Los Angeles Criminal Defense Attorney Blog

Published on: April 16, 2016

Georgia Lawmaker Causes Stir With DUI Arrest

With dash cams and body cams becoming the norm for police departments everywhere, people charged with DUI in Los Angeles may now find a video of their arrest posed online. The results can be embarrassing—just ask Georgia State Representative, Tom Taylor.

On the afternoon of April 7th, police in the city of Clayton, Georgia, stopped Taylor for going 72 mph in a 45 mph zone. The officer said Taylor had red eyes and smelled of alcohol, which the legislator said was due to the fact that he had been drinking the night before. The officer didn’t buy that excuse, however, and turned up a water bottle in the vehicle that smelled of alcohol. Police asked Taylor to take a field sobriety test, but Taylor didn’t comply.
The officers arrested Taylor, and, using a breathalyzer, measured his BAC at .225—almost three times the legal limit.

Published on: April 11, 2016

The Terrifying Realities of Flying Under the Influence (and the Consequences)

by Michael Kraut

Arrests for DUI in Los Angeles and other venues occur with such frequency that they rarely make the news, unless the driver is a celebrity or unless an accident causes loss of life. What happens, though, when the stakes are much higher? What if the person under the influence is an airline pilot getting ready to fly a plane? In short, understandably, people panic…

On March 26th, an agent from the Transportation Security Administration spotted a pilot acting suspiciously at the Detroit Metropolitan Airport. Authorities gave him a breathalyzer test, and he reportedly failed. They arrested him, gave him a second breathalyzer test, which he supposedly failed again. This all occurred just a few minutes before the scheduled takeoff of a flight on which the accused man was supposed to serve as co-pilot.

The Federal Aviation Administration’s rules for blood alcohol content are much more stringent than state laws for DUI. They apply to all pilots, from those controlling massive commercial jets to those piloting single engine aircraft.
One FAA rule is an eight-hour “bottle to throttle” requirement; pilots have to stop drinking at least eight hours before they enter the cockpit. According to the FAA, many airlines require a longer 12-hour waiting period.

Published on: April 6, 2016

Doing the Right Thing Even When It’s Hard: At-Risk Child Turns in DUI Dad (and Other Parenting While DUI Tales)

by Michael Kraut

California Highway Patrol officers often see adults with some pretty bad parenting skills. One example: drivers charged with DUI in Los Angles who carry their children as passengers.

It happens all over the country. In Minnesota, for example, police recently responded to a call from concerned parents at Scenic Heights Elementary School. They watched as one mother, 55-year-old Kelly Ann Bellanger, dropped off her two children at school and displayed signs of being under the influence. She reportedly slurred her speech and swayed when she tried to walk.

When police arrived on the scene, Bellanger couldn’t roll down her window, mistaking the door lock switch for the window control. Not too surprisingly, Bellanger allegedly flunked the sobriety test. Police found she had a blood alcohol content of almost three times the legal limit. Bellanger even admitted to drinking half a glass of wine before transporting her kids to school, although she said it had been two hours earlier.

Published on: April 4, 2016

Spring Break Horror: DUI Drivers Bring Tragic Endings to Family Vacations

by Michael Kraut

The damage done by drivers convicted of DUI in Los Angeles and other areas can last for years. Take the case of two families—one from Columbus, Ohio, and the other from Las Vegas—who had very little time to enjoy their memories of their recently-completed vacations. Accidents caused by DUI drivers ended the lives of some of these travelers, leaving the survivors with awful, painful recollections instead of happy ones.

The extended Crowell family was on their way home from a memorable trip to Disney World when 35-year-old Cory Sheward of Tiffin, Ohio, collided head on with the family’s car. According to reports, he had been driving the wrong way on Interstate 77. Police believe he had crossed the median and had been heading south in the northbound lanes for at least two miles before he slammed into the Crowell’s car.

Sheward killed four people: Carlisa Crowell, age 29; Maxine Wade, age 27; Tasha Freeman, age 9; and Aubrey Willoubey, age 6. The four other passengers suffered serious injuries, including Crowell’s 28-year-old brother, Thomas, who had brain injuries. Reports say he was only breathing with the help of a respirator. Police will be charging Seward with four counts of DUI causing serious bodily injury.

Published on: March 31, 2016

Horrifying Story: Did DUI Driver’s Travel Through Flood Cause Passenger’s Death?

by Michael Kraut

Over the years, this blog has reported on dozens of Los Angeles DUI stories involving fatal wrecks. In court and in news reports, drivers often lament that they think about their crashes with remorse every single day.

Nen Yang, 55, will have to live the rest of his life knowing that he likely caused the death of an unidentified woman passenger on March 5th. Rains flooded some of the roads in Yuba County, but Yang, instead of stopping at a closed-off section of road between Highways 65 and 70, reportedly plowed right through the water that was laying on it. Only when it was too late did he realize that the water was six to eight feet deep—enough to submerge his vehicle.

