Punishment

Published on: May 18, 2016

Affluenza Teen Going to Jail for Fatal DUI

A Texas judge has finally sent Ethan Couch, the “affluenza” teen, to jail. Most drivers convicted of a deadly Los Angeles DUI would have been grateful to receive Couch’s original sentence—10 years’ probation for causing four deaths while DUI. But Couch didn’t appreciate the break he received.

Judge Wayne Salvant ordered Couch to report to jail to serve a sentence of 720 days, which amounts to 120 consecutive days for each of the four people that he killed. Couch, who was 16 at the time, also injured nine other people when he plowed into a disabled SUV on the side of the road.

Couch pleaded guilty to four counts of intoxication manslaughter and other crimes. During the sentencing hearings, Couch’s lawyers contended that he suffered from “affluenza” and therefore couldn’t be held accountable for his behavior. That defense, and the juvenile court judge’s sentence of 10 years’ probation, led to a storm of criticism throughout the country.

In late December, however, a video surfaced that showed Couch breaking the terms of his parole by drinking at a party. Rather than face the consequences, he fled with his mother to Mexico. Authorities there picked him up a month later and extradited him to the U.S.

Published on: May 9, 2016

Judge Goes to Jail with DUI Offender – Why?

by Michael Kraut

Defendants who go to court charged with a Los Angeles DUI may anticipate a lecture from the judge who hears their cases. They likely would never anticipate, however, is that the judge would sentence them to jail… and then spend the time behind bars with them!

Stories in North Carolina’s Fayette Observer and in the Washington Post tell the tale of Sergeant Joe Serna, a retired Special Forces veteran who served almost twenty years with the U.S. Army. He survived four tours of duty in Afghanistan and had close brushes with death three times; he earned three Purple Hearts.

Serna’s wartime experiences never left him entirely. He suffers from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and he has had some substance abuse problems. After being arrested for DUI, he had been on parole and enrolled in a veteran’s treatment court program supervised by North Carolina’s District Court Judge Lou Olivera.

Published on: April 29, 2016

Sentencing for DUI Driver Who Killed Three

by Michael Kraut

There’s often some sense of relief when a driver convicted of multiple deaths due to DUI in Los Angeles goes to jail; at least that person will be off the road for a few years. But in Anderson County, South Carolina, a recent DUI sentencing has left little more than a sense of loss and waste due to a young man’s poor decision one evening.

According to WYFF News 4, Riley McDermott, age 25, had gone out with his roommate to get chicken wings on the evening of November 8, 2014. He ended up drinking too much, getting behind the wheel, and crossing the center line of the road. He was going 73 mph when he slammed into a car carrying five young people. The crash killed Amber Hope Perkins, 17, Jessica Roberts, 20, and Cory Simmonds, 20. Jessica’s sister, 17-year old Samantha, suffered injuries in the crash. Amber’s sister, Cheyenne Queen, will face lifelong problems because of her extensive injuries.

McDermott reached a plea agreement with the Anderson County prosecutor. In return for a sentence of 18 years in prison, he pled guilty to three counts of felony DUI with death and two counts of felony DUI with manslaughter. The maximum sentence could have been 135 years in prison.

Published on: March 23, 2016

Court Rules 20 Year Delay Too Long for DUI Prosecution

by Michael Kraut

When drivers arrested for a DUI in Los Angeles hire attorneys to represent them, they expect that their counsel will help them resolve issues quickly. But Jason William Gale had a different experience. He discovered—20 years after his DUI arrest!—that his attorney had not followed through in handling Gale’s 1995 DUI arrest in Grand Forks, North Dakota. So when Grand Forks prosecutors (finally) caught up with Gale about a year ago, they took him to court, where the judge found him guilty and fined him $500.

Now the North Dakota Supreme Court has ruled that the 20-year delay violated Gale’s right to a speedy trial.

