lost a driver’s license because of a DUI in Los Angeles might want to watch closely.

According to the Orlando Sentinel and other media reports, lawyers for Alfredo Crespin, a 58-year old man from Winter Gardens, Florida, are bringing a lawsuit against the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (DHSMV). Arrested for DUI on November 20, 2015, Crespin lost his license when police confiscated it after his arrest. Following the regular procedures, DHSMV then suspended his driving privileges for a year. On February 12th, 2016, the court found Crespin guilty of the DUI charges, and his driver’s license suspension remains in place.
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Published on: February 19, 2016

Tennessee Court Tells DUI Drivers They Can’t Cross Any Lines

by Michael Kraut

Can a police officer pull drivers over—and subsequently charge them with DUI—just because their vehicles crossed the center line? A Tennessee court has said yes. While it won’t affect anyone contesting a DUI in Los Angeles, the court’s ruling in the Volunteer State seems to be bucking a national trend that has made it harder for prosecutors to get DUI convictions.

In a ruling that combined two different cases, State v. Linzey Danielle Smith and State v. William Whitlow Davis, Jr., the Tennessee Supreme Court found that police officers were acting within the law when they stopped the defendants for traffic violations in two separate incidents. The defendants, whom police charged with DUI, had argued that the officers had violated their constitutional rights prohibiting unlawful seizure because they did not have probable cause to make the stop.

Published on: February 17, 2016

DUI Arrests Down In Two States

by Michael Kraut

Would it be good news or bad news if the Los Angeles Times reported a large drop in arrests for Los Angeles DUI? The answer might depend on whom you ask.

Washington State’s Kitsap Sun Business Journal recently ran a story about the decrease in Kitsap County’s DUI arrests–1,000 fewer in 2015 than in 2006. The article suggests that one reason for the drop might be more education about the dangers of DUI driving. Accident statistics seem to bear this out; in 2006, Washington State saw 8,202 DUI-related crashes; that number decreased to 5,586 in 2015.

But lack of police manpower, the complexity of the DUI laws, which require extensive police training, and the time-consuming need to obtain blood samples to detect the presence of marijuana also appear to be contributing to the drop in DUI arrest rates. At least one police official said he simply doesn’t have the manpower to keep troopers patrolling the roads like they did previously.
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Published on: February 15, 2016

Under-the-Influence Mom Makes Underage Daughter Drive

by Michael Kraut

Underage drinking and driving often go hand-in-hand in Los Angeles DUI cases. But what if the driver is underage and the person who has been drinking is the one who ordered her to drive?

A 911 caller in Polk County, Wisconsin, alerted police to a car moving erratically along a local road. Sheriff’s Deputy Jeff Hahn caught up with the vehicle at a public boat launch and went over to the car, probably expecting to find a driver operating the vehicle under the influence.

What he found instead was a 9-year-old girl at the wheel; she had apparently driven the car for miles. Her mother, Amanda Eggert, and the mother’s boyfriend, Jason Roth, were reportedly sitting in the car intoxicated. The girl’s 11-month-old sibling sat strapped into a car seat.

Published on: February 8, 2016

Update: “Affluenza” DUI Driver Could Remain On Probation

by Michael Kraut

Judges will often waive jail time and place drivers on probation when they’re charged with a first-offense DUI in Los Angeles. But some people don’t appreciate that kind of leniency; they take advantage of it. What’s worse, the ingrates often don’t receive any punishment.

Ethan Couch of Tarrant County, Texas, made international headlines after his attorneys claimed that he was suffering from “affluenza” when he killed four people in a horrific DUI accident in 2013. (According to the lawyer, Couch wasn’t to blame because his family’s money had shielded him from the consequences of other bad behavior.)

Published on: February 3, 2016

Can Los Angeles DUI Drivers Be Guilty If They’re Not Driving?

by Michael Kraut

When police arrest a driver on charges of DUI in Los Angeles and causing a death, you can generally assume that motorist was behind the wheel when the accident occurred. But James Ryan, a 28-year-old part-time student in New York, could face up to 25 years in jail for causing the death of a police officer, even though he wasn’t driving at the moment the accident occurred. A jury may soon be deciding his fate.

According to multiple media accounts of the October 2012 accident, Ryan clipped a BMW on the Long Island Expressway and then stopped his vehicle in the high occupancy lane (HOV). That’s when another car hit his. Ryan got out of his Toyota after the second accident and waited by the side of the road for the police to arrive.

Nassau County Police Officer Joseph Olivieri pulled up on the right shoulder of the road, then crossed over and stood close to Ryan’s car in the HOV lane. Another vehicle, an SUV, slammed into Ryan’s car and into Officer Olivieri, killing him. Ryan was unhurt, but other police officers at the scene measured his blood alcohol content at 0.13.
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Published on: February 1, 2016

Dashing–DUI–Through The Snow

by Michael Kraut

Residents of Southern California may have to worry about drought, but there’s one problem we’re not going to face. Even in these times of climate change, police won’t be charging any drivers for a DUI in Los Angeles while a blizzard is going on.

That’s not the case in the northeast and mid-Atlantic, however. The snow that those regions received during at the end of January apparently didn’t deter drivers from getting behind the wheel while they were under the influence. Considering the amount of snow that came down in a short time, they were lucky (or maybe unlucky) to be able to get out onto the streets.

In Delaware, police had parked an official vehicle in the roadway at the scene of a domestic dispute. (With more than a foot of snow on the ground already, they didn’t have a choice of parking areas.) That’s when Daryl Holcomb, age 33, allegedly plowed his sports utility vehicle right into their patrol car. Fortunately, the officers suffered no injuries. Holcomb, on the other hand, is looking at charges for driving under the influence, failure to have insurance identification and operating a motor vehicle during a declared emergency.

Published on: January 27, 2016

New Year Starts With Unusual DUI Arrests

by Michael Kraut

While city police officers were tackling the typical arrests for DUI in Los Angeles, law enforcement officers in other states were coping with some more atypical incidents.

In Tucson, Arizona, a woman who gained national fame for wearing a colander on her head in her driver’s license picture is getting a bit more (probably unwanted) attention. According to the Arizona Daily Star website, Jessica “Asia” Steinhauser had traveled by car to the offices of her local school district with her 10-year-old daughter in the vehicle. It didn’t take the district staff long to figure out there was a problem; Steinhauser smelled like alcohol and passed out on the office sofa shortly after her arrival. Police arrived at the scene and arrested her.