Los Angeles Criminal Defense Attorney Blog

Published on: August 3, 2015

Maybe It Was the Blue Moon [A Bizarre DUI Tale]

Some people claim that full moons can influence people in strange ways, causing unusual behaviors around the time that they appear. July 2015, with its two full moons (the second is known as a blue moon), saw more than its share of unusual DUI stories from around the country. (No word yet on any weird arrests for DUI in Los Angeles during this time.)

Police in Shelbyville, Tennessee, certainly had their hands full when they arrested Lawrence Howard, Jr., age 52, on a charge of DUI. The timesfreepress.com reports that Howard kicked and screamed in the back of the patrol car after the officer hauled him inside. When that didn’t get Howard any results, he started yelling that officers had messed up because he was the one keeping ISIS out of Shelbyville. The cops apparently were unalarmed by the warning, presumably because they had previously seen Howard run a stop sign and fail field sobriety tests.

The police charged Howard not only with DUI but also with running a stop sign, disorderly conduct, refusing a blood test, and failing to have proof of insurance.

In West Windsor, Pennsylvania, meanwhile, a golfer who had probably spent too much time at the 19th hole decided to take his golf cart out for a drive. Geoffrey Kleid, age 43, apparently didn’t like the fact that a golf course ranger who saw him driving erratically tried to make him stop the cart. Instead of coming to a halt, he veered onto Village Road West where he struck a car.
Police charged Kleid not only with DUI but also with reckless driving, careless driving and failure to stop or yield.

Do you or a family member need insight from a qualified Los Angeles DUI attorney? Contact Michael Kraut of the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers to set up your free consultation.

Published on: July 31, 2015

Sometimes Money Doesn’t Talk [Can You Bribe Away a DUI Charge?]

by Michael Kraut

A Los Angeles DUI may earn a first-time intoxicated driver a brief stint in jail and a hefty fine. But if you throw in a theft charge and attempted bribery, the consequences could be a lot more severe. A 25-year-old California man, Michael Kelly, may soon find out just how severe.

According to the website Steamboat Today, the disturbing events all started around 2 a.m. on July 15th, when Kelly’s roommate called police in Steamboat, Colorado, and told them that Kelly had stolen his 2004 Grand Jeep Cherokee. After a brief search, the cops found the vehicle with its lights on, stopped in the parking lot of a local park. Kelly was standing beside the Jeep. Officers pulled their guns, ordered Kelly to the ground, and arrested him.

Kelly said that his roommate had lent him the car (which apparently was news to the roommate). During this conversation, however, the officers began to suspect that Kelly was under the influence. He denied drinking, but his roommate told the cops that Kelly had actually consumed half a pint of whiskey that night.

At that point, it must have dawned on Kelly that he was in a bit of trouble. But he had an idea (not a good one) on how to get out of it. Telling police he had $400 in his wallet, he offered them $50 if they would just give him a ride home.

The police declined his generous offer and opted to take Kelly to jail instead. Once there, after Kelly refused a breathalyzer test, the police charged him with DUI, driving without a license, felony motor vehicle theft and felony bribery.

Designing and executing an effective defense against DUI charges (even simple ones) is not intuitive. Fortunately, you can trust the seasoned, highly successful Michael Kraut. Call a DUI lawyer in Los Angeles with nearly two decades of experience.

Published on: July 27, 2015

DUI Drivers Lose Their Shot at Parent Of The Year

by Michael Kraut

Drivers arrested for a Los Angeles DUI won’t win any medals for good conduct. But they do open themselves up to strong condemnation when they put their children at risk by loading them into a vehicle and then driving under the influence. Unfortunately, newspapers throughout the U.S. report this kind of incident almost every day.

For instance, the Daily Press in Talequah, Oklahoma, reported that Lucy Danielle Sanders, age 27, buckled her 21-month-old son into his car seat but left one of his arms dangling out of the harness. She drove off, but police picked her up after she allegedly crossed the white line on a local bypass. Sanders not only failed the field sobriety test; she couldn’t complete it, because she couldn’t keep her balance, according to reports. The charges the cops filed against her included driving under the influence of drugs, child endangerment and failing to properly restrain a child.

