Los Angeles Criminal Defense Attorney Blog

Published on: March 9, 2016

DUIs Turning Deadly: Car Salesman Dies in Freak DUI Crash

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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Published on: February 19, 2016

Tennessee Court Tells DUI Drivers They Can’t Cross Any Lines

by Michael Kraut

Can a police officer pull drivers over—and subsequently charge them with DUI—just because their vehicles crossed the center line? A Tennessee court has said yes. While it won’t affect anyone contesting a DUI in Los Angeles, the court’s ruling in the Volunteer State seems to be bucking a national trend that has made it harder for prosecutors to get DUI convictions.

In a ruling that combined two different cases, State v. Linzey Danielle Smith and State v. William Whitlow Davis, Jr., the Tennessee Supreme Court found that police officers were acting within the law when they stopped the defendants for traffic violations in two separate incidents. The defendants, whom police charged with DUI, had argued that the officers had violated their constitutional rights prohibiting unlawful seizure because they did not have probable cause to make the stop.

Published on: February 17, 2016

DUI Arrests Down In Two States

by Michael Kraut

Would it be good news or bad news if the Los Angeles Times reported a large drop in arrests for Los Angeles DUI? The answer might depend on whom you ask.

Washington State’s Kitsap Sun Business Journal recently ran a story about the decrease in Kitsap County’s DUI arrests–1,000 fewer in 2015 than in 2006. The article suggests that one reason for the drop might be more education about the dangers of DUI driving. Accident statistics seem to bear this out; in 2006, Washington State saw 8,202 DUI-related crashes; that number decreased to 5,586 in 2015.

But lack of police manpower, the complexity of the DUI laws, which require extensive police training, and the time-consuming need to obtain blood samples to detect the presence of marijuana also appear to be contributing to the drop in DUI arrest rates. At least one police official said he simply doesn’t have the manpower to keep troopers patrolling the roads like they did previously.
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Published on: February 15, 2016

Under-the-Influence Mom Makes Underage Daughter Drive

by Michael Kraut

Underage drinking and driving often go hand-in-hand in Los Angeles DUI cases. But what if the driver is underage and the person who has been drinking is the one who ordered her to drive?

A 911 caller in Polk County, Wisconsin, alerted police to a car moving erratically along a local road. Sheriff’s Deputy Jeff Hahn caught up with the vehicle at a public boat launch and went over to the car, probably expecting to find a driver operating the vehicle under the influence.

What he found instead was a 9-year-old girl at the wheel; she had apparently driven the car for miles. Her mother, Amanda Eggert, and the mother’s boyfriend, Jason Roth, were reportedly sitting in the car intoxicated. The girl’s 11-month-old sibling sat strapped into a car seat.

Published on: February 8, 2016

Update: “Affluenza” DUI Driver Could Remain On Probation

by Michael Kraut

Judges will often waive jail time and place drivers on probation when they’re charged with a first-offense DUI in Los Angeles. But some people don’t appreciate that kind of leniency; they take advantage of it. What’s worse, the ingrates often don’t receive any punishment.

Ethan Couch of Tarrant County, Texas, made international headlines after his attorneys claimed that he was suffering from “affluenza” when he killed four people in a horrific DUI accident in 2013. (According to the lawyer, Couch wasn’t to blame because his family’s money had shielded him from the consequences of other bad behavior.)