Los Angeles Warrants

Published on: January 7, 2015

Los Angeles DUI Arrests Skyrocket Over New Year’s Holiday, According to California Highway Patrol Reports

Los Angeles DUI arrests spiked over the New Year’s holiday, as this blog (and other sources) predicted. But we had no idea that the damage would be as bad as it was.

From 6 PM on December 31 through 6 AM on the 1st, local officers in Los Angeles arrested 219 people across the county, and nearly a thousand people throughout the Golden State celebrated the ringing in of 2015 by getting handcuffed and charged per California Vehicle Code Section 23152 or 23153.

Talk about starting 2015 off on the wrong foot.

Depending on the nature of these allegations, defendants can face punishments ranging from severe fines and fees, to license suspensions, to probation, to significant jail time. In addition, their insurance rates can skyrocket, and they can face all sorts of indirect problems in their lives, including relationship troubles, getting reprimanded at work, and struggling with logistics, such as grocery shopping and child care.

The CHP noted that, over the 84 hour window that constitutes the New Year’s holiday, two people died in DUI crashes in Los Angeles County and 14 people across the state died.

To put these numbers in context – and to understand why this story is so important – we need to look at last year’s numbers. According to CHP records from 2014, only 104 people got arrested in Los Angeles County and only 457 people got arrested for DUI in California during the same time period.

Peter Bishop, a CHP Officer, told the Los Angeles Times that the spike in DUI arrests was “actually shocking because we have so much available [in the way of safe riding services Lift and Uber] now.”

When analyzing numbers like accident statistics or DUI statistics, you need to be very careful to avoid over-interpreting surprising results. For instance, does the doubling in DUI arrests across the state indicate an odd statistical artifact and nothing more? Or should we read the signal as indicating that driver behaviors have somehow taken a turn for the more dangerous?

Without more data points – and carefully controlled studies – we really can’t know.

If you have been struggling to try to figure out how to respond effectively to your recent charges, a Los Angeles DUI attorney with the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers can assist. Call us now to connect with a former prosecutor with nearly two decades of experience working on Los Angeles DUI cases.

Published on: January 5, 2015

It’s a New Year And (Apparently) Time for Yet Another Los Angeles DUI Golf Cart Arrest — This One at The Rose Bowl!

by Michael Kraut

2015 opened with quite a spectacle, at least in the world of Los Angeles DUI.

Authorities arrested a 19-year-old man for driving DUI on a golf cart that he allegedly stole from the Rose Bowl and used to motor around on the 210 Freeway. As the Oregon Ducks and Florida State Seminoles clashed on Pasadena’s famous gridiron, 19-year-old Andrew Aldridge was clearly distracted by thoughts of how to get back to his car. Instead of taking a shuttle or a cab or hitching a ride with friends, he allegedly decided to do something a little more off-kilter and nabbed a 9-person golf cart from the stadium.

Driving an exposed and slow golf cart on surface streets is dangerous enough, but taking such a vehicle onto a Southern California freeway is an act on the verge of madness.

Police stopped him around 10 PM and discovered Aldridge’s odd motivation. Sergeant Mike Munoz later told reporters: “He took the cart and was trying to get to his car on the other side of Pasadena… it’s definitely chalked up as one of the new experiences for a lot of people here.”

As long-term readers probably remember, this blog has covered over a dozen instances of golf cart DUI over the years. While each story often appears ridiculous, reckless golf cart driving can be a serious concern. Caddyshack is not real life. If you flip over a golf cart or hit someone with a golf cart or crash into a speeding truck on the freeway, you can get hurt or killed… or you can hurt or kill someone else.

Prosecutors can charge offenders according to California Vehicle Code Section 23152, which mandates all sorts of intense punishments for DUI, including jail time, forced alcohol education classes, probation, fines, fees, and driver’s license suspension.

For help defending against your allegations – whether you did something wrong (ridiculous or not) or you believe that the police made a mistake or that the breathalyzer tests give an errant result – talk to an experienced Los Angeles DUI attorney with the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers today to explore your potential legal options. Call us now for a free consultation.