At least Sanders made an attempt to secure her child in the car. When police stopped Joseph Ramos in South Windsor, Connecticut, a few days later, his young child allegedly was asleep in the back seat without even a seat belt buckled around him for protection. Police stopped Ramos, age 41, for a traffic violation. But then officers noticed that he appeared to be driving under the influence. Ramos failed a road sobriety test, and officers carted him off to jail, where they charged him with DUI, risk of injury to a minor, failure to wear a seat belt and failure to secure a child.

There’s no word on what happened to the kids in either case, but hopefully they made it home safely in the custody of a sober driver.

Do you need assistance constructing an appropriate response to a DUI charge? Look to the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers’ Michael Kraut for insight and peace of mind. Mr. Kraut is an experienced Los Angeles DUI attorney with many relevant connections in the local legal community.

Published on: July 23, 2015

Racing to Jail: A Terrifying DUI Story

by Michael Kraut

Police officers frequently cite motorists arrested for DUI in Los Angeles for related offenses such as speeding and running red lights. In Los Banos, California, one motorist’s behavior recently resulted in another far more grievous charge—vehicular manslaughter.

ABC 30 reports that 20-year-old Marcus Perez-Negrete and 19-year-old Casey Giannone had spent the evening drinking before they decided to top off the night with a little street racing. They sped down Santa Rita Avenue; when Negrete got to the stop sign at D Street, he allegedly didn’t bother to stop.

As Perez-Negrete’s blue Saturn Astra barreled through the intersection, it struck a red Chevy Aveo. The Astra flipped over, landing on its roof. Perez-Negrete walked away from the crash; so did his passenger.

Although the 64-year-old driver of the Aveo survived the crash, his 61-year old passenger and co-worker wasn’t as lucky. He died from his injuries. The two men had double bad luck that day; they couldn’t work at their picking jobs, because the field was flooded, and their unplanned return home put them right in the path of Perez-Negrete’s car.

The crash startled people living along the quiet street, waking them with a noise that one resident described as sounding like a bomb exploding.

Police wasted little time in sizing up the situation and taking Perez-Negrete to jail. They charged him with driving under the influence and with vehicular manslaughter. The court set his bond at a substantial $400,000. While his street race competitor didn’t face the manslaughter charge, cops charged her with DUI, reckless driving and driving without a license.

Locating a seasoned and qualified Los Angeles DUI defense lawyer is a critical part of the process of reclaiming your life, your time and your peace of mind. Call ex-prosecutor Michael Kraut for a free consultation right now.

Published on: July 21, 2015

Second Down on DUI for former NFL Player

by Michael Kraut

Quarterbacks in the NFL typically have a lot of room to run. But one former NFL player, Donovan McNabb, will be looking at much closer quarters for three months if a recent second arrest for a DUI holds up in court and he ends up in jail. It’s too bad for him that the mandatory DUI penalties in Arizona are much tougher than California’s DUI penalties. If McNabb received the typical second-offense sentence for a DUI in Los Angeles, he might serve as few as 96 hours in jail.

McNabb, the Philadelphia Eagles’ former Super Bowl quarterback, was heading home from a sports bar on June 28 when he rear-ended a vehicle driven by the wife of a Gila River tribal police officer, according to AP reports. (Fortunately the accident didn’t cause any injuries.) When officers arrived on the scene they noticed McNabb’s watery eyes and fruity breath and asked if he had been drinking. McNabb responded that the cough syrup and cough drops he was taking for his cold were causing his symptoms.

The cops didn’t buy it. During the field sobriety test, McNabb couldn’t keep his balance and kept swaying from side to side. Police took him into the station and charged him with suspicion of DUI.

Because it’s McNabb’s second DUI offense, he could be spending 90 days in jail under Arizona’s mandatory DUI sentencing laws. The former NFL player previously served 24 days in jail for his first DUI conviction in 2014.
McNabb, who retired from football in 2011, has taken a leave of absence from his job hosting a sports radio show on ESPN.

Los Angeles DUI defense lawyer, Michael Kraut, of the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers is standing by to offer critical insight into your case and potential defense options. Call him and his team today to begin regaining control over your case and your life.

