Our Chicago Attorneys have found even more non-sense in the world of drunk driving laws.

High court: Asleep at wheel, not driving, enough to get a DWI

-By ROCHELLE OLSON, Star Tribune

Supreme Court upholds conviction of sleeping driver. Supreme Court: Sleeping man was in control of vehicle.

Being drunk and asleep at the wheel of his car while it was parked in his apartment lot with the keys on the console was sufficient evidence to convict a Crookston man of drunken driving, the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled unanimously Thursday.

In a seven-page decision, Justice Alan Page said the jury could reasonably conclude that Daryl Fleck was in “physical control” of his vehicle when arrested.

“Physical control”?  Asleep with the keys on the console?  What about someone sleeping in their bed with the keys on the dresser?

Fleck’s appellate lawyer, G. Tony Atwal said there was no indication Fleck had driven; the engine was cold, and the car wouldn’t even start when an officer tried it. If the car had been by the side of the road, it would have been very different, Atwal said.

The Supreme Court resoundingly disagreed.

The car wouldn’t even start, the owner is asleep, and the keys are on the console.  Is this what DUI arrests have come down to?  Wow.

Here’s a bit of DUI news that we have already seen played out here in the United Sates; police refusing to disclose the location of DUI Checkpoints.

Mexico City vows to punish twitter users who tweet location of police breath test checkpoints

Some Twitter users are revealing the locations of police drunk-driving checkpoints in Mexico City and the people behind the tweets could be prosecuted, police said Monday.

Mexico City Public Safety Department spokesman Julio Iver said it is illegal for anyone to “divulge privileged information on police agencies,” but he did not say what sanctions the Twitter users could face.

Mexico City police change the location of the breath-test checkpoints each day to discourage drunk driving.

So drunk driving checkpoints will “discourage” drunk driving by operating in secret, so that no one finds out.  Hmmm.  Makes sense.

As our Chicago DUI Attorneys have warned in the past, MADD, in its never ending quest to put driving in a police state, pushes for even more restrictions on your driving privileges.

MADD Mad More Ignition Locks Aren’t in Use

by KYW’s John Ostapkovich

The New Jersey Legislature has passed a bill requiring breath test devices on the cars of some drunk drivers.

But not enough, according to Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

The Draeger Interlock XL is one of the current generation of devices that New Jersey judges have been ordering on the cars of three-time drunk drivers and some with a lesser number of offenses. The new law says it’s mandatory at one infraction of .15 or higher Blood Alcohol Content.

Mindy Lazar, executive director of New Jersey MADD said, “We appreciate the efforts that were put into it. Certainly it’s a step in the right direction. However, we remain steadfast in our vision of seeing ignition interlocks required for all convicted drunk driving offenses at a .08 and higher.”

Notably absent is any factual support for the idea that ignition interlock devices prevent accidents or drunk driving.  In fact, a Business Week article states that these machines are “inaccurate, easily circumvented, dangerous—and ineffective.”  MADD, of course, has never let the facts get in the way of a good scare story.  The “war” marches on.

Our Chicago DUI Lawyers have previously written about Wisconsin’s re-vamped DUI Laws.  Here’s an interesting take by James J. Baxter, President of the National Motorists Association in Waunakee, WI, on those laws

Laws will create new ‘criminals’ and won’t deter chronic offenders

By: James J. Baxter President of the National Motorists Association in Waunakee, WI.

When I first heard the announcement that the state Legislature was going into special session to overhaul Wisconsin’s drunken driving laws, my first thought was “it’s about time.” Maybe legislators will go all the way and reduce the drinking age so it reflects something closer to reality. Better yet, they will raise the legal blood-alcohol limit so the vast majority of the driving public that isn’t part of the drunken driving problem will be left alone and not subjected to life-ruining penalties and career-destroying sanctions.

But, alas, I was wrong.

