Our Chicago DUI Lawyers have blogged numerous times about about the police helping other officers who are stopped under suspicion of DUI  (See Off Duty Cop Gets Pass On Suspected DUI).  This latest story out of Houston, TX takes it to a whole other level. Apparently an Assistant Police Chief, who was part of an alleged cover up of an officer’s DUI stop, which included allegations of police hiding open liquor bottles that were on that officer’s floorboards and threatening witnesses who attempted to take photos of those bottles, just got promoted – to the head of the DWI Task Force.

Houston, TX.  Sept. 28– There are surprising new responsibilities for a Houston police officer accused of turning a blind eye in the investigation of a fellow officer’s alleged DWI crash.

Seven officers were reprimanded for their roles in allegedly covering up the extent of a fellow officer’s DWI accident. HPD says Sgt. Ruben Trejo was drunk when he hit a school bus in April, with a blood alcohol content more than twice the legal limit. Trejo was eventually charged and then fired from the police force, but the officers accused of helping him nearly get away with it remain on the beat. Now Eyewitness News uncovered a surprising new detail.

Tonight we’ve learned the highest ranking officer among the disciplined cops is getting a new job. It’s not part of his discipline. In fact he’ll have some increased and somewhat surprising new responsibilities.

In the minutes after allegedly drunk HPD Sergeant Ruben Trejo crashed his pickup into a school bus his fellow officers denied alcohol was involved. It was, according to HPD, who says Trejo was more than twice the legal limit. One officer literally covered up bottles on Trejo’s floorboards and seven officers were disciplined for the botched investigation. This week, we learned some of the details why.

Assistant Chief Daniel Perales was the highest ranking in the group.

HPD Chief McClelland told Perales, “You failed to ensure that a comprehensive and timely investigation was conducted into the allegations that alcohol may have been a factor in Sgt. Trejo’s accident.”

Just two weeks after being disciplined for not properly investigating that DWI accident, we’ve learned Chief Perales is getting a new job. He’ll now be in charge of traffic enforcement for HPD and the DWI task force.

Wait.  What?  The Assistant Chief of Police, who helped to cover up an investigation into his own officer’s DUI is now in charge of the DWI Task Force?

Apparently Chief McClelland does. He told us Wednesday afternoon, “I have full confidence in the supervisors and officers involved in this case to be able to continue their duties without repeating the conduct that gave rise to this investigation.”

Why would anyone have “full confidence” in someone who may have committed a felony by trying to cover up an investigation into a fellow police officer?  Pathetic.

This isn’t the first time our Chicago DUI Lawyers have heard about multiple DUI arrests for the same person in one night; but when the second arrest is 15 minutes after the first arrest – that has to be some kind of record.

WASHINGTON, Pa. – Police have charged a man in western Pennsylvania with drunk driving twice in the same night – the second time about 15 minutes after they released him into the custody of a friend.
Police charge that Brodnick’s blood-alcohol limit was at least double what the law allows when he was arrested. Trooper Joseph Christy says troopers released Brodnick to the custody of a “responsible party” but say that person must have dropped of Brodnick at his vehicle because the same trooper who arrested Brodnick saw him driving again.

Brodnick tells WPXI-TV that he had two or three beers and just wanted to drive his new car home.

Our Chicago DUI Lawyers urge everyone to be responsible out there this weekend.  Chicago DUI Police will be conducting two drunk driving roadblocks this weekend.

ROADSIDE SAFETY CHECK IN THE SOUTH CHICAGO (004TH) DISTRICT
The Chicago Police Department will conduct a Roadside Safety Check in the South Chicago (004h) District at 9100 S. Stony Island. The Roadside Safety Check will commence at 8:00 p.m. on Friday, September 23, 2011 and end at 4:00 a.m. on Saturday, September 24, 2011.

DUI STRIKE FORCE PATROL IN THE BELMONT (019th) and TOWN HALL (23rd) DISTRICTS
The Chicago Police Department will conduct a DUI Strike Force Patrol in the Belmont (019th) and Town Hall (23rd) Districts. The DUI Strike Force Patrol will commence at 8:00 p.m. on Saturday, September 24, 2011 and end at 4:00 a.m. on Sunday, September 25, 2011.

Our Chicago DUI Lawyers encourage everyone to be safe and responsible while out enjoying some warmer weather.  Once again the Chicago Police will be out in full force.

ROADSIDE SAFETY CHECK IN THE Grand (025th) DISTRICT

The Chicago Police Department will conduct a Roadside Safety Check in the Grand (025th) District at 4555 W. North Ave. The Roadside Safety Check will commence at 8:00 p.m. on Friday, May 6, 2011 and end at 4:00 a.m. on Saturday, May 7, 2011.