Published on: July 15, 2015

DUI Driver Damages Dwelling – Astonishing Story of Destruction

by Michael Kraut

Local TV and newspapers frequently report on DUIs in Los Angeles or other incidents where motorists smash into homes, restaurants or other buildings. It’s usually an accidental encounter. But when Cheri Tenney ran her vehicle into her home, it appeared to be very deliberate.

Tenney, who lives in Seminole, Florida, may have been doing a little too much celebrating of the Fourth of July holiday before she arrived home in the early evening. Her first attempt to drive her 2005 GMC Envoy into her garage didn’t end well. She hit the wall and then tried to back out. When Tenney wasn’t successful with that maneuver, she gave up and went into her home.
But she didn’t remain there long. According to police reports, Tenney got into her car again around 10 p.m. (clearing the garage this time) and then sat in her driveway revving the engine. Then she simply put the Envoy in gear and rammed it through her front window, coming out the back window.

Most people would have had enough at this point. Not Tenney. She put the car in reverse and slammed through the home again, this time moving from back window to front window. She brought the vehicle to a stop on the front lawn and left it parked there when she returned to the house.

By this time worried neighbors had alerted police. The police report doesn’t give any details on what happened once the officers entered the home, except to say that Tenney was only half dressed. She must have assaulted one of the cops, however, because they charged her with battery on a police officer as well as DUI once they got her to the police station.

Talk about creating your own fireworks for the Fourth!

How should you respond to your recent and disarming charges? Call a qualified Los Angeles DUI defense lawyer (and ex-prosecutor) with nearly two decades of relevant legal experience.

Published on: July 13, 2015

DUIs Spark Arrests Over Holiday

by Michael Kraut

Police officers patrolling Los Angeles County highways found little to celebrate over the Fourth of July holiday weekend. From Friday, July 3rd at 6 p.m. through midnight July 6th, they made 229 arrests for DUI in Los Angeles County and dealt with the aftermath of accidents that killed two people. During that same time period, the California Highway Patrol reported that its officers made 930 DUI arrests throughout the state, while twenty-six people were killed in vehicle collisions.

One deadly accident not included in this total occurred in the early morning hours of July 3rd in Lompoc. TV Station KSBY reported that 29-year-old Manuel Santos let his Toyota Corolla drift off the road, where it hit a culvert, a boulder and then a power pole. But that didn’t stop the car. It spun out of control and went back onto the highway where a Toyota Avalon smashed into it. The two people in that car went to the hospitals for non-life-threatening injuries.

The crash killed 22-year-old Jesenia Liborio, a passenger in Santos’ car, and injured an eight-year-old girl sitting in the back seat without a seatbelt. Santos suffered major injuries and went to the hospital. Police later determined Santos had been driving under the influence, and charged him with felony DUI and vehicular manslaughter charges.

In another incident on July 4th, Mary Jane Plante drover her Toyota Tundra truck across the center divider on Highway 74 near Pinyon Pines. She struck a 1999 Nissan Maxima, injuring the 64-year-old driver so badly that he later died. Plante ran from her vehicle and spent the night on the run. It didn’t do her any good. Police picked her up the next day, arresting her on suspicion of driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol, hit and run and gross vehicular manslaughter.

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.

Published on: July 8, 2015

Switching Seats to Fool Cops into Thinking You Didn’t Drive DUI: Unsurprisingly, It Doesn’t Work!

by Michael Kraut

As this blog has documented over the years, people try a lot of crazy approaches to avoid being charged with a Los Angeles DUI. Some cry. Others flee the scene. Still others try to talk their way out of the charges.

One ploy that doesn’t work too well, however, is switching seats just before the police officer comes up to the vehicle. Just ask Jose Ruiz, age 29, of Providence, Rhode Island. When the police pulled him over, he quickly exchanged places with his passenger, maybe hoping the officer wouldn’t notice the swap. (He did.)

According to a local newspaper, the Warwick Post, when police spotted Ruiz initially, he was swerving into other lanes, and he just barely missed hitting a guard rail. When police pulled him over, they called his bluff and gave him a field sobriety test. He apparently didn’t do too well.

