DUI Attorneys Blog

Here's yet another story of a law enforcement officer getting arrested for a DUI. This one is from Tennessee.

Former Grainger Co. sheriff arrested for DUI: "JOPPA (WATE) -- Former Grainger County Sheriff Richard McElhaney was arrested on a DUI charge Monday by the Tennessee Highway Patrol.

McElhaney, 55, is also charged with violating the implied consent law.

He was pulled over at 4:00 p.m. for weaving on Highway 11W west of Rutledge in the Joppa community as he drove a 1993 Chevrolet pick-up truck.

The Highway Patrol says McElhaney refused a breathalyzer test.

He was released from the Grainger County Jail on bond."

It never ceases to amaze us that law enforcement officers seem to commit the crime of DUI as much as civilians. I wonder if DUI defense attorneys and DUI prosecutors do too?

Below is an article about the consequences of boating under the influence in Florida.

Tarpon Springs man gets 15 years in prison in boating DUI - St. Petersburg Times: "What began as an Anclote River boat trip to watch the sunset nearly four years ago ended today with a 15-year prison sentence for the boat's driver, a Tarpon Springs father who killed his friend after crashing into a dock while drunk.

Matthew Aime, 26, was piloting a 14-foot aluminum johnboat before midnight on Nov. 17, 2005, when he veered onto mud flats and smashed into a dock. The collision paralyzed Robin Raihan, 50, who fell into the water with a broken back and drowned.

A jury found him guilty of boating under the influence manslaughter and reckless operation of a vessel April 30.

At his sentencing today, 13 people who identified themselves as cousins, construction supervisors, neighbors and best friends of Aime pleaded for leniency from Judge Cynthia Newton, calling the father of three a hard worker who never denied a request for help."

I posted earlier about the topic of Florida BUI, so won't get into a deep analysis here. See Florida DUI penalties for more information on what one might face for a boating DUI in FL.

Here is an example of a manslaughter sentence in Phoenix, Arizona. People accused of DUI complain about the fact that, under the Arizona DUI sentencing laws, a judge can't give a first offender less than 45 days in jail for a conviction with an alcohol level of .20 or greater.

Well, here's the counterpoint to that. The maximum 16 year sentence for manslaughter.

Man gets 16 years in fatal DUI crash: "Judge Michael Kemp issued the maximum allowable sentence of 16 years after considering aggravating factors such as Vivas-Diaz's 0.24 percent blood-alcohol content at the time of the wreck, a level three times the 0.08 percent legal limit to operate a vehicle in Arizona."

Yeah, a 45 day sentence is rough, but the only difference between somebody who drives with a .240 alcohol content in Arizona and gets 45 days, versus somebody who gets 16 years is pure luck in not getting into a collision.

Get ready for the new Missouri DUI law which will require ignition interlock devices on certain offenders' vehicles.

New law affecting repeat drunken drivers takes effect Wednesday in Missouri - Kansas City Star: "Business is about to pick up for ignition interlock providers in Missouri.

A new state law takes effect Wednesday that requires people with two or more drunk-driving convictions to install the devices on their vehicles for six months in order to get their license back.

The Missouri Department of Revenue says about 70,000 people in the state will be affected.

An interlock is a breath-testing device connected to a car’s ignition system. The driver must blow into the device before the car will start. An alcohol content above a prescribed level will disable the vehicle.

The law is good news for Mothers Against Drunk Driving and other traffic safety advocates."

Missouri is following in the path of states like Arizona and New Mexico who have, in past legislative sessions, enacted tough interlock laws.

Here's a story about a young Tampa DUI hero. Perhaps it is the emotional stories that make the biggest impact and act as the biggest deterrent for would be DUI drivers. In Florida, one little girl has inspired at least one person to follow and stop a person suspected of drunk driving.

Drunk driver caught, thanks to Summer: "TAMPA - Weighing in at 40 pounds, Summer Moll doesn't have a badge or a gun, but deputies say her painful story of survival, of coming back from a deadly drunk driving crash on the Crosstown that killed her mother, is having an impact on the war against drunk driving.

BJ, who doesn't want his full name used, saw a driver weaving all over the interstate.

'It took about 20 miles before I could get anybody to get him stopped,' he said.

BJ called 911 and followed drunk driving suspect, Brian Beals. Turns out, court records show, it's Beals second DUI arrest.