According to the Bismarck Tribune, Gale’s attorney in 1995, Henry Howe, reported to his client that the case was resolved and closed. Gale left North Dakota shortly after that time. But a background check for a security job Gale was applying for turned up an outstanding arrest warrant for the DUI case. Cass County, which was prosecuting the case, said it had sent three notices to Gale. However, Gale said the court had his address because of other legal actions and claimed that he had never received any such notice.

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: January 25, 2016

Police Search for Missing DUI Drivers

by Michael Kraut

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 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: October 21, 2015

Murder Charges Likely for DUI Driver Accused of Killing His Wife

by Michael Kraut

While motorists arrested for DUI in Los Angeles frequently cause serious injuries to other drivers or pedestrians, they rarely do so with an intention to inflict harm. But a man driving under the influence in Las Vegas not only hit a close family member with his car—on purpose—but he also injured a man standing in his own home.

No one knows what Jesus Mendoza Cabezas and his wife Gabriela Marin de Mendoza were arguing about on the evening of Monday, October 5th. But after the argument, Cabezas ended up behind the wheel of his Chevrolet Avalanche and de Mendoza headed across a crosswalk on the road. While driving away, Cabezas allegedly suddenly made a U-turn, gunned the engine, mowed down his spouse and then plowed into a fence of a nearby home. Her body flew into the yard of the home owned by Zach Hollis.

But that didn’t stop Cabezas, and his vehicle kept going, crashing into Hollis’ home. The Avalanche missed the homeowner by only a foot. Hollis did suffer back injuries and required hospitalization.

Cabezas, meanwhile, allegedly ran from the scene, but witnesses to the accident didn’t let him slip away. They brought him back to the scene and held him until police arrived. Emergency workers pronounced de Mendoza dead at the scene, but observers said Cabezas showed no sign of emotion at that pronouncement.

The couple’s six children, left without a mother, will likely have to do without their father for many years as well. Police charged Cabezas with DUI, driving without a license and failing to maintain his traffic lane; he will also have to answer an outstanding warrant for DUI and other traffic violations. Press reports said police also expect to charge him with murder with a deadly weapon.

Do you need help defending against a drug or DUI charge? Michael Kraut of Los Angeles’s Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers is a trustworthy, highly qualified former prosecutor. Call a Los Angeles DUI attorney today to strategize for your defense seriously.

Published on: September 23, 2015

Do DUI Checkpoints Target Minorities?

by Michael Kraut

Police officers insist that it’s a matter of public safety when they’re setting up checkpoints for DUI in Los Angeles, New York, Miami or any other city. But do all motorists get treated the same when it comes to screening for excessive alcohol consumption?
A report in the Chicago Tribune says that the Chicago Police Department sets up DUI checkpoints almost exclusively in African American and Latino sections of the city. Police stopped motorists at 14 such sites between March and September 2015; nine were in police districts serving a majority black population, four in Latino areas and only one in a majority white district.

The paper cites examples of this disparity, noting the Grand Crossing District, which is mostly black, had the fewest alcohol-related accidents in the city while the predominantly white Jefferson Park District has the third highest number of such crashes. But authorities skipped Jefferson Park for a DUI checkpoint and scheduled one for Grand Crossing.

A spokesman for the Chicago Police Department said that police use crash and citation data to choose the DUI checkpoint locations and that their goal is to safeguard the people of Chicago. But when the Tribune analyzed police data earlier this year it found no clear indication of correlation between a high number of DUI checkpoints and fewer alcohol-related crashes. But the data did show that during the last five years police set up 84 percent of 152 sobriety checkpoints in minority neighborhoods.
The chair of Chicago City Council’s Black Caucus has called for hearings on how police select the sobriety checkpoint locations.
Meanwhile, people who don’t want to go through any DUI checkpoints at all can play it safe by driving only in Alaska, Idaho, Michigan, Montana, Rhode Island, Texas, Washington, Wisconsin or Wyoming. Those nine states have all banned DUI checkpoints.

What should you do if you or someone you love faces a serious DUI count? Will you go to jail? Will you lose your license? Call Los Angeles DUI defense lawyer Michael Kraut immediately to understand your options and craft a strategic response.