Published on: December 24, 2014

Christmas DUI Dangers and How to Avoid Them

by Michael Kraut

Los Angeles DUI deaths and injuries are tragic no matter what time of year they occur. During the holidays, however, both the tragedy and the frequency of these incidents increase. Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) reports that many fatal traffic collisions that occur at Christmas involve DUIs. 57% of New Year’s traffic collisions, meanwhile, involve DUIs. It’s estimated that at least 1,200 deaths will occur across the U.S. this year because of DUIs this holiday season, with only a small percentage resulting in convictions. Many people face life-altering sentencing for DUI convictions, even for a first or second offense, because of circumstances such as children in the car or damage to multiple vehicles.

Why do people drive under the influence during the holiday season? The attorneys at the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers hope to illuminate a few reasons and in so doing, educate readers and their loved ones.

Stress

Published on: December 1, 2014

16 Los Angeles DUI Convictions… Is That Too Many?

by Michael Kraut

At what point should the law say “enough is enough” when it comes to Los Angeles DUI arrests or convictions?

Obviously, almost any person – no matter how vigilant or careful – can make a misstep or can find himself or herself in the wrong place at the wrong time. If police arrest you once or twice or maybe even three times, you can potentially chock up your problems to bad luck or a lack of impulse control.

But what happens if police arrest you five or ten or even 16 times?

First off, California DUI law is structured to preclude such a terrible eventuality. For every subsequent conviction, within ten years, your penalties get increasingly stringent. Even after just one misdemeanor DUI – in which you hurt nobody and break no other traffic rules – you could still get several days’ worth of jail time, substantial fines and fees, forced alcohol school, license suspension and intense probation terms. Subsequent arrests and convictions can lead to major escalations in punishments. For instance, if you are arrested three times within 10 years, prosecutors can automatically ask for a felony charge for what ordinarily would have been a misdemeanor – meaning that you might spend a year or more behind bars for what ordinarily might have only netted you a few days or even hours in jail.

In that context, let’s check out what happened to a Colorado man, Danny Lovern, a 57-year-old who recently netted his 16th DUI conviction.

According to local reports, a grand jury in Arapahoe County just indicted Lovern not only on DUI but also on eight other charges, including attempted manslaughter and first degree assault. A local District Attorney, George Brauchler, put the situation into context “by the time someone achieves five, ten, fifteen DUI convictions, they have reached a rarefied air that puts them in 1% of the population… and this is no longer a matter of “hey should we send him to jail for a year? Let him get out and then pour themselves back into the car to drive recklessly through our community?” We are not going to do that anymore… We are going to take a more aggressive approach to this, and treat it for what it is.”

Unlike California, Colorado does not treat multiple DUIs as felonies. Only four other states in the Union are like that.

If you stand accused of a recidivist DUI in California, you do need to be concerned about a potential felony count.

Fortunately, you are not without resources. The team here at Los Angeles’s Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers can assist. Mr. Michael Kraut is a highly qualified Los Angeles DUI criminal defense attorney with nearly 20 years of experience as a prosecutor and criminal defense lawyer.

Published on: November 27, 2014

When Police Do Bad Things During Los Angeles DUI Stops – Like Shoot Dogs

by Michael Kraut

LAPD officers engage in the dangerous work of patrolling our streets and stopping drivers suspected of Los Angeles DUI and other crimes. Without these courageous men and women, it is absolutely true that our surface streets and freeways would be more dangerous and more people would die and get hurt.

We applaud these efforts.

But we also want to make sure that patrol officers obey the law and respect the rights of suspected DUI drivers. So what restrictions on officer behaviors are appropriate and required? And when can officers effectively break standard procedure?

A sad but compelling case out of Mesa County, Colorado speaks to these two questions.

According to AP reports, a sheriff’s deputy near Grand Junction Colorado shot and killed a dog that allegedly attacked him while he was struggling with a DUI suspect. Reports say that police responded to an emergency call at a grocery store last Monday night. A man allegedly had been driving all over the road. When police arrived, the suspect ran away, and his shepherd mix dog jumped onto the deputy and bit him on the upper thigh. The deputy instinctively shot the dog and killed it.