Wisconsin’s drunken driving policies are taking on all the worst elements of the war on drugs:

The penalties and punishments are out of proportion to the supposed crime. Have two or three drinks and blow a 0.08 breath-alcohol concentration, without an accident and no realistic impairment, and you are looking down the barrel of a multi-thousand-dollar fine, fees, surcharges, possible job loss, revocation of professional licenses, scholarship cancellation and of course suspension of your driver’s license.

And, this doesn’t even scratch the surface!

How many times does it have to be proven that statistics surrounding drunken driving are more propaganda than fact? Drunken drivers are not responsible for 41% of Wisconsin’s fatal traffic accidents. The simple presence of alcohol in someone’s system in a population where 60% to 70% of the population consumes alcohol is not automatically the “cause” of a traffic accident. Yet that is what the public is led to believe.

A more realistic and valid estimation of accidents caused by drunken drivers would be 10% – not 41%. This isn’t acceptable, but it does put the issue in a different, more rational perspective.

Speaking of repetition: Despite their apparent admiration for the Berlin Wall and Soviet Union checkpoints, why do acolytes of Mothers Against Drunk Driving continue to promote roadblocks? Is this just an irrational desire for revenge against a free society in general? It’s been repeatedly proven that roadblocks do not catch or deter meaningful numbers of drunken drivers.

Why is the Legislature ignoring the results and the recommendations of the most extensive review of ignition interlock devices? It is clearly stated that mandating ignition interlock devices for first-time offenders, regardless of blood-alcohol level, result in increased numbers of accidents. I’m assuming that the intent of this legislation is to reduce traffic accidents, so why pass a provision known to increase accidents?

Recognizing that this legislation will create thousands of new “criminals,” and thus will cost the public money, the preferred source of revenue will be people caught driving on suspended licenses – many of which are suspended because the driver couldn’t afford to pay the original fine and/or out-of-sight insurance premiums. This sounds a lot like beating blood out of stones.

And what evidence is there that society will benefit one whit from the creation of new crimes or the heaping on of more penalties? We’ll end up with thousands of new “criminals” and thousands more with lost jobs and diminished job opportunities.

The only apparent beneficiaries will be the companies that make ignition interlock devices. And the serious and habitual drunken drivers who dominate the headlines, how will this affect them? Not at all. They have long proven their resilience to the punitive approach. Many have nothing of consequence to lose.

Further, as is currently the case, enforcement, judicial and institutional resources will be too focused on these new DUI criminals, caught driving home from ball games, wedding receptions, Friday night fish fries or bowling alleys, to devote any serious attention to the perennially and seriously impaired drunken driver.

Bravo.

Our Chicago DUI Attorneys found Puerto Rico’s newest drunk driving laws a bit harsh.

Puerto Rico OKs one lowest drunk-driving limits

Puerto Rico has adopted one of the world’s toughest legal limits for drunk driving by young adults.

Gov. Luis Fortuno signed legislation Tuesday that lowers the blood alcohol limit for drivers ages 18 to 20 to .02 percent from the standard .08 percent that applies to all other drivers on the U.S. island.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving has said the .02 percent standard is lower than any U.S. state. Sweden has had .02 percent limit for all drivers since 1990.

Consider this folks:

The Committee on Alcohol and Other Drugs, first known as the Committee on Tests for Intoxication (CTI), was established in the National Safety Council in 1936
In 1938 the CTI  in a collaboration with a special committee of the American Medical Association (Committee to Study Problems of Motor Vehicle Accidents) established the following chemical standards for the legal interpretation of “under the influence of alcohol” in terms of the percentage of alcohol in the blood or its equivalent in other body materials:

• Below 0.05 percent alcohol in the blood: no influence of alcohol within the meaning of the law.

• Between 0.05 and 0.15 percent, a liberal, wide zone: alcoholic influence usually is present, but courts of law are advised to consider the behavior of the individual and circumstances leading to the arrest in making their decision.

• 0.15 percent: definite evidence of “under the influence”, since every individual with this concentration would have lost to a measurable extent some of the clearness of intellect and control of himself that he would normally.

