los angeles DUI defense lawyer

Published on: August 8, 2016

DUI Drivers Get in Trouble for Making Donuts

DUI drivers usually lack the necessary control to demonstrate the finer points of the vehicles they’re driving. But that doesn’t stop them from trying, as police officers who have arrested drivers for DUI in Los Angeles can attest.

In the past month, two drivers have tried to impress their passengers and/or onlookers by making circles or “donuts” with their cars. In Oklahoma, Fox 25 reports that Michael Dean Sharpe was trying to impress a date when he entered a church parking lot and turned off the traction control in his Pontiac G8T so that he could perform a series of donuts in the lot. Sharpe forgot, however, to turn his traction control back on when he had completed his performance. Sharpe allegedly zoomed out of the parking lot at a high speed and lost control of his car, hitting a curb and damaging at least one tree along the roadway.

While Sharpe’s date will probably never forget the evening, it’s doubtful that he made the impression he had hoped. First of all, the crash smashed the windshield and caved in the vehicle’s passenger side where the woman rode. Plus watching your date carted off to jail on DUI charges is not an experience most women hope to repeat. (Even Sharpe is quoted as saying that he was acting like a “dumbass.”)

Published on: May 16, 2016

When Should a Marijuana High Equal a Los Angeles DUI?

by Michael Kraut

Blood alcohol content serves as a determining factor when police decide whether or not to charge someone with DUI in Los Angeles. If a breathalyzer and/or blood test shows a reading of .08 or higher, the driver will likely face a charge of driving under the influence.

But a May 10th article in the Washington Post highlights the subtle challenges of evaluating whether or not a driver is operating under the influence of marijuana. Pot doesn’t show up in a breathalyzer test, and measuring the THC content in the blood doesn’t give an accurate picture of whether or not someone can drive safely.

The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety recommends that states take a different approach. Instead of setting legal limits for THC in the bloodstream, states should train certain police officers for certification as drug recognition experts (DRE). Then, when a DUI suspect shows signs of marijuana use, these specially trained officers would conduct an hour-long series of tests to confirm (or refute) that suspicion. Only then would they administer a blood test to determine the level of THC content in the suspect’s bloodstream.

Published on: February 19, 2016

Tennessee Court Tells DUI Drivers They Can’t Cross Any Lines

by Michael Kraut

Can a police officer pull drivers over—and subsequently charge them with DUI—just because their vehicles crossed the center line? A Tennessee court has said yes. While it won’t affect anyone contesting a DUI in Los Angeles, the court’s ruling in the Volunteer State seems to be bucking a national trend that has made it harder for prosecutors to get DUI convictions.

In a ruling that combined two different cases, State v. Linzey Danielle Smith and State v. William Whitlow Davis, Jr., the Tennessee Supreme Court found that police officers were acting within the law when they stopped the defendants for traffic violations in two separate incidents. The defendants, whom police charged with DUI, had argued that the officers had violated their constitutional rights prohibiting unlawful seizure because they did not have probable cause to make the stop.

Published on: February 3, 2016

Can Los Angeles DUI Drivers Be Guilty If They’re Not Driving?

by Michael Kraut

When police arrest a driver on charges of DUI in Los Angeles and causing a death, you can generally assume that motorist was behind the wheel when the accident occurred. But James Ryan, a 28-year-old part-time student in New York, could face up to 25 years in jail for causing the death of a police officer, even though he wasn’t driving at the moment the accident occurred. A jury may soon be deciding his fate.

According to multiple media accounts of the October 2012 accident, Ryan clipped a BMW on the Long Island Expressway and then stopped his vehicle in the high occupancy lane (HOV). That’s when another car hit his. Ryan got out of his Toyota after the second accident and waited by the side of the road for the police to arrive.