According to the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, the suspect, Joseph McMillan, said that his dog had not been vaccinated for things like rabies, so now local animal services is submitting the dog’s body for tests for rabies.

In this case, at least according to reports, what the officer did sounds completely appropriate.

Although officers generally do not like to brandish their weapons against dogs or people, they do deserve and need the right to protect themselves (and victims) from harm caused by wild, erratic and dangerous people and animals.

Some cases, however, are ambiguous.

For instance, the shootings in Ferguson, Missouri this summer catalyzed intense and divisive debate over the use of police force in emergency situations. And we have covered many instances in which police officers have said or done things that are either inappropriate or downright ridiculous/Unconstitutional after DUI stops.

What should you do if you suspect that police behaved inappropriately (or even Unconstitutionally) during your DUI stop, tests or arrest?

The short answer is: take action by getting in touch with a qualified Los Angeles DUI lawyer as quickly as possible. Call attorney Michael Kraut and leverage his knowledge to obtain the results you need.

Published on: November 19, 2014

Some Los Angeles DUI Crashes Are Worse Than Others – This One Involved Seven Vehicles!

by Michael Kraut

Many people think about Los Angeles DUI accidents or incidents in a monolithic fashion. In other words, a DUI is a DUI.

However, as anyone who has dealt hands on with these types of cases can tell you, DUIs are incredibly diverse. For instance, some incidents involve people who are just on the cusp – who have never committed even a traffic violation before. Others involve serial recidivists who clearly engaged in reckless, negligent or outright stupid behavior who have hurt people.

In other words there is a huge range.

The question is: how can you tell whether your particular DUI situation will be a severe and complicated one or a relatively simple one?

One way to distinguish between these two outcomes is to look at the number of cars involved in a particular accident.

To that end, let’s take a look at a nasty accident in Coronado that involved seven (7!) vehicles. According to local authorities, a 52-year-old man in a Winnebago hit seven different vehicles on Orange Avenue last Thursday night. Police arrived on the scene near Bank of America around 7:30 pm, near to where one of the hit and run crashes occurred. Six other vehicles were hit on the 900 block of Northbound Orange. Sergeant Shawn O’Neill of the Coronado Police said police arrested the driver five blocks from the scene. Even though the Winnebago did hit a taxi with people in it and pushed a car onto the sidewalk, miraculously, no one got hurt.

The police said the only occupants of the Winnebago were a 52-year-old man and a dog.

Obviously, such an accident can lead to a complicated insurance situation. For instance, this accident will almost certainly generate tremendous insurance paperwork.

What can you do if you caused a multi-car crash and police arrested you on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs or prescription medications?

The first step is to contact a qualified Los Angeles DUI defense lawyer, like Michael Kraut of the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers. Mr. Kraut has nearly two decades of experience working as both a prosecutor and defense attorney; he can help you understand your rights and options and develop a strategy that makes sense to achieve your outcomes.

Published on: July 23, 2014

Give Yourself a “Time Out” from Worrying about Your Los Angeles DUI

by Michael Kraut

Ever since you woke up the morning after your Los Angeles DUI arrest, you have been obsessed with your case and deeply worried about what will happen to you and your life.

• Will a six-month California driver’s license suspension be in the offing?
• Will you have to go to jail for hurting or seriously injuring someone else?
• Will your insurance rates go up?
• Will your boss fire you?
• Will your girlfriend or boyfriend break up with you?
• What will happen to you, if you ever get in trouble with the law again?
• Are you doomed to be a slave to your impulses to consume alcohol and/or drugs and/or prescription medications?
• How can you fight the charges and get best results?
• Etc.

These and dozens of other questions and scenarios are likely floating around in your head and causing you tremendous agitation and stress. They are important to address.

But given your current fragile state, you may not be able to address them effectively. Try the following exercise to give yourself some space – almost a mini mental vacation – from the chatter about your DUI.

