Criminal Law

Will Ignition Interlock Devices End Drunk Driving?

Posted on December 11, 2009
MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) has been very successful over the past two decades in using their considerable influence with legislators and federal agencies to get new laws passed designed to curtail or eliminate drunk driving.  Among these have been dropping the blood-alcohol level to ...

Who Cares About the Rights of Those Accused of DUI?

Posted on December 05, 2009
For many years now I’ve written and lectured extensively on drunk driving litigation –on the science of blood and breath alcohol analysis, the flaws in breathalyzers, the ineffectiveness of field sobriety testing. In recent years, however, my focus has increasingly shifted to the gradual erosion of constitutional rights in DUI cases...

Guilty?Of Being Average

Posted on November 29, 2009
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...

Another ?DUI Exception?

Posted on November 22, 2009
You’ve just been arrested for DUI. And, like in the movies, the officer reads you the "Miranda" rights: "You have the right to remain silent", he tells you, "You have the right to an attorney" And then the very next thing he asks if if you’ll take a breath or a blood test...

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Are you sure the blood they tested was yours?

Posted on November 18, 2009
Let me tell you about one of our DUI cases that ended up on the front pages of the Los Angeles Times. My law firm had a young client, I’ll call him "Steve", who had been arrested for drunk driving by the Los Angeles Police Department and a blood sample drawn from his arm...

DUI Cop Framing Gay Drivers for Drunk Driving

Posted on November 14, 2009
I’ve posted in the past about how easy it is for a police officer to falsely arrest a driver for DUI and to fabricate evidence.  Some of these cops carry this to extremes.  These so-called "DUI SuperCops" receive awards from MADD, departmental promotions, and huge overtime paychecks for testifying in court...

In the ?Physician Heal Thyself? Department

Posted on November 11, 2009
The endless hypocrisy of MADD’s "War on Drunk Driving" continues… Ohio Trooper of Year Charged With Drunk Driving Lima, OH.  Nov. 10 -  A state trooper in northwest Ohio who was honored by Mothers Against Drunk Driving in 1997 for the number of drunken-driving arrests he made has been charged with drunken driving… Gibson was off duty Sunday when [...

No Surprise: Dirty DUI Cop Goes Free

Posted on November 06, 2009
I’ve posted in the past about so-called "DUI Super Cops", who get promotions, awards and lots of money by racking up huge numbers of drunk driving arrests — legitimate or not.  See, for example, DUI SuperCops and SuperCops…and SuperCons...

?Due Process? for DUI License Suspensions

Posted on November 04, 2009
So you got stopped last night and arrested for drunk driving. And right after the Breathalyzer showed a blood-alcohol reading of .12%, the officer confiscated your driver’s license and gave you a a piece of paper that said it was immediately suspended...

DUI?.in a Lounge Chair

Posted on October 24, 2009
The latest news from the front lines of MADD’s "War on Drunk Driving": Man pleads guilty to DWI in motorized La-Z-Boy Duluth, MN.  Oct. 22 – A Minnesota man has pleaded guilty to driving his motorized La-Z-Boy chair while drunk...

Police Plan Fundraiser in DUI Double Fatality?for the Drunk Driver

Posted on October 22, 2009
So two people are killed by a drunk driver with a blood alcohol level over three times the legal limit.  So maybe there’s going to be a fundraising benefit for the families of the victims, right? Wrong.  The benefit is for the drunk driver — if he’s a cop...

DUI Quotas

Posted on October 21, 2009
DUI attorneys have long contended that many police agencies impose quotas on their officers for drunk driving arrests.  And police agencies have long contended that this is simply not true.  Imposing quotas, of course, has a coercive effect on officers to make arrests — even if those arrested are innocent...

More News From the Battlefront?.

Posted on September 25, 2009
Another potential killer removed from our highways: Man Rides Motorbike in Court Woodstock, IL.  Sept. 25 – A Marengo man charged with drunken driving rode his motorbike in court Tuesday, not to it. Carl Ahrens, 36, said he rode his Razor MX500 from Judge Thomas Meyer’s bench to the back of the courtroom in an effort to prove [...

Where Are We Going?

Posted on September 23, 2009
The latest from the front…. ER Nurse Sues Cop for Handcuffing Her During Dispute Over Drawing Suspect’s Blood Chicago, IL.  Sept. 21 –A head emergency room nurse at Advocate Illinois Masonic Hospital has sued the city and a Chicago Police officer for handcuffing her and putting her in the back of a squad car during a dispute [...

The Business of MADD

Posted on September 21, 2009
As I’ve mentioned before, Mothers Against Drunk Driving is a huge, politically powerful prohibitionist organization.  It’s also a very profitable one.  According to the required IRS annual reports posted on its own website, the organization makes about $50 million each year in contributions — about $12 million of which goes to professional telemarketers and "management"...

