Los Angeles Criminal Defense Attorney Blog

Published on: March 23, 2016

Court Rules 20 Year Delay Too Long for DUI Prosecution

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: 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 16, 2016

Mandatory Drug Tests for DUI Arrests? Another Law Bites The Dust

by Michael Kraut

Kansas has joined the list of states where courts have ruled against laws requiring suspected DUI drivers to take a breathalyzer or blood test without police first getting a warrant. A similar decision by a California court would undoubtedly impact many of the cases against drivers arrested for a DUI in Los Angeles.

The Kansas State Legislature passed a law in 2012 making refusing to take a blood or breath test after a DUI arrest an offense separate from the DUI itself. The penalties for breaking that law were steep: a one-year license suspension plus two years of driving with an ignition interlock device. But in the ruling announced on February 26th, the Kansas Supreme Court found that law was unconstitutional.

Published on: March 14, 2016

DUI Driver Carries Unusual Hood Ornament

by Michael Kraut

LAPD police officers undoubtedly have their own stories about the unusual cases of DUI in Los Angeles that they’ve handled over the years. But officers in any jurisdiction would have to go a long way to top this recent DUI arrest in Roselle, Illinois.

On January 23 around 11 p.m., motorists called the police department to report a car that was traveling along Roselle Road with an unusual hood ornament. The responding officer soon saw that the caller hadn’t been exaggerating–there actually was a 2004 Lincoln moving down the highway with a 15-foot tall tree embedded in its front grill. (If you watch the video of the incident, you get a rather disconcerting view of the car moving down the road with the tree instead of passing by it.)

Published on: March 9, 2016

DUIs Turning Deadly: Car Salesman Dies in Freak DUI Crash

by Michael Kraut

Although police officers arrest people from all walks of life on charges of DUI in Los Angeles, it’s not often that those DUIs relate directly to a job. But two separate incidents—one resulting in fatal injuries—demonstrate how people in some occupations may be more at risk when it comes to driving under the influence.

The first case involves a Pennsylvania nurse who forgot that he was on call to assist in emergency surgery. Richard Pieri had just returned home after enjoying time off at the Mohegan Sun casino; he reportedly had drunk at least four beers when he got the summons to go to the VA Medical Center near Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. A surveillance video at the hospital showed Pieri bumping his vehicle into a concrete barrier at the parking lot before he headed up to assist the surgical team. (One of his jobs was to monitor the patient’s vital signs during the operation; fortunately for both the patient and Pieri, the surgery went well.) Coworkers noted that Pieri had not seemed his usual self during surgery and reported the incident to management. Police later became involved, charging Pieri with reckless endangering another person, DUI and public drunkenness.

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: March 3, 2016

Los Angeles DUI Driver Wins New Trial

by Michael Kraut

A recent ruling in a case involving a DUI in Los Angeles County has overturned the second degree murder conviction of a woman who hit a pedestrian and kept driving—with the pedestrian stuck to her windshield.

In February 2014, a Los Angeles Superior Court jury convicted Sherri Lynn Wilkins of second degree murder and two counts of DUI in the death of Philip Moreno, 31, of Torrance California. A judge later sentenced her to 55 years in prison. But after her conviction, Wilkin’s defense attorneys argued that prosecutors unjustly introduced Wilkins long history of drug addiction and serious crime as evidence in the case.

The three-judge panel from California’s Second District Court of Appeal agreed. They noted that “The rap sheet reflected numerous arrests and several convictions, including for offenses such as drug possession crimes, prostitution, and thefts. We conclude admission of the rap sheet was prejudicial error requiring reversal of the murder and driving under the influence convictions.”

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: 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: February 23, 2016

DUI Arrest Challenge: Was Driver’s Right to Due Process Per the 14th Amendment Violated?

by Michael Kraut

Over the past year or so, anecdotal evidence suggests that lawyers who represent DUI drivers in states across the U.S. have been getting more aggressive in contesting their clients’ convictions. Now there’s another lawsuit–this time filed in Florida–which anyone who has lost a driver’s license because of a DUI in Los Angeles might want to watch closely.

According to the Orlando Sentinel and other media reports, lawyers for Alfredo Crespin, a 58-year old man from Winter Gardens, Florida, are bringing a lawsuit against the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (DHSMV). Arrested for DUI on November 20, 2015, Crespin lost his license when police confiscated it after his arrest. Following the regular procedures, DHSMV then suspended his driving privileges for a year. On February 12th, 2016, the court found Crespin guilty of the DUI charges, and his driver’s license suspension remains in place.
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