Find 15 minutes where you can be alone and in peace, and practice doing meditative breathing as follows. Sit comfortably in a chair — ideally, upright with your body relaxed but alert. Then just watch your breath flow in and out of your body. You don’t have to try to force the breath or take deep breaths or anything. Just watch the breath as it goes into your lungs, and then watch it as goes out of your lungs. You can breathe naturally: just try to focus all of your attention on the act of breathing – watching the process as if you were an objective observer watching the ocean waves flow in, hit the shore, and flow out.

You will notice that there are basically four distinct parts of the breath. There is the “in breath.” There is a kind of pause that happens at the top of the in breath. There is the “out breath.” And there is the pause after the out breath. Try to become very interested in all the minute details of this process.

If and when thoughts about your DUI pop up – and they likely will, and the chatter may grow intense as you get into this exercise – acknowledge them, but let them go. You will have time to think those thoughts later. For now, you just want to focus on the breathing. Set a timer behind that will go off in 15 minutes, and tell yourself that you can “touch” those thoughts and worries once the timer goes off. Every time you have a non-breath related thought, let it float away from you, as a child might let a helium balloon float into the clouds.

Hopefully, that exercise can give you a little sense of peace and quiet and help you improve your concentration. For practical help with your Los Angeles DUI defense, get in touch with attorney Michael Kraut of the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers. Mr. Kraut is a Harvard Law School educated ex-prosecutor who can help you make smarter decisions about your case.

Published on: January 17, 2014

Burbank DUI Blaze – Police Officer Pulls 72-year-old DUI Suspect from Burning Vehicle on 405

by Michael Kraut

In one of the most intense Los Angeles DUI arrests in recent memory, Police Officer Don Thompson — a former bomb squad officer — jumped into a burning Mercedes Benz Station Wagon on the 405 to save a 72-year-old man from certain death.

California Highway Patrol authorities say that the 72-year-old was likely driving under the influence of drugs, when he smashed his car in Sherman Oaks (near Burbank) on the 405 near the 101 Interchange. Apparently, he lost control of his 1991 Mercedes Benz, whacked into the right shoulder wall, doubled back across all lanes, and smashed into the concrete. His car then burst into flames.

Officer Thompson acted fast.

He had been driving Southbound on the 405 toward LAX, when he saw the explosion. He stopped, pulled to the side, leapt over the center median, threw open the door to the Mercedes and found the 72-year-old unconscious inside. According to Lieutenant Andy Neiman of the Los Angeles Police Department: “the fire was starting to spread inside the passenger compartment… [Thompson] was able to cut the seat belt with his knife, pulled the gentleman out of the vehicle, and two citizens who also stopped and came up and also assisted in pulling the driver further away from the vehicle.”

Thompson suffered serious injuries during the rescue, including first- and second-degree burns as well as smoke inhalation damage. He was transported to Urgent Care for treatment. Neiman called the situation “a Christmas Day miracle,” claiming that “nobody would survive that vehicle based on what the Fire Department observed when they arrived.”

The story indicates the profound role luck can play in Los Angeles DUI events. If you were arrested for DUI – and you’re lucky enough to be reading this – you can be at least thankful that you survived, even if you face jail time and/or if you hurt other people.

Good luck and bad luck happen to everybody. The more important question is: how do you manage that luck? How do you ensure, as author Jim Collins wrote about in his bestseller, Great by Choice, a “good return on luck”?

One of the best ways is to connect with knowledgeable, resourceful people. Get in touch with a seasoned Los Angeles DUI criminal defense lawyer, ASAP, to understand your options and construct a meaningful defense. Connect with Michael Kraut of the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers today.

Published on: January 15, 2014

Fatal Los Angeles DUI Crash in North Hills Takes Life of Teenage Girl

by Michael Kraut

A teenage girl lost her life – and a man suffered serious injury – during a tragic Los Angeles DUI accident over the holidays.