DUI Cops Now Armed with Guns, Batons?and Needles

Posted on September 16, 2009
Coming soon to a neighborhood near you… Police Draw Blood from DUI Suspects Federal program tries roadside tests in Idaho, Texas Boise, ID.  Sept. 14 – When police officer Darryll Dowell is on patrol in the southwestern Idaho city of Nampa, he’ll pull up at a stoplight and usually start casing the vehicle...

Sleeping Under the Influence

Posted on September 14, 2009
A recent dispatch from the front: Monmouth County Man Accused of Drunken Driving in Morris County Madison, NJ – A Holmdel man was charged with driving while intoxicated after police found him lying on the grass near his parked car, police said today...

The DUI Double Standard

Posted on September 07, 2009
I’ve  written ad nauseum about the double standard that is pervasive when it comes to citizens accused or convicted of drunk driving.  See, for example, The DUI Exception to the Constitution.  The following news story is only the latest reflection of this neo-prohibitionist attitude: County Wants DUI Convicts to Pay for Jail Stay Tucson, AZ...

DUI Cops Inspired by CIA?

Posted on September 04, 2009
The latest news from the front in MADD’s "War on Drunk Driving"…. Man Says Police Forcibly Collected Urine Sample Lawrenceburg, IN.  Sept. 3 — An Indiana man has filed a lawsuit claiming that police forcibly withdrew urine from his body during a drunken driving arrest...

The Disappearing Right to Jury Trial…in DUI Cases

Posted on September 04, 2009
Ok, the cop said I failed the field sobriety tests, but I have an injured knee and I was really nervous – and, anyway, I only had two drinks and I’ve got witnesses. No matter what the police say, I can tell my side of the story to my fellow citizens and let them decide...

Trial by Machine — But How Good Are the Machines?

Posted on September 04, 2009
All states now have two drunk driving laws: (1) driving under the influence of alcohol (aka “DUI”, with local variations, such as “driving while intoxicated” or “DWI”), and (2) the so-called per se law of driving with ...

“How Can You Defend Drunk Drivers?”

Posted on September 04, 2009
First off, I don’t defend drunk drivers:  I defend citizens who have been accused of being drunk drivers.  And no, that is not just a technicality — at least not in this country.  Not yet. But it always surprises me how many people are outraged that I would defend someone accused by the police of a crime – particularly when it’s DUI...

How Smoking Can Affect Your Breathalyzer Test Results

Posted on September 04, 2009
I have mentioned that a primary problem with blood alcohol analysis is that no two individuals are alike in their physiology and metabolism of alcohol (see, for example, Convicting the Average Person, Racial Differences in the Metabolism of Alcohol and High Blood Alcohol - or a Zinc Deficiency?...

The Difference Between DUI and DWT is….?

Posted on September 04, 2009
A rash of recent studies confirm that DWT (driving while texting) is more dangerous than DUI.  For that matter, so is driving while talking on a cell phone.  See, for example,  my previous posts Inebriated or Texting: Which is More Dangerous While Driving?  and Feds Crack Down on DUI…and Cover Up DWT...

DUI Suspect Shot by Bounty Hunters

Posted on September 04, 2009
Maybe MADD’s "War on Drunk Driving" has gotten a little out of control.  From yesterday’s Los Angeles Times: Bounty Hunter Shoots Man in Sun Valley Sun Valley, CA.  Aug. 3 –Three bounty hunters were involved in a shooting after they tried to arrest a suspect in Sun Valley who was wanted in connection with a misdemeanor DUI [...

MADD Criticizes Obama for Beer Summit

Posted on September 04, 2009
It’s interesting that Mothers Against Drunk Driving has taken no position against texting or talking on a cell phone while driving — practices which have repeatedly been proven more dangerous than drunk driving...

DUI on a Horse

Posted on September 04, 2009
More idiocy from the "War on Drunk Driving" front… Charges Dropped in "DUI On Horse" Case Dalton, CA.  Aug. 1 –Two men charged in for driving under the influence on a horse have had their charges dropped… District Attorney Kermit McManus told the Citizen that it came down to distinctions in the case–between a vehicle and a horse...

Cops Frame Woman for DUI

Posted on September 04, 2009
How easy is it for a cop to frame someone for drunk driving?  Very….if you forget there’s a video tape running in the patrol car: Charges Dropped Against Woman Framed by Cops Miami, FL.  July 29 – Alexandra Torrensvilas was the target of cops who pinned a DUI on her for an accident they caused...

DUI Cops Inspired by CIA?

Posted on September 03, 2009
The latest news from the front in MADD’s "War on Drunk Driving"…. Man Says Police Forcibly Collected Urine Sample Lawrenceburg, IN.  Sept. 3 — An Indiana man has filed a lawsuit claiming that police forcibly withdrew urine from his body during a drunken driving arrest...

The Disappearing Right to Jury Trial?in DUI Cases

Posted on September 01, 2009
Ok, the cop said I failed the field sobriety tests, but I have an injured knee and I was really nervous – and, anyway, I only had two drinks and I’ve got witnesses. No matter what the police say, I can tell my side of the story to my fellow citizens and let them decide...

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