DUI in Los Angeles

Published on: May 4, 2016

Arizona Supreme Court Rules: One Word Wrong–No DUI Charge

When police officers charge drivers with Los Angeles DUI, they must take great care when booking people to avoid violating their Fourth Amendment rights. Even simple, seemingly trivial mistakes in protocol can mean that an otherwise justified arrest won’t stand up in court.

To that end, the Arizona Supreme Court recently ruled that if police officers say that a driver is “required” to take a blood alcohol test rather than “requested” to do so, the DUI charge won’t stand. According to Tucson TV station KVOA, the court said that requiring a search would violate a person’s Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable search.

Published on: March 21, 2016

Lyft Driver Shows Up DUI, Sets Off Fierce Debate Over Ride Service Safety

by Michael Kraut

If you’ve been partying a little too freely, and you want to avoid an arrest for DUI in Los Angeles, you might consider using an app to call ride services like Uber or Lyft. You’d better hope, however, that the driver who shows up isn’t at risk himself (or herself) for a charge of driving under the influence.

Alex Grant, of Austin, Texas, Grant sensed that something was wrong almost from the time that Lyft driver Allen Edmonds picked him up on March 8th. Edmonds apparently braked at a green light and swerved into another lane. That’s when an Austin police officer pulled the vehicle over. Grant, who said he could smell beer on the driver’s breath, watched as Edmonds failed the field sobriety test “pretty hard.”

This wasn’t Edmonds’ first arrest for DUI. Back in 2004, prosecutors dropped a DUI charge when Edmonds pleaded guilty to two counts of possession of a controlled substance. He spent two days in jail.

Published on: March 7, 2016

Suspects Not Driving Charged With DUI

by Michael Kraut

While the typical DUI in Los Angeles involves police actually seeing someone driving their vehicle, that’s not always the case. Officers sometimes make arrests when they haven’t seen the car moving, but have good reason to surmise that the driver was DUI.

KEYE TV in Austin, Texas, reported that John Thomas Watts, 26, was trying to change his tire in a Pizza Hut parking lot when police arrested him for driving while intoxicated. Watts told officers that he had hit the curb and needed to change his tire. But Watts was finding the task difficult – not surprising when he couldn’t stand up without falling over and when he was trying to insert the jack handle into the wrong hole. Police officers also found nine empty beer cans in Watts’ front seat, earning him a trip to the booking station.

An officer in another Texas town, College Station, found Connor James Bond naked in the front seat of his vehicle with his clothes on the seat beside him. Bond’s vehicle wasn’t moving when police spotted him, but it was situated on the railroad tracks, where he had apparently stopped after driving off the road. There were two more indications that Bond might be intoxicated. One was that while the police officer was talking to him, Bond tried to start the car with scissors. The other was the half-empty bottle of Everclear liquor they allegedly found in the back seat of the vehicle.

Published on: February 27, 2016

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

by Michael Kraut

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: 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.

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 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 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 4, 2015

DUI Driver Speeds To Jail

by Michael Kraut

Motorists picked up for DUI in Los Angeles often face additional charges of speeding and/or reckless driving. While they may exceed the speed limits by 10, 20, or even 30 miles per hour, few reach the speeds achieved by DUI drivers in Lyndonville, Vermont, and Kershaw County, South Carolina.

Kershaw County deputies picked up 28-year-old John Edward Hannah over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend and charged him with DUI for the second time in five months. He allegedly attracted their attention by traveling 115 miles per hour on Interstate 20. Hannah perhaps confused the Interstate with a raceway; at the time of his arrest last June, he was also speeding along on I-20. He was a little slower that time, however, moving “only” at 114 mph.