Another reason why “NO” is the only answer to the question, “Should I blow in the breathalyzer”? Our Chicago DUI Lawyers found another story on how faulty breathalyzers are being used to convict innocent people.

Santa Clara County DA reviewing 865 San Jose DUI cases after breathalyzers deemed faulty

By Mike Rosenberg

A faulty breathalyzer used by San Jose police to arrest 865 DUI suspects could lead to drivers walking free — even if they were drunk behind the wheel, authorities revealed Tuesday.

The Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office said it would undertake a special month long review to determine how many of the cases it would drop because San Jose police officers used the Alco-Sensor V breathalyzer as part of their field sobriety tests. The breathalyzers — one of the methods used by officers to determine whether to arrest DUI suspects — may have shown incorrect readings because of a manufacturer’s error that can cause condensation to build up in the tube.

“Even if they were drunk behind the wheel?”  Well, Mr. Prosecutor, if you can prove (with actual evidence) that someone was drunk behind the wheel, why let them go?

“It really pains me to think of the hard work that our police officers do to keep us all safe and some of that work may be in jeopardy because of a manufacturer’s defect,” said James Gibbons-Shapiro, the deputy district attorney in charge of the office’s misdemeanors unit.

Really?  It pains our Chicago Lawyers to think of every innocent person convicted by a machine that was unreliable, yet bandied about a court room as “proof that the defendant was drunk”. Worse, this is not an isolated incident.  Look at our prior Chicago DUI Posts: A Decade Worth Of Bogus Breathalyzer Tests Discovered and DUI Breathalyzers Found To Be Faulty.

Trial by machine. When will it end?

Look at the crazy talk coming out of the Rhode Island legislature.  A lawmaker has dared to suggest that warrant-less intrusions on otherwise law abiding citizens should end.

RI lawmaker: outlaw DUI checkpoints

PROVIDENCE, R.I.—A Rhode Island state lawmaker says drunk-driving checkpoints are unfair and should be banned.

Rep. Charlene Lima, a Cranston Democrat, has introduced a bill in the General Assembly to prohibit police from conducting traffic checkpoints to identify drunk drivers. A legislative panel reviewed the legislation Wednesday.

Lima says she supports laws against drunk driving, but that checkpoints “smack of a police state.” She said there’s no reason sober drivers should have to prove to police that they’re not driving drunk.

Bravo Representative Lima.

Our Chicago DUI Lawyers though we had seen it all when it came to bizarre DUI arrests – until this latest story.  A woman was arrested for Driving while under the influence of bath salts.

DUI arrest may be a first; case seen as legal challenge

By Edward Lewis – Staff Writer

WILKES-BARRE – 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.

As the case against Michele Pace, 39, begins a slow process through the court system, a defense lawyer believes there is a good chance it may end sooner than later.

City police charged Pace as the driver of a Chevrolet that was pursued from the busy intersection of Kidder and Scott streets to George Avenue on Monday. Police alleged Pace was swerving in traffic and nearly struck a utility pole and other vehicles before being boxed in a driveway by a detective and another officer, according to charges filed.

Police said in the criminal complaint that Pace and a passenger, Donna Zilla, 40, of Dunmore, were under the influence of bath salts. Two children in the vehicle were not injured, police said.

Pace and Zilla “appeared highly euphoric, aggressive and agitated. They were unable to control simple body movements, and when answering questions, both were flailing and talking quickly,” the complaint says.

Pace was charged with driving under the influence of bath salts.

Our DUI Attorneys would like to remind everyone out there, if you are going to bathe, please don’t drive.

Our Chicago DUI Lawyers hear that a group of Senators want to put an end to Constitutional protections for our citizens and have written letters urging companies to help.

Senators Ask Apple, Google, RIM to Pull DUI Checkpoint Apps

Four Democratic senators on Tuesday penned a letter to Apple, Google, and Research in Motion to urge the companies to remove apps that provide users with information about DUI checkpoints. “With more than 10,000 Americans dying in drunk-driving crashes every year, providing access to applications that alert users to DUI checkpoints is harmful to public safety,” according to the letter, which was signed by Sens. Harry Reid, Chuck Schumer, Frank Lautenberg, and Mark Udall.

The senators asked the companies to remove the apps, unless the app creators remove DUI or DWI checkpoint functionality. “One application contains a database of DUI checkpoints updated in real-time. Another application, with more than 10 million users, also allows users to alert each other to DUI checkpoints in real time,” they wrote. “Giving drunk drivers a free tool to evade checkpoints, putting innocent families and children at risk, is a matter of public concern.”

