los angeles DUI

Published on: August 1, 2016

DUI Driver on Scooter Faces Felony Charges

Under California’s vehicle codes, police can charge a driver who is DUI in Los Angeles with a felony if that driver has had three previous convictions for driving under the influence in the last 10 years or if the driver has had a previous conviction for a felony DUI. The law does not specify what type of motor vehicle the person has to be driving for that felony charge to stick.

The DUI laws in Montana have a similar provision, which is unfortunate for 64-year-old John Adrian Langstaff of Missoula. He wasn’t behind the wheel of a car, but was on a scooter when police picked him for DUI.

According to KGVO radio, the Missoula police department sent an officer to a post office when callers reported they had seen a man drinking a can of beer while he was driving a scooter. Witnesses said he spilled part of the beer when he parked and finished the rest up before he went inside the post office.

Published on: July 27, 2016

How Many DUIs are Caused by Undiagnosed Mental Health Issues?

by Michael Kraut

Addiction to alcohol and other drugs obviously contributes to many arrests for DUI in Los Angeles. But could repeat DUI offenses also be an indicator that a person has a mental health disorder? The San Joaquin Superior Court’s Collaborative Courts Department will be working with Harvard Medical School to try to find out.

Recordnet.com reports that the court will be serving as one of six test sites for a Computerized Assessment and Referral System (CARS) developed by Harvard Medical School’s Division on Addiction of Cambridge Health Alliance and the Foundation for Advancing Alcohol Responsibility. The court’s case managers and substance abusers have already begun screening repeat DUI offenders using the system.

CARS asks repeat offenders a series of questions about signs and symptoms of mental health issues within the past year and during their lifetime. It identifies 15 specific mental health disorders for which they might be at risk, including depression, anxiety disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder and bipolar disorder. The system then generates a report to the court that suggests treatments and provides a list of referrals to providers who could offer help.

Published on: July 22, 2016

Celebration Nets Teen Another DUI Arrest

by Michael Kraut

A driver might be very happy when a judge reduces a charge of DUI in Los Angeles to a lesser charge, like wet reckless. But getting intoxicated and driving down a busy main street is not a good way to celebrate. Just ask 18-year-old Lucas Brandenberg of Knoxville, Tennessee. He’d likely be in less trouble today if he had found a quieter and less dangerous way to express his satisfaction with the outcome of his court case.

On Thursday, June 14th, Brandenberg appeared in a court in Knox County, where Judge Scott Shipplett accepted a plea deal that reduced a DUI charge against him to reckless driving. (Another judge, Stephen Mathers, had initially rejected the plea deal, but Brandenburg’s case ended up in Shipset’s courtroom.)

Around 2 a.m. on the morning of Friday, June 15th, police responded to calls about a pickup truck driving through Knoxville with two occupants throwing beer cans out the window. Officers tried to intercept the truck, but it blew through a red light and then led them on a chase through another town. The officers eventually found the vehicle abandoned and Brandenburg hiding in a nearby shed. (They never caught the vehicle’s second occupant.) But the police did discover several illegal and prescription drugs as well as illegal drug paraphernalia in the truck.

Published on: July 20, 2016

Passengers At Risk with DUI Drivers: a Scary Cautionary Tale

by Michael Kraut

Police officers frequently find passengers in a vehicle when they’ve pulled someone over for DUI in Los Angeles. All too often those passengers suffer critical and sometimes fatal injuries if the car hits a light pole, another car or a wall.

In Spartansburg, South Carolina, Joshua Meadows was traveling between 67 and 74 miles per hour in a 35 mph zone when he lost control of his vehicle on the night of June 8th. The car spun, went off the road, climbed an embankment and then went airborne before hitting a tree with the passenger side door. One passenger, Harold Dean Fields, 57, lost his life in the crash. Two other passengers suffered serious injuries.

Meadows faces charges of felony DUI resulting in death and felony DUI resulting in great bodily injury. His blood alcohol level allegedly was 0.104, and he also tested positive for barbiturates, Benzodiazepine and cannabinoids.

