DUI Defenses

Published on: January 25, 2016

Police Search for Missing DUI Drivers

Drivers who have neglected to show up in court for a hearing on a Los Angeles DUI charge may find the police knocking at their doors. With the help of some funding from the federal government, several jurisdictions in California are rounding up people who have outstanding warrants for DUI-related cases.

Last December, police officers in Petaluma did a DUI warrant sweep. They attempted to contact 49 people arrested for DUI who hadn’t appeared on their court date or who had not complied with the terms of their sentence or paid the fines they owed for DUI.
By the time police ended their work for the evening, they had made five arrests; four people with warrants for failure to appear and one with an outstanding warrant for driving on a suspended license. While the courts gave most new appearance dates, police took one woman into custody, where she remains held without bail.

Published on: January 22, 2016

One Word Jeopardizes Missouri DUI Convictions

by Michael Kraut

Small words can have a big impact. Just ask the thousands of drivers in Missouri who could see their DUI convictions thrown out of court thanks to the substitution of “or” for “and” in the instructions for Breathalyzer calibration. If a judge made a similar ruling regarding DUIs in Los Angeles, lawyers could submit dozens of requests to have their clients’ convictions overturned.

The ruling stems from an incident on July 12, 2013, when Lake Saint Louis, Missouri, police arrested Kristin Nicole Stiers for driving while intoxicated. When Stier’s attorney, Matt Fry, began looking into the results of the breathalyzer test—which registered her blood alcohol content as above the legal limit—he found that the state agency responsible for the calibration directions had made a mistake in its directions to state police.

Published on: January 21, 2016

Will Public Shaming Discourage DUI Drivers?

by Michael Kraut

Although some arrests for DUI in Los Angeles get big play in the media—especially if there’s some celebrity or prominent politician involved—most drivers manage to keep their incidents fairly private.

But some communities in the U.S. believe that publicizing the names of people charged with DUI will help discourage the practice of getting behind the wheel when you’ve had too much to drink. The theory is that most people will be careful to avoid the notoriety that comes with such an arrest. If you lived in Helena, Montana, for example, you probably wouldn’t want your name to appear in the Independent Record’s weekly listing of people convicted of DUI offenses. (They even list convictions for driving with a high level of THC—marijuana’s active ingredient—in your bloodstream.)

Published on: January 18, 2016

Sentence Too Light for Denver DUI Driver?

by Michael Kraut

People tend to have pretty strong opinions when they hear about particularly horrendous accidents involving Los Angeles DUI drivers. It’s no different in Denver, where an e-letter on the Denver Post website complains about the light sentence meted out to a woman who killed another motorist in a DUI accident back last April.

April Wilson, 36, had a blood alcohol content of more than .21 when she killed 27-year-old Nathan Real, who was riding his motorcycle on the opposite side of the road. Wilson was allegedly traveling more than 60 mph in a 30 mph zone when she crossed over three lanes of traffic and slammed into Real. The collision sent Real’s cycle into a concrete trash can; he ended up on the ground, fatally injured.

According to a story in the Post, Wilson had been drinking at a bar near the crash site and had promised the bartender that she wouldn’t drive home. While facts presented in the media suggest that Wilson might have been responsible for the accident, she wasn’t the only one reportedly intoxicated that night. Police said that Real was ALSO driving under the influence.

Published on: January 13, 2016

Pulled From Pond, Arrested For DUI

by Michael Kraut

An arrest for DUI in Los Angeles or any other jurisdiction isn’t a good way to start a new year. But a woman in Oswego, Illinois, found herself in hot water on January 1st thanks to a little too much celebrating on New Year’s Eve.

Paula Mason, age 50, apparently lost control of her car and drove over a wall around a retaining pond around 1:45 a.m. Witnesses to the crash called Oswego police to report that the vehicle was in the water.

Luckily for Mason, who was trapped inside her vehicle, police responded quickly to the scene. The car was located about 100 feet offshore and sinking. A Kendall County deputy braved the frigid pond temperatures to swim out to Mason, but it took several attempts before the deputy could break out the rear window of her vehicle and pull Mason out. Both the deputy and an Oswego police officer who assisted in the rescue ended up receiving treatment at a local hospital.

