Look at what’s going on north of the border. Canadian Parliament is considering allowing police to stop vehicles – without probable cause – to check for drunk drivers.  This is a very dangerous path Canada is heading down.

Random testing for drunk driving must be implemented carefully

The potential exists for police abuse of power

Vancouver Sun October 5, 2009

A proposal by a parliamentary committee for random breath testing for impaired driving could save lives.

Without strict controls, however, it would create for police a tool that is susceptible for abuse and that doesn’t meet the test of reasonable search and seizure.

The Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights has recommended that the Criminal Code prohibition against drunk driving be amended to allow police to randomly test drivers for drinking even if an officer has no reasonable grounds to suspect alcohol has been consumed.

Continue reading “Oh (No), Canada! Parliament Considers Random DUI Stops” »

Only in America can one request trial by Jury to decide almost any case. So our DUI Attorneys want to know why – if a Jury can’t decide someone’s guilt – that a Judge feels that it is appropriate to step in.

Pa. Official Convicted Despite DUI Hung Jury

CARLISLE – A state official faces at least 30 days in prison after a central Pennsylvania jury deadlocked in his drunken driving trial but a judge then convicted him on lesser counts.

The Cumberland County panel was unable to reach a verdict Friday in the case of Deputy Labor Secretary Allen Cwalina on the most serious charge of driving while under the highest level of alcohol impairment. But Judge J. Wesley Oler Jr. then convicted him of general impairment, causing a crash involving property damage and causing a crash while DUI.

The 50-year-old defendant testified that he drank only after his state car struck a parked vehicle early on Nov. 26 near his Lower Allen Township home.

Senior Assistant District Attorney John Dailey said he hadn’t decided whether to retry Cwalina on the most serious charge.

Defense attorney Bryan McQuillan said he was concerned about the split decision. He said it doesn’t make sense that a jury could not make a decision but his client was convicted anyway.

Only in America.

This story seems very similar to a crash that our Chicago DUI lawyers recall hearing about in Chappaquiddick involving Senator Ted Kennedy some years prior.

Suspected drunk driver flees crash, leaves girlfriend trapped in waist-deep water

Virginia Beach police arrested a man they say crashed his car while driving drunk.

Investigators say 23-year-old Michael Walck drove his car into a watery ditch on Sandbridge Road early Friday morning.

Police say Walck’s girlfriend was trapped in the car in waist-deep water.

Investigators say he walked off after the accident, leaving her inside.

Rescuers were able to cut the woman free from the car and she was flown to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital.

Police say they’re charging Walck with DUI and felony hit and run.

Hopefully this works out as well for Walck as it did for Senator Kennedy.

We’ve represented many people charged with DUI in Chicago and have never heard of gum and water being handed out.

Officer suspended for giving ‘DWI’ cop water

By LARRY CELONA and KATI CORNELL

An anti-crime officer has been suspended for giving a stick of gum and water to accused DWI cop Andrew Kelly soon after he mowed down a minister’s daughter in Brooklyn, police sources said today.

A female sergeant has also been reassigned from night tours to a daytime shift and could face departmental charges for the delay in getting Kelly to a hospital to check his blood-alcohols levels, according to the sources.

A stunning seven hours elapsed between the time Kelly struck Vionique Valnord, 33, and the administration of blood tests. No alcohol was found in his system.

All of the NYPD supervisors involved in the case are being re-interviewed by officials in the department’s Internal Affairs Bureau, who are trying to determine whether there was a cover-up.

The anti-crime officer was suspended late Wednesday night.

Kelly, 30, has been charged with vehicular manslaughter and DWI.

Continue reading “New Tool For Police To Fight Drunken Driving: Gum And Water” »

This following opinion piece, dressed as a news story, is a perfect example of the ridiculous arguments used to ramp up the “war” on drunk driving.

First – Find an extreme example of bad behavior to illustrate your point.  Best examples involve a multiple offender who has caused death or great bodily harm to another.

Prison time in DUI death was overdue, and so are tougher laws

When it came to driving drunk, Matthew Burch was a three-time loser. And more.

But the New Kent County man’s drunken driving had to kill someone before a Virginia court got him from behind the wheel, and in prison where he belongs.

Burch killed 19-year-old Christopher Mellis of Williamsburg back in April, driving the wrong way on Route 60 in upper James City County. He was so soaked in alcohol that his blood alcohol content was more than three times what state law considers too drunk to drive.

For all his courtroom remorse at his sentencing hearing, 36-year-old Burch was a practiced scofflaw. He’s a great example of why Virginia’s DUI laws need to be tougher, sooner.

Here’s a quick rundown of his prior record: two drunken-driving convictions, multiple speeding convictions, multiple convictions for driving without a license, reckless driving, driving with a suspended license, various vehicle offenses, drunk in public and possession of marijuana.

Okay.  This guy clearly has problems.  No arguments there.  Our issue comes when the extreme example’s behavior is applied to everyone…..and here it comes

State law today does not require any jail time on a first drunken-driving conviction, and just 20-40 days on a second. A third conviction requires only 90 days, and a fourth conviction only a year.

In other words, Burch really did have to kill someone before the punishment got serious.

If consequences make a difference, then let’s see the consequences mean more on the first conviction, and even more on the second.

A first conviction should net at least one day in jail. A second offense should be a felony.

The object should be that the punishment gets a drunken driver’s attention right from the start. That it gives them a reason to change their behavior. That it makes them determined not to get to the third time around.

Ah, yes.  Mandatory jail time for first offenders.   First offenders – by definition – have never been in any DUI related trouble before.  So let’s toss ‘em in jail?  The time spent in lock-up while getting processed, along with the fines, costs, license suspension, attorney fees aren’t enough?  What other first time misdemeanor crime invokes that kind of punishment?  Texting while driving is scientifically proven to be FAR more dangerous that  drinking and driving.  Where’s the call for prison for that offense?  Getting back to our extreme example, does anyone truly believe that a day in jail would have stopped Matthew Burch from the destructive path that he was on?

What’s the legislators’ take on all this?

In the current Virginia election, going after gangs and sexual predators is getting more attention from candidates than drunken driving.

Wow.  So the author has now taken that extreme example and is associating drunk driving with gangs and sexual predators.  Beginning to see the problem here?
No one is going to argue that Burch shouldn’t be punished – but that’s where the argument should end.  Taking his story and turning it into an op-ed piece on how drunk drivers are no better than gang members or sexual predators is ridiculous.

Our Chicago Lawyers can only say if this is true, no excuse.

Local School Bus Driver Allegedly Drove Drunk

OJAI — A bus driver has been arrested on suspicion of DUI after after colliding with a pickup truck with 31 kids onboard.

Highway Patrol officers say 53-year old Ojai resident Kim Fullenwider was arrested after the crash which occurred at 7:20 a.m. Wednesday at Baldwin and Los Encinos roads in Live Oak Acres.

CHP Officer Steve Reid says Fullenwider was driving west on Baldwin when she made a U-turn in front of an eastbound pickup truck driven by 60-year old Dimitros Poulos.

There were 31 students on the bus at the time but no one was hurt, Reid said.

The bus sustained moderate damage, Reid said.

The students were headed to Meiners Oaks, Nordhoff High and Matilija Junior High schools, Reid said.

After the collision, another bus was summoned to pick up the children, he said.

Fullenwider, a 19 year veteran bus driver, was booked on suspicion of misdemeanor drunken driving and 31 counts of misdemeanor child endangerment.

Police would not release her blood alcohol level.