Published on: July 4, 2016

Supreme Court to Police: Get Warrant for Blood Tests

by Michael Kraut

A recent Supreme Court decision requires police officers to get a warrant if a suspected DUI driver refuses to take a blood test voluntarily. This ruling could eventually impact procedures in future cases of DUI in Los Angeles.

In a split decision, five of the eight justices said that police may not arrest a driver for refusing a blood test if they do not have a warrant. The Court ruled that warrantless blood tests violate drivers’ Fourth Amendment constitutional rights. The same justices also said that the same protection did not extend to drivers when it came to breathalyzer tests, because the breath tests are less intrusive than blood tests.

In dissenting opinions, two justices said that warrants should be required for both blood and breathalyzer tests; one said that they should be required for neither.

The Supreme Court was ruling on three cases—two from North Dakota and one from Minnesota—that had raised the issue of warrantless blood tests for drivers accused of DUI. Those two states, plus 11 others (Alaska, Florida, Hawaii, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Nebraska, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Vermont and Virginia) have laws making it a crime for a driver to refuse a request for a blood alcohol test when an officer suspects that a motorist is driving under the influence.

Published on: June 13, 2016

How Not to Parent 101: DUI Drivers Win Bad Parent Awards

by Michael Kraut

Children learn from their parents’ behaviors, so people convicted of DUI in Los Angeles might want to ponder the future and think about what their kids might try when they’re old enough to drive. Will your children repeat your actions, or will they be so turned off by the repercussions of your DUI that they’ll vow never to get behind the wheel while impaired?

Here are two stories along those lines to chew on:

• In Richmond, Virginia, a mother left her 16-month-old son and a dog alone in a hotel room while she allegedly went out drinking. Police picked up Taliaferro Troupe, age 34, for DUI shortly before 6 a.m. on a Sunday morning, but the mother apparently didn’t remember to tell authorities or her family members about the child until seven hours later. Troupe’s mother and the hotel staff finally went to the room around 1:30 in the afternoon and found the child in soiled diapers and without access to food and water. No one knows how long the child had been in the room alone.

Published on: June 6, 2016

South Carolina DUI Drivers Retain Moped Option – Should Los Angeles DUI Drivers Get Something Similar?

by Michael Kraut

Drivers convicted of DUI in Los Angeles usually lose their licenses for some period of time, forcing them to seek alternative transportation. They may take the bus, get rides from friends or family members or use cabs or ride-sharing services.

In South Carolina, however, DUI drivers have had another way of getting around the license restriction. They can travel around on a moped, since those vehicles are not subject to the same traffic and safety laws as other motor vehicles.

But moped drivers can expect some changes. The South Carolina legislature just sent a measure to Governor Nikki Haley that will require operators to follow almost all of the state’s traffic laws. When the bill becomes law, police officers will be able to arrest a moped operator for DUI just like they could arrest any other motorist who drives while impaired. (They could not do that under current law.)

However, drivers convicted of DUI who lose their regular drivers’ licenses could still get a special moped license that would allow them to continue to operate these small motorized vehicles.

Published on: May 23, 2016

Driver Gets 26 Years to Ponder Consequences of Fatal Crash That Occurred Just Hours After DUI Conviction

by Michael Kraut

Some drivers never seem to get the message about the dangers of DUI in Los Angeles, no matter how many times they face arrest, pay fines or waste days or weeks (or longer) in jail.

A judge in Nashville, Tennessee, gave a local DUI defendant plenty of time to ponder her driving decisions and their effects on others’ lives. Judge Monte Watkins sent Stephanie Ferguson, age 30, to prison for 26 years after she caused an accident that killed two men in their 60s.

The worst aspect of the case? Ferguson caused into the fatal collision just two hours after pleading guilty to her second DUI.

On January 22, 2015, a judge sentenced Ferguson to two days in jail and put her on probation for a year. Ferguson also lost her license, but that didn’t stop her from driving her red pickup truck just two hours later. She reportedly came over a bridge and slammed into a white Cadillac stopped at a signal. Two of the vehicle’s occupants received fatal injuries. Emergency responders transported six other people to the hospital as well.

Published on: May 18, 2016

Affluenza Teen Going to Jail for Fatal DUI

by Michael Kraut

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.