'He almost hit four or five different vehicles including a bus,' BJ says. 'And after the little girl's mother got killed on the Crosstown, it was the right thing to do.'

BJ also says he's lost family to drunk drivers, and he's followed Summer's progress."

What's interesting for the BJ in this story is that it seems to have ben the death of the little girl's mother, not his own family member, that inspired his 20 mile chase. Whatever the reason, the more people are aware of the dangers of drunk driving, and the more negative emotional response they have to the idea, the less likely they may be to get behind the wheel of the vehicle after drinking too much.

Earlier today I blogged about some random California DUI Thoughts, and thought that I'd expand on it a little.

California DUI law has always been tough, and each year it seems to get a little tougher. After all, it borders Arizona, which without a doubt has the toughest DUI laws in the nation (and supposedly the only jail to be condemned by Amnesty International, but that's another story).

Look at California today... budget crisis. No gay marriage. Falling house values. Record high unemployment.

As a state falls from grace and as economic times go hard, there is a historic shift towards conservatism. If that is the case in California, my guess is that California DUI penalties will keep getting stiffer as the years go by.

It seems like every day there is a headline about either somebody killing somebody by driving under the influence, or a story about the defendant either pleading guilty to the DUI-manslaughter charge or being found guilty and sentenced. There has been a wide range of sentences reported in the last week. Let's look at a few:

In Santa Cruz, California - A young man got 8 years for an accident that could have killed a whole family and more than one of his passengers, and from which he attempted to flee. I have blogged about it at Santa Cruz California DUI Sentence.

Then there's Miami, where, if you are rich and perhaps can arrange a deal with the victim's family, then you get 30 days. For the whole story see Miami DUI Penalties - Wealthy Person Style.

Contrast that to a Pensacola Florida DUI homicide case where the defendant can't even make bail. For the story, see Pensacola DUI Homicide - Bail Denied.

So there's obviously a gap between the haves and the have-nots, and between states and even between counties when it comes to DUI penalties, right?

According to Oregon DUI Attorney Bart Herron, who has worked as both a private attorney and a public defender, good and dedicated defense lawyers always try to do a great job regardless of whether the client is privately retained or publicly appointed.

According to Florida DUI lawyer familiar with the case, all persons should be treated the same under the law. It is the DUI defense lawyer's duty to see that justice is in fact equal.

Still, you can't help but wonder if money and power have some influence. It worked for O.J. (for a while). It worked for Blake. It worked for Spector (for a while), but it didn't work for Martha or Wesley. It worked for Michael. Didn't work for Winona.

I'd like to believe in what Uncle Hub said in Secondhand Lions in his "what every boy needs to know about being a man speech," that people are basically good, and that money and power, power and money mean nothing.

In the DUI arena it remains to be seen.

The Pima County Sheriff in Tucson, Arizona is backing down from an ill-conceived plan to plant officers in the drive through windows late at night to nab impaired drivers who have the munchies.

The idea was to pub officers in the windows.

Hold the phone! This isn't within the definition of a roadblock. I would bet you that the $100k plus that the Governor's Office of Highway Safety planned to spend would turn into upward of a million in appeals fees, not to mention the fact that the practice would be shot down as unconstitutional.

According to Phoenix DUI Lawyer Stewart Bergman, there are several potential constitutional flaws in this plan. Therefore, it is a good thing that they scrapped it.

If there were Darwin awards for dumb DUI arrests, this Florida man would be in the running.

Man fearing DUI charge doesn't stop when woman flies out of truck | HeraldTribune.com | Sarasota Florida | Southwest Florida's Information Leader: "A Manatee man told authorities he kept driving when a woman flipped out of the bed of his pickup because he was afraid of a possible DUI charge, even though he saw her rolling on the pavement in his rearview mirror.

According to a Florida Highway Patrol report, the 54-year-old man was driving on 63rd Avenue East with a woman in the open back of the truck when she started pounding on the roof of the cab around 10 p.m. Wednesday.

When the driver looked to see what was happening, he veered left and the woman spilled out of the back. The man said he looked back and could see her rolling along the pavement on 63rd Avenue near Parkland Drive, the report said.

The man said he dropped off his son to check on the woman, but the report said the man’s son only looked at her from a distance. The man went home, then returned later to pick up his son, the report said.

By then, emergency workers had arrived and the woman was taken by helicopter to Bayfront Medical Center in St. Petersburg in serious condition, the report said.

