Criminal Law

MADD Weighs in on California Proposition 22

Posted on October 17, 2020
Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) has come out this past week in support of California Proposition 22. In a letter posted to the organization?s website, MADD National President Helen Witty stated that exempting ?gig workers,? such as Uber, Lyft, and other rideshare app drivers, from state law designating them ?employees? rather than independent contractors keeps […] The post MADD Weighs in on California Proposition 22 appeared first on DUI BLOG.

The Truth About Chemical Testing in a California DUI Investigation

Posted on October 06, 2020
Drivers who are pulled over and placed under arrest for driving under the influence will likely be required to submit to one or more chemical tests. These tests are designed to detect whether the driver has alcohol or drugs in their systems and in what quantity...

Warrantless Blood Draw on an Unconscious Driver

Posted on September 28, 2020
Earlier this year, California?s Second District Court of Appeal refused to overturn a Fontana woman?s convictions for killing six individuals in a 2014 drunken-driving accident when blood was taken from her while she was unconscious. Olivia Culbreath was driving on the 60 Freeway in the wrong direction when she crashed into another vehicle...

Can You Beat a California DUI on Your Own Using Your Own Evidence?

Posted on September 17, 2020
Sometimes people will go to extreme lengths and incur substantial expenses in the name of ?proving? their innocence. Case in point: a man in Florida was cited for speeding through a 15-mile-per-hour school zone and given a ticket that carried a $404 fine...

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Consenting to a DUI Blood Draw

Posted on September 10, 2020
Prosecutors in California and other states are thrilled when they receive a DUI case from law enforcement officers which includes results from a blood draw of the suspect driver. Unlike breath testing machines like the Intoxilyzer, which are notoriously unreliable devices for measuring actual breath alcohol concentration, blood tests are more accurate...

A California DUI with Priors

Posted on September 03, 2020
The facts of a recent news story from Edgewood, Delaware are repeated countless times across the United States on a daily basis: a driver is arrested for driving under the influence and is found to have been previously convicted of DUI one or more times...

Driving While Diabetic: Irregular Blood Sugar Levels May Lead to a DUI Arrest

Posted on August 27, 2020
Approximately ten percent of Americans are believed to have diabetes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Diabetes is a chronic condition that affects the body?s ability to produce or use insulin. Without treatment, people with diabetes may be unable to control their blood glucose levels...

Can a Phone Predict Whether a Person is Too Drunk to Drive?

Posted on August 21, 2020
Throughout the years, we?ve discussed the different things that a person can do to prevent themselves or others from driving drunk. Amongst them, you’ve heard me mention personal breathalyzers that a person can purchase to help them gauge whether they or someone else should be getting behind the wheel...

Motion to Suppress Evidence in a California DUI

Posted on August 13, 2020
From a prosecutor?s perspective, presenting a successful DUI case is a bit like putting together a puzzle. The prosecutor must bring together different ?pieces? of evidence ? breath or blood test results, the driver?s performance during field sobriety tests, and statements made by the driver during the investigation ? in order to secure a conviction...

California Driver Charged with Murder after DUI-Involved Street Racing Death

Posted on August 06, 2020
Back in 2012, Louie Robert Villa, of Santa Ana pleaded guilty to a California DUI. When Villa was sentenced on the DUI he was told by the judge, ?You are hereby advised that being under the influence of alcohol or drugs, or both, impairs your ability to safely operate a motor vehicle...

?Expunging? a California DUI

Posted on July 31, 2020
When a person is convicted of a DUI, they face at a minimum of three years of probation, fines and fees of several thousand dollars, and a DUI class. Beyond that, depending on the severity of the DUI, a person can also face jail, rehab, a Mothers Against Drunk Driving Victim Impact Panel, a Hospital […] The post “Expunging” a California DUI appeared first on DUI BLOG.

Remaining Silent During a California DUI Stop

Posted on July 23, 2020
After having a few drinks with friends following work, a driver heads home. While on their way, they don?t make a full stop at a stop sign and are pulled over law enforcement. After telling the driver why they were pulled over, the officer begins asking questions...

Driving Under the Influence of?Bath Salts?

Posted on April 01, 2011
Just when you thought it couldn’t get more ridiculous…. DUI Arrest May Be a First; Case Seen as a Legal Challenge Wilkes-Barre, PA.  March 31 — The arrest of a Throop woman on evidence of driving under the influence of bath salts is believed to be the first in the region and possibly the state...

Inaccurate Breathalyzers Cast Doubt on 1,147 DUI Cases in Philadelphia

Posted on March 25, 2011
As regular readers of this blog are painfully aware, over the past 7 years I’ve posted ad nauseum about the inaccuracy and unreliability of breath machines used in drunk driving cases.  See, for example, How Breathalyzers Work – and Why They Don’t, Breath-Alcohol Testing: "State of the Art"?, Report: Breathalyzers Outdated, Unreliable, Unstable and "Close Enough for Government [...

Cash For Convictions?

Posted on March 24, 2011
It is a cardinal rule of ethics in the legal profession that the duty of a prosecutor is not to seek convictions, but to pursue justice — even if that pursuit leads to a dismissal or acquittal of charges.  Sadly, that is less and less true in today’s world of winning at any cost…...