Investigators believe that a 24-year-old driver from Van Nuys had been speeding in his 2009 Ford Focus on Roscoe Boulevard, when he lost control of the vehicle and rammed into a light pole. 19-year-old Jennifer Benga – a passenger in the Focus – died in the crash. Investigators found bottles of beer inside the car, and authorities suspect that the 24-year-old driver had been under the influence. The fatal disaster happened in the midst of county-wide saturation patrols that led to the arrest of over 2,200 people in the 20 days from December 13th to the New Year.

Many who read the primary source article might be struck by the odd, “indirectness” of the reporting. If police found bottles of beer in the car, why not start from the presumption that the driver, was, indeed, DUI, and then work backwards? After all, that seems like the most likely inference to make.

The rebuttal is fascinating. Jurisprudence has evolved some counterintuitive safeguards over the centuries. The notion that a defendant should be considered “innocent before guilty” is a relatively novel one in human history. But we have such legal structures in place to prevent people from being convicted for crimes they did not commit… and also to avoid a peculiar cognitive feature known as the anchoring effect.

The anchoring effect states that, when someone hears a number or a judgment, that number or judgment or anchor will dramatically influence future thinking. In his book, “Thinking Fast and Slow,” Nobel Prize-winning author, Dan Kahneman, writes about how the anchoring effect can be used to lead people to make wildly divergent guesses about the age of civil rights leader, Mahatma Gandhi. When anchored by a question to the effect of — “was Gandhi older or younger than 98 when he died?” — people guessed very relatively high ages (e.g. 70, 80, etc). When anchored by a question to the effect of — “was Gandhi older or younger than 35 when he died?” — whe guesses were much lower (e.g. 40, 50, etc). In other words, the number you hear first can influence your future judgments. This is true, even if you’re an expert, and if you strain against the influence of the anchor.

The same is likely true, on some level, with guilt and innocence in criminal cases. If you’re presumed guilty, it’s likely that a judge or jury will be more likely to consider you guilty, no matter what happens, because the label will act as an anchor.

Fortunately, we live in a system where fairness and justice can prevail. Of course, you still need to approach your Los Angeles DUI case strategically. To that end, connect with Attorney Michael Kraut and his seasoned legal team today for a free consultation.

Published on: January 13, 2014

Pasadena DUI Celebrity News: Omar Gooding, Nickelodeon Child Star, Makes Plea Deal for DUI

by Michael Kraut

A Los Angeles DUI charge can be a decidedly unpleasant experience. This is true, whether you’re an ordinary working guy, a big league athlete, or a former child star.

Consider, in that context, what’s happened to former child actor, Omar Gooding — the younger brother of Oscar-winning Actor, Cuba Gooding Jr.

Last October 20th, police arrested the 36-year-old Gooding in Los Angeles for DUI, after officers saw him run a stop sign. Gooding once hosted a show called Wild and Crazy Kids on Nickelodeon (during the 1990s), and he was also featured in Smart Guy and Hangin’ with Mr. Cooper.

The police allegedly found weed on him, and they arrested him for alcohol and marijuana DUI.

So, what happened next?

Prosecutors initially charged him with possession of marijuana and Los Angeles DUI, but Gooding and his legal team pled down the charges. Gooding agreed to plead guilty to the charge of reckless driving. As punishment, he will have to attend Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotic Anonymous classes and face two years of probation. Gooding will not get any jail time.

Of course, the armchair psychologists were more than happy to dish out explanations for why Gooding got into legal trouble in the first place.

• “He was frustrated because he wasn’t getting more acting gigs.”
• “He was tired of living under his brother’s shadow”
• Etc.

Obviously, playing armchair psychologist is neither fair nor particularly helpful. As we’ve discussed many times on this blog, DUI cases are sometimes fiendishly difficult to understand, both logistically and psychologically.

The key to moving forward after a DUI is empathy. Try to understand what you are feeling, what you are needing and what would be most useful and nurturing. Also, consider calling Attorney Michael Kraut and his team today with the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers for a free and thorough consultation about your Los Angeles DUI defense options.