Category: General Blog
Our client was found sleeping in driver’s seat of his car with the engine running for about 2 hours. After he was observed with the odor of alcohol, slurred speech, bloodshot/watery eyes and admitting drinking beer, our client was given 4 field sobriety tests and a portable breath test with the results of . 17/.16. Almost 1 hour after being arrested for DUI / Drunk Driving, our client took a blood test with the result of .18. Just before jury trial, our client was offered and accepted a dismissal of all DUI / Drunk Driving charges and pled to reckless… Read More
Our client was observed driving without head lights or tail lights for about 1 minute. After the stop, the officers observations included mumbled speech, odor of alcohol, red and watery eyes, and unsteady gait. The officer also noticed the presence of horizontal gaze nystagmus. After four field sobriety tests, our client was arrested for DUI / Drunk Driving and given a blood test about 1 hour, 15 minutes after driving with the result of a .08. After 4 days of jury trial, our client was found not guilty of all DUI / Drunk Driving charges. Our client was then allowed… Read More
Sorry for the delayed posting. I’ve been busy fighting for our clients in court. Our client hired us for his 3rd DUI / Drunk Driving arrest. He was possibly facing a minimum of 120 days in jail and and a license revocation. He was stopped for speeding and weaving on the freeway. After the stop, the officers observations included strong odor of alcohol, slurred speech, and red and watery eyes. After four field sobriety tests, our client blew into a portable breath test machine with the results of .10/.10. After arrest, our client blew a .10/.09. On the day of… Read More
On Friday, January 14, 2011 and Saturday, January 15, 2011, the Huntington Beach Police Department (California) arrested 11 drivers for DUI / Drunk Driving at a sobriety checkpoint on Beach Boulevard and Speer Street. The checkpoint was conducted on Friday from 9:30 p.m. and ended Saturday about 3 a.m. Of the more than 1,500 vehicles that drove through the checkpoint, more that 500 were screened for DUI / Drunk Driving. Forty-two sobriety tests apparently were conducted and six vehicles were impounded. I recently reported that the City of Huntington Beach and the Huntington Beach Police Department was considering posting on… Read More
Most police agencies in California now use a portable breath testing machine prior to making a DUI / Drunk Driving arrest. In California, if the driver is older than 21 and not on DUI / Drunk Driving probation, then the portable pre-arrest breath test machine is completely voluntary. The investigating police officer is required by law to advise the person being investigated for DUI / Drunk Driving that the pre-arrest portable breath test is completely voluntary. For years, I have been stating during many radio station interviews that post arrest breath testing machines are not accurate in determining a person’s… Read More
In California, almost everyone arrested for DUI / Drunk Driving does some form of field sobriety tests. Some of the most common tests are walk the line, finger to nose, stand on one foot and estimate 30 seconds. Many different police agencies either use a variation of these test or have their own such as count backwards from 100 or say the alphabet without singing. All of the tests are completely voluntary. The tests are also designed to make it difficult to do them with 100% accuracy. Being investigated for DUI / Drunk Driving is a very scary and intimidating… Read More
A former California crime lab analyst has been charged with taking drug samples from the crime lab he worked at. The analyst worked at the Central Valley Crime Lab in Ripon. The crime lab processed drug samples for California police agencies in Calaveras, Merced, San Joaquin, Stanislaus and Toulumne Counties. As posted previously, crime lab analysts often times maintain breat testing machines and analyze blood in DUI / Drunk Driving cases. They also testify in court on a regular basis in DUI / Drunk Driving cases as an expert for the prosecution. I’m quite sure that every case this crime… Read More
While Southern California was hit with massive rain for a week, most probably DUI / Drunk Driving arrests were down during this period. Last week, I posted 10 DUI / Drunk Driving checkpoints on my Southern California DUI Checkpoint web page. In researching for DUI / Drunk Driving checkpoints for this weekend, there does not appear to be many. Therefore, it seems that since many of the DUI / Drunk Driving checkpoints where “washed out”, most probably police enforcement will be intensified from Christmas Eve until January, 2, 2011. Usually, law enforcement likes to either equal or increase the number… Read More
The Los Angeles Police Department is conducting 9 DUI / Drunk Driving checkpoints the weekend of December 17th and December 18th, 2010. The specific DUI / Drunk Driving checkpoints can be found on my website. For many years, I’ve been posting published DUI / Drunk Driving checkpoints on my web page. Oftentimes, the information is submitted directly to my office via email from the same police agencies who are conducting the checkpoints. As the Holiday Season is now upon us, there will be a large number of DUI / Drunk Driving checkpoints throughout southern California. As a result of the… Read More
The Iowa Supreme Court overturned a DUI / Drunk Driving conviction of a man who was not allowed to make a telephone call after being arrested for DUI / Drunk Driving. Once at the police station, the arrested driver requested to call his mother. The police did not allow this call to be made. In Iowa, an arrested person has a right to make a telephone call. Many states give arrestees the right to make a telephone call after being arrested but do not have a remedy for failure to allow a post arrest telephone call. It looks like Iowa… Read More
