Fight A DUI

WPTV has a sad article about an 18 year old girl, , who’s managed to rack up 3 DUIs in 3 weeks:

It’s a distinction nobody would want to have, but police say 18-year-old Kimberly McCarthy now has on her record: Three mug shots in 17 days for the same crime.

McCarthy was charged with three separate DUI’s between February 24th and March 11th. Arrest reports show two of those arrests happened within two days.

“Her last one culminated with her crashing in to the back of a brand new car that had only been on the road a couple of weeks,” said Tampa Police Sergeant Ray Fernandez.

Pathetic picture here (from WPTV):

Full story Here

LAPD:

DUI Saturation Patrol on March 15, 2012 (Thursday) from 6pm to 2am in Pacific Area
Sobriety Checkpoint on March 16, 2012 (Friday) from 8pm to 2am on Figueroa Street between 8th Street and 9th Street in Central Area
DUI/Driver’s License Checkpoint in the City of West Hollywood on March, 17, 2012 (Saturday) from 7pm to 3am
Sobriety Checkpoint on March 17, 2012 (Saturday) from 8pm to 2am on Venice Boulevard between Sepulveda Boulevard and Sawtelle Boulevard in Pacific Area
DUI Saturation Patrol on March 18, 2012 (Sunday) from 12pm to 8pm in Harbor Area

In the DUI world, it’s clear that some DUI offenses are worse than others. Legitimate sober defenders have to face judges and juries accustomed to repeat offenders, such as this Wisconsin driver who was arrested for DUI after crashing into a ditch and then blew a 0.20 to line himself up for his 11th DUI charge:

A Sturtevant man charged Monday with drunken driving for the 11th time allegedly hurled vulgarities at the officer who arrested him and others at a hospital, where he was taken after crashing a truck into a ditch, according to a criminal complaint.

Bruce T. Henningfield, 51, registered a breath alcohol concentration of 0.20 at the hospital, according to the complaint, which describes how a caller reported him staggering about in the ditch near the truck shortly after 1 a.m. Saturday near County Highway H and Durand Ave. in Sturtevant.

More here

5 years ago, we posted a link to a story with 30 points a DUI lawyer may use to fight your DUI.

Now, we up that count by 10, and offer 40 Ways to Beat a DUI. The prosecution is changing, so defense lawyers have to change to keep up. Here are a few examples:

ILLEGAL STOP OF PERSON OR VEHICLE – a driver cannot be stopped unless the officer has a reasonable and articulate basis to believe that a traffic law or other law has been violated. Similarly, a person cannot be seized unless a violation has occurred.

Ok, ok, that’s a pretty common card most drivers will try to play at the time of the initial stop. But how about this:

FAILURE TO CONDUCT OBSERVATION PERIOD – Most states require that a driver be observed continuously for a minimum period, such as twenty minutes, prior to a breath test in order for the results to be considered admissible and valid.

And, even more obscure:

LACTATE RINGERS – When hospital staff use lactate ringers during the treatment of a patient, the hospital blood serum results will report falsely elevated, and therefore invalid, readings.

Worth a read, then use the form below to contact a properly trained DUI lawyer ASAP.

Cinco de Mayo has long been a holiday more about drinking in the US than military victories in Mexico, and like many other drink-heavy holidays, DUIs are a likely outcome. This year’s story comes from Santa Ana, CA, where an unnamed young lady blew through a red light, then blew a .30:

The woman registered a .30 blood-alcohol level when she was given a field sobriety test, Cpl. Anthony Bertagna said. The legal limit is .08, and that’s for someone who has turned 21.

“I’ve never seen anybody that drunk,” Bertagna said. He said he has “no clue” how she was still functioning if she had that level of alcohol in her system.

The full story is at MSNBC.

ABC News (AU) brings us a story of a busy night. It starts out like many DUI stops:

Just after 4am police stopped the vehicle and say a 25-year-old man was arrested for high-range drink-driving and a range of other driving offences.

Often, passengers riding with drunk drivers are drunk, too (why else would they let a drunk person drive?). Occasionally, they’re dumb enough to try to drive away from the DUI arrest:

Within 10 minutes, police stopped the vehicle again and charged a 31-year-old woman after she was over the alcohol limit.

That’s clearly a bad idea. But then:

Again within a ten minute period, police found the car back on the road and a 30-year-old man was charged with drink-driving and providing a false name.

The 3 arrests account for more than a quarter of the DUI arrests in that city for the night. If your driver gets arrested, and you’ve been drinking, do the sensible thing and call a cab.

1800 DUI LAWS has an informative article on how lawyers go about beating a DUI, with a few key points:

The first thing to know in beating a DUI is how a prosecution attorney will try to get a DUI conviction. There are two ways he will try to prove DUI. One way is to attack the driver’s mental and physical condition by presenting evidence that shows the driver was impaired because of alcohol consumption. The other way is by concentrating on the driver’s blood-alcohol content and not focusing on the driver’s physical or mental condition. Or, the prosecutor may use both ways in the same case.

The article notes that a skilled DUI lawyer will address both methods by countering the evidence - attacking the blood test (Did too much time elapse between driving and testing causing the blood to ferment? Was the test conducted properly?) and attacking the physical impairment question (Was physical impairment the result of alcohol, or was it some other factor such as injury or fatigue? Was the roadside test conducted fairly, did it properly address impairment?) to introduce doubt into both avenues the prosecution needs for a confiction.

The Statesman brings us a new DUI story about a driver with a little too much alcohol in his system:

Massey was charged with aggravated assault, a second-degree felony, and two third-degree felonies: intoxication assault and failure to stop and render aid. A blood-alcohol test showed Massey at .41, the affidavit said; the legal limit is .08.

The woman who was struck suffered broken legs, Massey faces 40 years in prison if convicted.

DallasNews.com notes that MADD is a little upset with the plea deal reached by Donte Stallworth following his killing of a pedestrian while driving with a .126 BAC.

According to Miami-Dade County prosecutors, they agreed to the 30-day plea bargained sentence because he was remorseful and cooperative and it was what the family wanted. Stallworth also reach a financial settlement with the family, but the terms are not being disclosed.

Meanwhile, Stallworth has been ordered to pay MADD $2500, yet the group is refusing the funds:

“If we took the settlement, we’d be part of the settlement and we don’t agree with the sentence and therefore the settlement,” MADD president Laura Dean-Mooney told Good Morning America this week.

The full story can be found here

The CBC has an article that in Canada, not only are DUI arrests on the rise, but the average BAC of arrested drivers is up:

 

Police are finding that the impaired drivers they are catching are registering a higher blood-alcohol level — to an average of more than twice the legal limit.

Blackmore said the average blood-alcohol level for those charged up until last week was .165 — that is 165 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood.

Last week, that figure jumped to an average of .178 and the highest reading was .245 — more than triple the legal limit.

Obviously, driving impaired is a bad idea. Driving when you’re three times the legal limit is an awful idea.