Published on: January 11, 2016

Illinois DUI Drivers Get License Back Faster

by Michael Kraut

If the court convicts you of DUI in Los Angeles three or more times in 12 months, California’s Vehicle Code Section 13351 requires that the DMV suspend your license for three years. Illinois used to have similar license suspension laws for multiple DUI offenders, but a new state law has made it easier for drivers to retain their licenses or to get them back.

As of January 1, 2016, Illinois drivers who have lost their licenses for five years or more due to multiple DUI convictions may apply for a restricted driving permit. The Chicago Tribune reports that elected officials, law enforcement professionals and public safety activists “reluctantly” came to the conclusion that giving these individuals limited driving privileges may actually be beneficial for other drivers. The new law also does away with the mandatory 30-day license suspension for those arrested on DUI charges.

Published on: January 6, 2016

Driver Cites Body Chemistry to Beat DUI Charge

by Michael Kraut

An unusual medical condition enabled a woman in Albany, New York, to avoid conviction for driving under the influence. It makes you wonder whether people will start making appointments with their doctors as well as their lawyers after police charge them with DUI in Los Angeles.

ABC 7 News in San Francisco reported that the unnamed woman had a blood alcohol content of 0.33 (as measured by a breathalyzer) when police pulled her over in October 2014 for erratic driving. But the woman (unnamed because of medical confidentiality laws) said she had not had more than three drinks in six hours.

The woman’s lawyer, Joseph Marusak, first contacted Barbara Cordell of Penola College in Texas, who had published a study of a man who had “auto-brewery syndrome.” In this condition, the body’s digestive system converts ordinary foods—those with high carbohydrate content—into alcohol. (The intestines literally ferment them into alcohol.) In the case that Cordell studied, a 61-year-old man had suffered periods of drunkenness, despite the fact that he had not been drinking.

Published on: January 4, 2016

California Lawmakers Extend DUI Driver Mandates

by Michael Kraut

A law that went into effect on January 1, 2016, will impact—at least for another year—all drivers convicted of a DUI in Los Angeles.

The California legislature has extended for the next 12 months a pilot program in four counties (Alameda, Los Angeles, Sacramento and Tulare) that requires installation of an ignition interlock device (IID) for anyone convicted of a DUI under California Vehicle Code (CVC) 23152 or 23153, or California Penal Code (CPC) 191.5(b). According to the California DMV, the driver must install the device on any vehicle that he/she owns or operates, and the restriction can last anywhere from five months to four years, depending on how many previous DUI convictions the driver has.

Published on: December 30, 2015

Three of 2015’s Craziest DUI Stories

by Michael Kraut

Every year, crazy driving under the influence stories go viral because of their shock value. As the year draws to a close, some pretty interesting stories come to mind. Here are three of the craziest DUI stories 2015 has to offer:

1. A young woman uses Periscope to live stream DUI driving. We covered this ridiculous incident shortly after it happened. 23-year-old Whitney Beall made national headlines when she live-streamed herself driving DUI in Lakeland, Florida, in October. Police officers learned about the incident when social media users contacted them with the details. The woman said she was driving DUI repeatedly on the live-streaming app before officers finally located and arrested her. Social media is not the place to broadcast any illegal behaviors, but her live stream that night may have saved her life and the lives of others.

Published on: December 28, 2015

Fiery Crash Demonstrates the Dangers of DUI in Los Angeles

by Michael Kraut

Occasionally, a DUI in Los Angeles and its surrounding areas impacts the local community in ways that have permanent ripple effects. Cases in which someone loses his or her life, in particular, can change the contours of families or entire communities. It’s cliché to say things like “a bad decision to drink or do drugs and drive can change someone’s life forever,” but it’s cliché because it’s very true.

In a recent case, one young man changed his own fate and that of two passengers in a single-car DUI accident.

In San Diego, 20-year-old Antony Schoenle pleaded guilty to multiple criminal charges, including a charge of gross vehicular manslaughter while under the influence on Saturday, August 22. His decision to drive after drinking alcohol and using cocaine and marijuana allegedly led to the crash that killed his two of his passengers, Lupe Acosta and Lizzy Garcia. Schoenle escaped, but his two friends, still trapped in the vehicle, died in the resulting fire. A trapped puppy also died in the incident.

Firefighters arrived on the scene first, thinking they were responding to a brush fire, and then they saw the burning wreckage. When officers arrived and measured Schoenle’s BAC two hours after the incident, he was still legally intoxicated. The young man will spend 13 years in prison for his actions.