DUI Category Archives — Page 13 of 41 — Los Angeles Criminal Defense Attorney Blog Published by Los Angeles & Southern California Criminal & DUI Defense Attorney — Medical Marijuana Defense Attorney Michael Kraut

Published on: December 7, 2015

School Kids Injured in Crash Caused By Allegedly DUI Driver

What kind of lessons do children learn when they watch a police officer arrest their mom, dad or even a complete stranger on a Los Angeles DUI 23572 charge? Do they shrug it off, thinking it’s no big deal? Or does it make a lasting impression and influence their driving habits in the years to come?

Teenagers taking the bus home from school in Charleston, South Carolina, aren’t likely to forget their encounter with a likely DUI driver on November 30th. That’s when Robert Long, age 61, rear-ended their stopped school bus. Five students suffered injuries, although none were seriously hurt. Officers charged Long with DUI.

Students in Hamilton Township in Pennsylvania got an even closer look at the dangers of DUI driving. They were riding around with a driver allegedly under the influence of a double whammy: pain killers and anti-anxiety medication.

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.

Published on: December 2, 2015

Does New York Law Encourage DUI Drivers to Flee Accident Scene?

by Michael Kraut

People who cause an accident because of DUI in Los Angeles understand that it’s better to stay at the scene and talk with police officers. If they take off before the police arrive, they could compound their legal troubles with additional charges of fleeing the scene.

The New York State legislature, however, has apparently actually created a loophole that encourages motorists who have been drinking to leave a serious accident scene. According to an online report in Newsday, lawmakers inadvertently caused this problem when they toughened the penalties for DUI drivers but not for motorists who flee. Prosecutors say this has actually given drivers under the influence of alcohol or drugs an incentive to take off.

The problem is not only that these drivers are getting away with DUI; they’re also neglecting to get prompt medical treatment for people they’ve injured in other cars or even for passengers in their own vehicles.

Newsday said that under current New York law, the penalty for an impaired driver felony can be as high as 15 years in prison. A driver who flees an accident scene, however, would face considerably less time–up to seven years in prison–if the accident killed someone and up to four years in prison if people suffered injuries.

The state legislature tried to address the problem in its 2015 session and unanimously passed a bill created a new crime of “aggravated leaving the scene of an incident without reporting.” But prosecutors object to the bill because it places too many restrictions on them. A charge of aggravated leaving would require the accident to cause injury or death to more than one person. The suspect would have to have a prior DUI conviction (within the last 10 years), be driving on a suspended or invalid license because of a previous DUI conviction, or have a prior conviction of leaving the scene of an accident that caused death or injury.
Lawmakers are trying to negotiate amendments to the bill so it can get the governor’s signature before a December 31, 2015 deadline.

To understand what to do to fight back against your charges, call Los Angeles DUI defense lawyer, Michael Kraut of Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers. As a former (and highly successful) Deputy District Attorney, Mr. Kraut has fought on behalf of defendants like you for nearly 20 years.

Published on: November 30, 2015

Young Officer and Mother Killed by DUI Driver

by Michael Kraut

Police officers on patrol in their vehicles are all too often at risk of serious injury or death when they’re dealing with DUIs in Los Angeles and the surrounding counties. It’s an occupational hazard for law enforcement personnel all over the country, who stop by the side of a road to make traffic stops or assist motorists having trouble and end up losing their lives when impaired drivers swerve and slam into them.

In Denver, Colorado State Patrol Trooper Jamie Jursevics suffered fatal injuries when investigating a minor crash on the interstate near the city. Eric Peter Henderson, 52, a retired Army colonel and Legion of Merit award winner, was allegedly driving home intoxicated from a Denver Broncos game when he struck Jursevics and then fled the scene. Motorists had already alerted the state police to Henderson’s driving; Jursevics had heard the reports and was trying to pull him over to the side of the road with her flashlight when his truck hit her.

Published on: November 27, 2015

Too Drunk For DUI Charges?

by Michael Kraut

Imagine someone charged with DUI in Los Angeles arriving in a courtroom and pleading not guilty. Not because he didn’t commit the crime, but because he was too intoxicated to really understand what was going on at the time of the arrest and to consent to a test measuring blood alcohol content.

Georgia Supreme Court building in downtown Atlanta. Photo by Jason R. Bennitt/Daily Report (5/14/2012).

It’s happening in Georgia, thanks to a Supreme Court ruling in that state that has created a loophole in the state’s DUI law.

A report on website AJC.com said that DUI attorneys have been using this argument in court ever since John Williams won an appeal of a ruling in his DUI case before the state’s highest court. Lance Tyler, who represented Williams, said that his client could not have given his consent “knowingly and intelligently” for voluntary blood tests, since he was too intoxicated to understand what was happening and the implications of BAC testing.

The Supreme Court ruled in Williams’ favor in March 2012 and asked the trial judge to reconsider his decision not to suppress the BAC evidence. The judge, Gwinett State Court Judge Joseph Iannazzone, not only threw out the BAC evidence in Williams’ case but also excluded it as evidence in the cases of five other drivers.