Los Angeles’ KTLA television station reported that while Yang managed to struggle out of the flooded car, his 52-year-old female passenger was not so lucky. She died, trapped in the car as the water poured in.

Published on: March 29, 2016

Clumsy Criminal Alert: DUI Driver Leaves Trail for Police to Follow

by Michael Kraut

Sometimes drivers almost appear to be asking for police to pick them up on charges of DUI in Los Angeles. They hit signs, drive the wrong way on a one-way street or make some other ridiculous move that calls officers’ attention to their driving.

Police in Riverside, Illinois, didn’t have to search too hard to find 28-year-old Joseph T. Whetter, who allegedly had been driving under the influence. All they had to do was follow the wide path of destruction that Whetter reportedly left as he careened through a local neighborhood.

The Woodridge, Illinois, Patch said that police received multiple 911 phone calls around 2 in the morning of March 19th from area residents who had heard (or seen) the damage that Whetter was wreaking. He supposedly drove on sidewalks and through several front yards, then hit a landscaping wall that sent him back onto the road. But he didn’t stay on the pavement for long; he ended up hitting bushes and narrowly missing a For Sale sign at a nearby house before the officers caught up with him. Both front tires of his vehicle had been blown out.

Published on: March 23, 2016

Court Rules 20 Year Delay Too Long for DUI Prosecution

by Michael Kraut

When drivers arrested for a DUI in Los Angeles hire attorneys to represent them, they expect that their counsel will help them resolve issues quickly. But Jason William Gale had a different experience. He discovered—20 years after his DUI arrest!—that his attorney had not followed through in handling Gale’s 1995 DUI arrest in Grand Forks, North Dakota. So when Grand Forks prosecutors (finally) caught up with Gale about a year ago, they took him to court, where the judge found him guilty and fined him $500.

Now the North Dakota Supreme Court has ruled that the 20-year delay violated Gale’s right to a speedy trial.

According to the Bismarck Tribune, Gale’s attorney in 1995, Henry Howe, reported to his client that the case was resolved and closed. Gale left North Dakota shortly after that time. But a background check for a security job Gale was applying for turned up an outstanding arrest warrant for the DUI case. Cass County, which was prosecuting the case, said it had sent three notices to Gale. However, Gale said the court had his address because of other legal actions and claimed that he had never received any such notice.

Published on: March 21, 2016

Lyft Driver Shows Up DUI, Sets Off Fierce Debate Over Ride Service Safety

by Michael Kraut

If you’ve been partying a little too freely, and you want to avoid an arrest for DUI in Los Angeles, you might consider using an app to call ride services like Uber or Lyft. You’d better hope, however, that the driver who shows up isn’t at risk himself (or herself) for a charge of driving under the influence.

Alex Grant, of Austin, Texas, Grant sensed that something was wrong almost from the time that Lyft driver Allen Edmonds picked him up on March 8th. Edmonds apparently braked at a green light and swerved into another lane. That’s when an Austin police officer pulled the vehicle over. Grant, who said he could smell beer on the driver’s breath, watched as Edmonds failed the field sobriety test “pretty hard.”

This wasn’t Edmonds’ first arrest for DUI. Back in 2004, prosecutors dropped a DUI charge when Edmonds pleaded guilty to two counts of possession of a controlled substance. He spent two days in jail.

Published on: March 16, 2016

Mandatory Drug Tests for DUI Arrests? Another Law Bites The Dust

by Michael Kraut

Kansas has joined the list of states where courts have ruled against laws requiring suspected DUI drivers to take a breathalyzer or blood test without police first getting a warrant. A similar decision by a California court would undoubtedly impact many of the cases against drivers arrested for a DUI in Los Angeles.

The Kansas State Legislature passed a law in 2012 making refusing to take a blood or breath test after a DUI arrest an offense separate from the DUI itself. The penalties for breaking that law were steep: a one-year license suspension plus two years of driving with an ignition interlock device. But in the ruling announced on February 26th, the Kansas Supreme Court found that law was unconstitutional.

Published on: March 14, 2016

DUI Driver Carries Unusual Hood Ornament

by Michael Kraut

LAPD police officers undoubtedly have their own stories about the unusual cases of DUI in Los Angeles that they’ve handled over the years. But officers in any jurisdiction would have to go a long way to top this recent DUI arrest in Roselle, Illinois.

On January 23 around 11 p.m., motorists called the police department to report a car that was traveling along Roselle Road with an unusual hood ornament. The responding officer soon saw that the caller hadn’t been exaggerating–there actually was a 2004 Lincoln moving down the highway with a 15-foot tall tree embedded in its front grill. (If you watch the video of the incident, you get a rather disconcerting view of the car moving down the road with the tree instead of passing by it.)