So where in the world does this .02% BAC come in?  According to the AMA, at .02% BAC there is “no influence of alcohol within the meaning of the law”.

Clearly, it is influence (MADD) not science that is determining the basis for these laws.  And that alone should scare you way more than any of the hysteria surrounding drunk driving.

No favoritism shown for prosecutor arrested for drunk driving, if that’s what you think.

RI prosecutor loses driver’s license for 7 months

RI prosecutor accused of driving drunk loses license for 7 months; case spared internal probe

A Rhode Island federal prosecutor whose drunken-driving arrest sparked an internal investigation into whether police gave him favorable treatment has lost his driver’s license for seven months.

Warwick’s police chief has ordered an internal probe into why Sullivan was not initially charged with driving under the influence unlike others arrested Thanksgiving weekend.

An internal probe?  Really? May we suggest starting out by asking how many other people arrested on Thanksgiving are prosecutors, then follow that question up by asking all of the non-prosecutors if they were initially not charged with  DUIs when arrested.  Our Chicago DUI Lawyers have a pretty good idea how the answers to those questions might turn out.

Remember the man who was arrested for drunk driving on a bar stool?

Motorized bar stool in Ohio DUI case still unsold

NEWARK, Ohio (AP) — Officials in Ohio will have to try again to sell a motorized bar stool from an unusual drunken driving case.

The child support agency in central Ohio’s Licking County says the winning bidder in an eBay auction did not come through with payment for the bar stool crashed by Kile Wygle in March.

Wygle was arrested and charged with driving under the influence.

The county wants to sell the contraption to pay child support owed by Wygle. A high bid of $1,125 was reached in the eBay auction that ended Dec. 13.

Because the online auction didn’t work, child support agency director Elizabeth Winegar says a live auction will be held next month in Newark, the county seat.

Wygle pleaded guilty in the drunken driving case and served three days in a driver education program.

Our Chicago DUI Lawyers have blogged about some of the many maniacs MADD has helped to take off the roads, including people on barstools, lawnmowers, horseback, golf carts, bicycles, wheelchairs, tractors, and even La-Z-boy chairs. Now the latest in our on-going series on absurd drunk driving arrests: an Amish man in a buggy.

Amish Buggy Driver Charged With DUI

LANCASTER – Police in central Pennsylvania say they arrested an Amish man on drunk driving charges over the weekend after he was found asleep in his moving buggy.

East Lampeter Township Police say 22-year-old Elmer Stoltzfoos Fisher, of Paradise, was slumped over and asleep in a slow-moving buggy on Sunday night.

An off-duty officer from nearby Quarryville reported seeing the horse pulling the buggy at a walking pace as it straddled the center line.

Police say a breathalyzer test snowed Fisher’s blood-alcohol content was 0.18, more than twice the 0.08 legal limit for drivers.

Congratulations to all involved on making our roads safer.

Our Chicago DUI Lawyers have long railed against “Trial By Machine” and the use of the pseudo-science that the Breathalyzer is based on.  (See DUI Supreme Court Case Favorable To Defendants and DUI Cases Get Major Shake-Up for example).  Now a challenge to the Breathalyzer machines used in Palm Beach, Florida may result in 300 cases being thrown out.

DUI challenge leaves 300 cases in doubt
Attorneys dispute breath machines, testing methods

By Brian Haas, Sun Sentinel

Defendants in about 300 Palm Beach County drunken driving cases could go free if they’re successful in challenging the machines used to test their sobriety.

At the center of the challenge, early in 2010, is the Intoxilyzer 8000 machine, which measures blood-alcohol levels. Attorneys claim the machines aren’t legal because Florida’s Intoxilyzers differ slightly from federally approved models. Moreover, they say, there’s evidence law enforcement personnel covered up failed inspections of the devices, calling into question the machines’ accuracy.