But trying to pretend he wasn’t driving wasn’t Ruiz’s only offense. He had been driving on a suspended license; his vehicle’s windows were too heavily tinted; and there were two bottles of Hennessy (cognac) in the car, one open and one closed. (Ruiz reportedly threw them in the back seat before he got out of the car; that worked about as well in terms of keeping him out of trouble as did changing places with his passenger.)

The final difficulty? Although the car was registered to Ruiz, the plates belong to a rental car company. Uh oh.

According to the Warwick Post, the police threw the book at Ruiz, charging him with misuse of plates, operating a motor vehicle with an open alcohol container, failing to use turn signals, roadway violations, and refusal to submit to a chemical test.

How should you respond to your recent and disarming charges? Call a qualified Los Angeles DUI defense lawyer (andex-prosecutor) with nearly two decades of relevant legal experience.

Published on: July 6, 2015

Drug DUI Defendants Take Note: Pot Can Linger in Your Body for Days

by Michael Kraut

Police use relatively simple tests to determine whether or not to charge someone with a DUI in Los Angeles. If a motorist’s blood alcohol content measures higher than .08 percent on a breathalyzer or blood test, that person will likely soon be visiting a local detention center.

But police face more challenging obstacles when it comes to determining whether someone has been driving under the influence of marijuana. According to a recent Fox News report, the way that humans metabolize pot makes it difficult to determine when and how driving impairment occurs. Unlike alcohol, which disappears from the bloodstream after a certain number of hours, the active ingredient in pot—tetrahydrocannabinol or THC—can linger in the bloodstream for days.

Colorado and the State of Washington have dealt with this problem by setting a level of five nanograms of THC per liter of whole blood as the threshold for driving under the influence. (Illinois may be increasing that measurement considerably; the state legislature has passed a bill raising the level of impairment to 15 nanograms.) So far, the testing process has involved measuring blood, urine or saliva samples, but one company, Cabbabix Technologies, may be changing the game. Cabbabix has created a prototype of a pot breathalyzer, according to Fox.

Law enforcement must also reconcile with the fact that no one really understands how pot affects driving. The Fox News report said researchers identified conflicting results in studies on the subject; some studies suggest that marijuana use has little to no impact on how likely someone is to get into a crash. Others suggest that drivers who use pot run a higher likelihood of getting into accidents.

Legislators in each state will need to discuss this question in more depth, as more and more states legalize the use of marijuana.

According to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, the number of motorists driving under the influence of pot has risen 50 percent since 2007.

Los Angeles DUI defense lawyer, Michael Kraut, of the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers is standing by to offer critical insight into your case and potential defense options. Call him and his team today to begin regaining control over your case and your life.

Published on: July 3, 2015

TV Anchors Making DUI News [Themselves]

by Michael Kraut

When you report the news—whether you’re describing a fire in Chicago or a high-profile arrest for DUI in Los Angeles—you don’t want to end up as a story on the 6 p.m. broadcast. But that’s just what’s happened to a couple of TV reporters in the last few weeks.

On June 15th, cops arrested Atlanta news anchor Amanda Davis on DUI charges for the second time in less than two years. Davis had been driving her Mercedes E350 down the southbound lane of Atlanta Road, but reports say that she experienced trouble staying in her lane. An officer who pulled her over said that she staggered out of her vehicle.

It was a case of particularly poor timing for Davis, who had been scheduled to make her return to the screen on that very same night. Earlier in June, in a radio interview, she had said her previous arrest for DUI driving was awful. This latest one probably wasn’t any better.

Less than a week later, in Washington State, police picked up KEPR Action News anchor Terry Chick. The 61-year-old allegedly had been drinking in a bar, and despite protests from other patrons, chose to drive off in his Mazda. He backed into a parked truck, but then took off instead of stopping. Witnesses alerted the cops, who followed Chick’s car and saw it swerving on the road. When the police stopped him, Chick allegedly didn’t do well on the roadside tests, and he refused to take a breathalyzer test.

Chick had a previous arrest for DUI in 2011. He pleaded guilty, and the court sentenced him to serve five years’ probation.

Designing and executing an effective defense against DUI charges (even simple ones) is not intuitive. Fortunately, you can trust the seasoned, highly successful Michael Kraut. Call a DUI lawyer in Los Angeles with nearly two decades of experience.