U.S. Senators Want Apple to End DUI Checkpoint Apps

Posted on March 23, 2011
Senators are now pressuring Apple and others companies to remove internet applications which warn motorists of drunk driving roadblocks. Senators Ask Apple, Google, RIM to Pull Checkpoint Apps  Washington, DC.  March 22 — Four Democratic senators on Tuesday penned a letter to Apple, Google, and Research in Motion to urge the companies to remove apps [...

Cops Caught Rubber-Stamping DUI Reports

Posted on March 22, 2011
I’ve posted repeatedly in the past about the increasingly common practice of police agencies using "templates" in drunk driving cases. See, for example, Pre-Written DUI Police Reports, Xeroxed DUI Symptoms and Ready-Made DUI Police Reports...

When Is Alcohol Not Alcohol?

Posted on March 18, 2011
Breathalyzers don’t actually measure alcohol. That’s right.  What these machines actually detect and measure is any chemical compund that contains the methyl group in its molecular structure. There are thousands of such compounds — including quite a few which can be found on the human breath...

What Happens If the Cops Refuse to Give You a Blood Test?

Posted on March 15, 2011
When the police administer a breathalyzer, the suspect’s breath sample is analyzed — and then destroyed by purging it into the air. Although it is easy and inexpensive to save the sample so that it could later be independently analyzed by the defense, the U...

High Blood-Alcohol??.or Zinc Deficiency?

Posted on March 04, 2011
So you only had two beers, but the breathlyzer read .11%. What happened? Well, for starters, breath machines are generally inaccurate and unreliable. Then again, maybe you had a dietary deficiency. Scientific research appears to indicate that a high blood-alcohol level may not reflect high alcohol consumption, but rather a deficiency of zinc in the blood...

?Do As I Say, Not As I Do?

Posted on February 26, 2011
The hypocrisy continues….. Former President of MADD Arrested on DUI Charge Gainesville, FL.  Feb. 24 – A former president of the defunct local chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving was arrested recently by the Gainesville Police Department on a DUI charge...

Cops Increasingly Use DUI Arrest Reports?Written Before the Arrest

Posted on February 23, 2011
I’ve commented in past posts that it is becoming an increasingly common practice for police officers to simply use form or template arrest reports in drunk driving cases — what I have referred to in my books as "xeroxed" reports.  See Police Using Pre-Written DUI Reports...

The Next Step in ?The War on Drunk Driving??

Posted on February 15, 2011
I suppose it was inevitable…. Passengers Get Prison Terms in Fatal Drunk Driving Accident Saitama, Japan.  Feb. 15 — Two men were sentenced to two years in prison Monday for abetting a fatal traffic accident caused by another man who had given the pair a ride in his car after drinking alcohol in Kumagaya, Saitama [...

Attorney General Finds Widespread Breathalyzer Inaccuracies; Police Shut Down All Machines

Posted on February 09, 2011
If you are accused of DUI or DWI, a reading results in a legal presumption of guilt; if charged with driving with a blood-alcohol content of .08% or higher, the machine is the only evidence of blood-alcohol.  In essence, either way you will be facing a "trial by machine"...

The Metamorphosis of a Crime

Posted on February 06, 2011
Drunk driving is bad.  It’s potentially dangerous to human life.  It should be punished.  So, many years ago a law was passed:  "Thou shalt not drive drunk." It was a fair law and it addressed the problem.  So…what happened?  Why do today’s laws punish drivers when they are neither "drunk" nor "driving" — nor even [...

Women and Breathalyzers

Posted on January 31, 2011
If you are arrested for DUI and a breath test shows a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of .08% or higher, you are presumed guilty. It does not matter, of course, whether you are a man or a women: the laws do not discriminate. Maybe they should… Researchers at the University School of Medicine in Trieste, [...

Close Enough for Government Work

Posted on January 26, 2011
How crazy have things gotten in MADD’s "war on drunk driving"?  Court: Key Enough for Drunk Driving Conviction Boston, MA.  Jan. 25 — The state Appeals Court has ruled that someone who inserts a key in a car’s ignition and turns on the vehicle’s electricity without starting the engine can be convicted of drunken driving...

Driving Under the Influence of?Binaca?

Posted on January 25, 2011
So you’re driving along and suddenly there are flashing red lights in your rear view mirror. You recall that glass of wine with dinner: not nearly enough to be over .08%, of course, but enough to cause an odor of alcohol on the breath. As you pull over, you grab the breath freshener and quickly [...

How to Convict an Average Man

Posted on January 19, 2011
One of the greatest sources of error in breath-alcohol testing is the consistently recurring fallacy that the individual tested is perfectly average in certain critical physiological traits. Put another way, obtaining an accurate blood-alcohol reading in a DUI case is completely dependent on the validity of a number of assumptions...

Crackdown on?Bicycling Under the Influence?

Posted on January 14, 2011
The latest in MADD’s "War on Drunk Driving"…. 5 Bicyclists Arrested on Suspicion of DUI in L.A. Los Angeles, CA.  Jan. 13 – Five bicycle riders have been arrested on suspicion of riding under the influence in South Los Angeles after officers gave sobriety tests to a pack of pre-dawn bikers...

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