The prosecutor and law enforcement officials say the challenge is a futile ploy to get clients off the hook, and crash victims are frustrated at delayed justice. Still, DUI attorneys have lined up by the dozens behind the challenge, due to be heard Feb. 23.

Delayed Justice?  Oh, right.  Why can’t we just throw anyone arrested for DUI right in jail, no trial, no right to counsel.  What’s the big deal anyways?

“If these machines are not working properly and are not maintained properly, they could very well be falsely accusing innocent people,” said Ira Karmelin, a lead attorney in the challenge.

Ah yes.  Falsely accusing people innocent people.  But aren’t these machines tested for accuracy?

A second filing by Karmelin accuses law enforcement officials of covering up failed inspections by unplugging the Intoxilyzers when it looked as if they wouldn’t pass. Such tests are vital in proving the machines give accurate results.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement in 2008 fired a breath-machine analyst after finding she taught law enforcement officers the unplugging trick.

Karmelin said his consultant, re-creating the state’s method for finding the plug-pulling, found a Palm Beach County Sheriff’s deputy pulled the plug on at least eight tests, and a Boynton Beach police officer pulled the plug on three tests.

So the police are rigging tests so that the machines that are inaccurate won’t be discovered.  What do the police have to say about this?

Capt. Patrick Kenny, traffic division commander for the Sheriff’s Office, said three deputies witness every inspection. He said the agency found three pulled plugs, but had a simpler explanation: The printer cable is near the power cord, and installing one sometimes knocks the other out.

Of course.  The old “printer cable” explanation.  Wow.

Our Chicago DUI Attorneys have learned that Illinois Governor Pat Quinn is now apparently taking orders from MADD.  Quinn, who initially ordered about 1,000 low-level, nonviolent offenders to be placed on home detention under a new program aiming to save taxpayers $5 million a year reversed his course on 18 inmates in custody for felony drunk driving charges.  Why?  MADD told him too.  Who’s running Illinois anyways?

Early release sends some DUI offenders back to prison -18 sent back to prison to serve out terms

BY FRANK MAIN AND CHRIS FUSCO Staff Reporters

Anti-drunken driving advocates reacted angrily earlier this week when the Chicago Sun-Times revealed that Gov. Quinn’s administration had released 18 felony drunken drivers from prison early to serve the rest of their prison time on home confinement.

On Thursday, those same anti-DUI advocates were cheering after the governor ordered all 18 back behind bars to serve the remainder of their prison time. Each will be paroled between mid-January and mid-October under the terms of their original sentences.

“That is a delightful Christmas story,” said David Malham, a victim-services specialist with Mothers Against Drunk Driving in Chicago. “MADD is absolutely delighted that the governor reacted to this serious issue in such a way.”

The Sun-Times revealed Tuesday that the 18 felony DUI drivers and 40 burglars were among 204 inmates released early from prison under a new program aiming to save taxpayers $5 million a year by putting certain “low-level, nonviolent offenders” on home detention. Eventually, 1,000 inmates are supposed to be released early.

Oh, great.  So MADD doesn’t mind that the people that ransack your home or hold you up at gunpoint are released early, as long none of those exemplary citizens do not have a DUI conviction.

MADD officials said repeat DUI offenders should have been considered violent. After reviewing the program, the state Corrections Department agreed.

Why should they be considered violent?  Because MADD says so?  And what exactly did the Department of corrections “review” that made it change it’s mind?  Hmmm.  Could it be that in an election year the Governor is more concerned about losing MADD’s $upport than actually running the State?

The 18 DUI offenders were rounded up during the past two days. No more DUI drivers will be eligible for early release.

“A decision was made to eliminate any and all DUI offenders from the electronic-detention program,” Corrections Department spokeswoman Januari Smith said.

“Any and all DUI offenders”?  Again, where is the logic behind that?  If they are on home monitoring, where are they going to drive to?  Shame on you, Governor Quinn.  What’s next?  An announcement that Illinois is banning all alcohol sales?  Hope the campaign contribution was worth the sell-out.