Time for a little history lesson for Capitol Hill.  DUI Checkpoints were initially ruled unconstitutional by a Michigan State Court which held that the checkpoints are an infringement on our 4th Amendment right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure. The case was eventually taken up by the US Supreme Court  (Michigan Dept. of State Police v. Sitz, 496 U.S. 444 (1990) ) which, by a 6-3 vote, overturned the lower Court’s ruling and found that, even though the Checkpoints do violate the 4th Amendment, they don’t violate it too much.  So the Supremes stated that the checkpoints could continue, as long as there were certain Constitutional protections in place.  One of those protections being advance notice of the checkpoint location and its hours of operation.

The only thing “harmful to public safety” is Senators Reid, Schumer, Lautenberg, and  Udall’s  “End Constitutional Protections” campaign.

Bravo to Mayor-elect Rahm Emanuel for realizing what many people forget when hearing about someone arrested for DUI.  Innocent until proven guilty.

Rahm Emanuel stands by transition adviser with past DUI arrest

BY FRAN SPIELMAN Chicago Suntimes

For the second time in three weeks, an embarrassing revelation has surfaced about a member of Rahm Emanuel’s transition team that apparently slipped the mayor-elect’s vetting process.

Jim LoBianco, executive director of Streetwise, is one of 13 people advising Emanuel on social services and health care issues.

Last year, the Chicago Sun-Times reported that LoBianco had resigned his $119,184-a-year job as the city’s deputy commissioner charged with providing shelter and emergency services for Chicago’s homeless after getting into an accident in a city car while allegedly driving drunk.

LoBianco was charged with driving under the influence and failure to reduce speed after rear-ending a car waiting for a red light to change at Broadway and Ainslie.

No one was injured in the chain-reaction accident. LoBianco was driving a Toyota Prius registered to the city when he hit the car in front of him, causing that vehicle to rear-end another car.

Responding police officers “detected alcohol,” but LoBianco “refused the field sobriety and Breathalyzer test,” officials said. He was subsequently acquitted of the DUI charge, but convicted of failure to reduce speed and placed on court supervision.

“Mr LoBianco was found not guilty. He has nearly two decades of experience working with the homeless community, providing hundreds of homeless Chicagoans with the housing and educational opportunities needed to transition to work,” said Emanuel spokesman Ben LaBolt, who was unaware of the incident involving LoBianco until he was contacted by the Sun-Times.

It really is sad when someone who was found not guilty STILL has to atone for an arrest simply because one was accused of drunk driving.  Nice work, Mr. Mayor-Elect.

No surprise to our Chicago DUI Lawyers here.  A Niles Police Officer suspects an off-duty Chicago Police Officer of DUI.  So, what does he do?  Field Sobriety tests? Nope.  Breathalyzer? Nope.  Arrest the suspect and tow his car? Nope.  He let’s him go.

Off-duty Chicago cop suspected of making bogus 911 call

BY FRANK MAIN Staff Reporter – Chicago SunTimes

An off-duty Chicago Police officer was ordered to park his vehicle — and catch a cab or walk home — after he was stopped last year for speeding in north suburban Niles and admitted that he had been drinking, authorities said. But instead of accepting his lucky break, the off-duty Chicago cop is suspected of making a bogus 911 call to divert the Niles officer, authorities said.

The Niles officer left to investigate the report of a fight at a nearby bar, but when he got there he realized the call was phony, Niles Police Chief Dean Strzelecki said Monday. When the Niles officer returned to the scene of the traffic stop, the off-duty Chicago cop and his vehicle were gone, Strzelecki said. The chief said his officer had smelled alcohol on the off-duty cop, who admitted he had a “couple of drinks.” But the Niles officer did not order the off-duty cop to undergo a field-sobriety test after the traffic stop shortly after 2 a.m. on Nov. 5.

The Niles officer — whose in-car video camera recorded the incident — is not in trouble for giving the off-duty cop a break, Strzelecki said. “We don’t just do this for cops,” he said. “I tell my coppers ‘use your discretion.’ . . . I am sure if he [the off-duty officer] was falling all over himself, there would have been a different outcome . . . Sometimes my cops even drive people home.”

Our Chicago DUI Attorneys got a good laugh out of this one.  With drunk driving arrests/tows/fines/police OT making thousands for all involved, we would love to know the last time a Niles Cop, or any police agency for that matter, drove home someone suspected of DUI.  We’ve even seen people arrested for DUI who blew UNDER the legal limit.

A source confirmed the Chicago Police Department is conducting an internal investigation into the allegations against the off-duty cop, who is a tactical officer in the Jefferson Park District on the Northwest Side.

Investigation?  This happened in November!  Did he make the call or not?  Does that really take 5 months to figure out?  What investigation do you think would be conducted on John Q. Public if he made a phony 911 call to elude police after being stopped for suspected DUI?