After interviews, an FHP officer tracked down the driver at his home. He told the officer that he did not stop because he had consumed several beers prior to the incident, and did not want to face a charge of driving under the influence. He told the officer he had drank several more beers since arriving at home.

The officer then arrested James Allen Halsey Sr., 54, of Harvest Street in South Manatee, on a felony charge of leaving the scene of an accident with serious bodily injury."

Amazing what some people will ask their kids to do. Unbelievable.

Bart Herron, an Oregon DUI defense lawyer serving the greater Portland metro area has joined duiattorney.com. Bart Herron brings a wealth of knowledge and experience about Oregon DUI Law and Oregon DUI penalties. DUIAttorney.com is pleased to have Bart Herron on board and looks forward to his contributions to the project.

Below is an article that concisely sums up the penalty that a person is likely to receive for a first offense regular DUI in Arizona.

Tuitama enters guilty DUI plea, given probation | www.azstarnet.com ®: "Former University of Arizona quarterback Willie Tuitama pleaded guilty Monday to misdemeanor driving under the influence and was placed on 12 months of unsupervised probation.

Tuitama was also ordered to pay a $1,500 fine, attend a Mothers Against Drunk Driving impact panel and obtain an ignition interlock device for his car, said Tucson city prosecutor Laura Brynwood.

If Tuitama completes an alcohol evaluation and counseling program before Sept. 30, nine days of a 10-day jail term will be suspended, Brynwood said, adding Tuitama has already served the one day.

In exchange for his guilty plea, other counts against Tuitama were dismissed, including extreme DUI and a failure to stop at a red light.

Tuitama, 21, was pulled over in the area of North Campbell Avenue and East Hedrick Drive at 2:20 a.m. on March 6 after McDonald's employees near Campbell and East Fort Lowell Road flagged down a Tucson police sergeant about a suspected drunk driver at the drive-through."

This young man's arrest occurred when the extreme DUI laws still allowed the court to suspend 20 days of the 30 day mandatory minimum sentence. For any current arrest for extreme DUI, a court must impose a flat 30 day jail sentence if the person is found guilty of an unreduced extreme DUI.

According to Arizona DUI defense lawyer Stewart Bergman, some prosecutor's offices are asking for (and getting) more than the mandatory minimum sentence of regular DUIs for current arrests when an extreme DUI is reduced to a regular DUI.

Lindsay Berman, an author at DUIAttorney.com, posted a link to an very entertaining article written by a public defender. The letter is a worthwhile read for lawyers and clients alike. It describes the surreal reality that criminal defense lawyers in the public sector find themselves in.

Public Defender Vents on Craigslist : DUIAttorney.com: "check out a hilarious Craigslist posting from a fed-up PD, entitled 'Some Advice From Your Public Defender':"

Highly recommend you check it the craigslist article... very worthwhile read.

If the thought of killing somebody or yourself, losing your job, getting a DUI, ruining your liver, being a jerk and making bad decisions isn't enough to make you think twice about drinking more than one alcoholic drink a day, here's another factoid to add to the fire. Drinking in Women is now linked to cancer.

Women and alcohol: Why their health risks are greater than men's - Fox 28: South Bend, Elkhart IN News, Weather, Sports: "Women who have two or more drinks per day actually raise their risk for breast cancer. According to the American Institute for Cancer Research, women who choose to drink should limit alcoholic beverages to no more than one per day. This is especially important if the woman also has a family history of breast cancer. Recent data from a study of 1 million middle-aged women in the UK showed that moderate drinking increased their risk for many types of cancer. For every 1000 women, 15 more women were diagnosed with cancer in the moderate drinking group. Eleven out of these 15 women had breast cancer."

It doesn't surprise me that they have made this link, since drinking obviously lowers people's immune systems and makes them susceptible to other diseases as well.

Tragic and not necessarily DUI related, but worth taking a look at the full article quoted below to see the pictures of what a Jeep Cherokee is capable of doing when driven at a very high speed.

2 killed, more injured in weekend highway mayhem | KOMO News - Seattle, Washington | Local & Regional: "Probably the most spectacular accident involved a 2003 Jeep Cherokee that was streaking north at high speed on Pacific Avenue South in Parkland early Sunday near the intersection with Highway 512."

It was a busy week for strange driving news out of Washington State. For another one involving a kid arrested for DUI in the Seattle area while heavily armed, see my post Seattle DUI arrest...