Published on: November 24, 2015

Two Victims In Deadly Los Angeles DUI

by Michael Kraut

A 36-year-old man is contemplating his future from a hospital bed after causing a fatal accident in the early morning hours on the Sunday before Thanksgiving. The alleged cause of the accident is a Los Angeles DUI incident.

According to various news reports, the as yet-unidentified driver of a Buick LeSabre was speeding when he careened across West 59th Street near Normandie Avenue and slammed into a minivan containing a family of five. The accident killed the mother of the family, who was driving. The father and the three children, all under age 10, suffered minor injuries.

That collision didn’t slow the driver down, however. He continued on a deadly path, traveling several blocks and eventually mowing down a pedestrian before crashing into a building where member of the Persuaders Motorcycle Club were holding a party. Even then the car didn’t stop, but destroyed several motorcycles before finally coming to a rest. (Pictures from the scene showed the smashed minivan and the flattened motorcycles stretched out in the street.)

Published on: November 18, 2015

5 Wild Truck Accidents to Put Your Los Angeles DUI into Perspective

by Michael Kraut

Your Los Angeles DUI shook you up, particularly if it led to an accident and injuries. However, it can be helpful to see your incident in context. To that end, let’s take a brief tour for five unbelievably crazy truck accidents:

1. Semi Sandwich

On a foggy morning in January 2015, Oregon driver Kaleb Whitby ended up in every motorist’s worst nightmare when he was pinned between two semi-trucks on the icy interstate. Whitby explained that he saw the first semi-truck jackknife in front of him on the road, which caused him to plow into the back of the semi and flip his pickup. The driver described hopelessly gripping the steering wheel as the second semi crushed his pickup like a can of soda. Miraculously, Whitby sustained only minor bruising from the accident, while only a dozen of the other people involved sustained injuries.

2. Truck Meets Road Sign

Published on: November 16, 2015

DUI Driver [and Would Be Rapper] Gets Life Without Parole for Accident That Killed 4

by Michael Kraut

Although drivers convicted of DUI in Los Angeles sometimes face harsh sentences, those jail terms rarely approach the time a judge gave to a man in Austin, Texas, for a March 2014 DUI incident.

Rashad Owens, 23, an aspiring rapper, had been driving while intoxicated and without his vehicle lights on when he spotted a police check point on March 13 around 12:30 a.m. Instead of stopping, Owens took off, driving through a gas station, speeding the wrong way on a one-way street and reaching speeds of 55 miles per hour before crashing through a traffic barrier. He then turned onto Red River Street, plowing through a crowd of people who had gathered for the South by Southwest (SWSW) music, film and interactive festival.

Owens wreaked devastation with his gray Honda Civic. Two people died at the scene, and two died a week later in the hospital. He also injured more than 20 people during his flight.

Published on: November 11, 2015

Arrested for a Los Angeles DUI and Worried about Jail Time? [This DUI Driver Had an Eerie Premonition]

by Michael Kraut

Drivers charged with a DUI in Los Angeles rarely dress like they expect to go to jail. But in the early morning hours after Halloween, police in South Carolina picked up one motorist who apparently had a premonition of where he’d be spending the night.

Fox Carolina reported that an officer with the Springdale Police Department tried to pull Jamal Alexander over on suspicion of DUI. Instead of stopping, Alexander allegedly took off, hitting a patrol car and a porch of a house before ditching his car while it was still moving. When police caught up with Alexander, he threw a loaded gun under a patrol car.

Alexander had probably been out celebrating the Halloween holiday, since he wore a prisoner costume—all ready for his trip to jail. Police charged him with DUI, driving under suspension, failure to stop for blue lights, open container in a vehicle and unlawful carrying of a firearm.

Published on: November 9, 2015

Three-Time DUI Driver Flees Hospital After Fatal Crash

by Michael Kraut

A driver convicted three times of a DUI in Los Angeles would probably lose his/her license for some period of time. But taking someone’s license away doesn’t always stop his or her from driving, especially if that driver refuses to learn from past mistakes.
Police in Baltimore, Maryland, had to search five days for 38-year-old Wayne Anthony Green, who allegedly killed a 16-month old boy during a police chase. Baltimore County officers started pursuing Green when he hit a police car parked at the scene of a pedestrian fatality. Green didn’t stop, and the county police followed him into Baltimore City, where the driver slammed into a Volvo, which in turn struck the child, Jeremiah Darrin Perry, who was sitting in his stroller. Jeremiah died that night at a nearby hospital.

Green received minor injuries in the accident, and officers took him to the hospital for treatment. He recovered enough by the next morning for doctors to discharge him from the hospital, before police had a chance to charge him in the accident. Green left the state, and it took police five days to find him.

Jeremiah’s grieving family members questioned why authorities hadn’t charged Green immediately. Prosecutors said they didn’t want Green arrested on lesser charges right away, since they feared that laws against double jeopardy would allow him to walk on the more serious charges. By the time they gave the okay for officers to arrest him, Green had gone into hiding. Police finally caught up with him a few days later in North Carolina.