Nassau County Police Officer Joseph Olivieri pulled up on the right shoulder of the road, then crossed over and stood close to Ryan’s car in the HOV lane. Another vehicle, an SUV, slammed into Ryan’s car and into Officer Olivieri, killing him. Ryan was unhurt, but other police officers at the scene measured his blood alcohol content at 0.13.
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Published on: May 8, 2015

Case Dismissed: DUI Charges Thrown Out of Court

by Michael Kraut

Anyone charged with a Los Angeles DUI hopes that the charges get thrown out of court and that they’ll go free without any repercussions to their jobs and their lives. That doesn’t happen as often as defendants would desire, but here are two cases from other states that demonstrate that DUI defendants sometimes do have their wishes come true.

According to the WRBC 3 TV in Chattanooga, Tennessee, a judge dismissed DUI charges against a local man whose blood tests revealed that he had no alcohol and no drugs in his system. Steven Harris said he explained to an officer that cancer treatments when he was a young child had affected his balance, which was why had difficulty passing a field sobriety test. Harris agreed to blood tests, but when the first results came back negative the state chose to conduct further tests. When those tests showed that Harris was clean, a judge finally threw out the charges against him.

Harris said he had missed several job opportunities because of the false DUI charge against him.

Meanwhile, in Florida, state officials dismissed charges against Florida State cornerback P. J. Williams, anticipated to be a top pick in the NFL draft. The Florida state’s attorney’s office decided not to pursue charges against Williams for an incident that had occurred on the night of April 3rd. Prosecutor said that the video of the arrest didn’t corroborate the arresting officer’s story, since the angle of the camera blocked the views of the field sobriety test.

Los Angeles DUI defense lawyer, Michael Kraut, of the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers is standing by to offer critical insight into your case and potential defense options. Call him and his team today to begin regaining control over your case and your life.

Published on: December 15, 2014

Man with Multiple DUI Convictions (An Astonishing 24!) Cited Yet Again

by Michael Kraut

Fingers crossed, your history of driving under the influence in Los Angeles looks nothing like that of David Louis Layne, a fifty-five-year-old resident of Alabaster, Alabama who was recently cited for driving under the influence…. For the 25th time. Come on!

The Shelby County Circuit Court charged him with DUI and third-degree assault, saying Layne drove “recklessly” and injured an occupant of the other vehicle when the auto crash occurred.

If Layne is convicted, this will be his latest in a string of serious DUI convictions that date back decades. Layne has received at least 24 previous DUI convictions in Alabama and remains in Shelby County jail on $101,000 bond. He was formally indicted in October 2014 for causing a crash that injured at least one other person on September 4, 2014. Layne’s next hearing is set for February 24, 2015.

Layne pled not guilty to his most recent DUI charge based on “reason of mental disease or defect.” In recent years, Layne’s DUI convictions have also involved charges of driving on the wrong side of a roadway and driving with a revoked or suspended license. Alabaster police chief Curtis Rigney calls Layne and his circumstances “a tragedy waiting to happen.” Shelby County district attorney Jill Lee corroborates this view, adding that she perceives Layne to be “a danger to the public at large.”

In Los Angeles, DUI penalties can include informal probation for a first offense to DUI school attendance from three to thirty months. Other penalties can include jail time from sixteen months to four years, revocation of a CA driver’s license, and fines up to $5,000. If convicted of felony DUI or second degree murder DUI, the defendant could face revocation of his or her license for up to ten years and possibly life in prison. If released from prison, a defendant in a second degree murder DUI case must be on parole status for up to five years.

Michael Kraut and the Los Angeles DUI attorneys of the Kraut Criminal & DUI Lawyers would agree people like Layne can be quite dangerous, but most people who get arrested for similar crimes do not have anything like that kind of checkered driving history. Mr. Kraut would like to remind readers that multiple DUI convictions in Los Angeles and the greater area can result in escalating punishments, including the elevation of what would be a misdemeanor to a felony. The increasingly harsh discipline for multiple DUIs can affect a person’s physical and mental health, self-concept, career prospects, and more.