DWI Information and News Blog

Nebraska man drunk in Court at DUI sentencing, say police

2010-03-12T21:33:00.000-06:00

Authorities: Nebraska man too drunk for DUI sentencing

Papillion, NE

Authorities said a 30-year-old-man showed up so drunk for his sentencing for drunken driving that he missed his hearing and now faces even more time behind bars. Authorities said Jason Botos was driven to the Papillion courthouse on Thursday by his father, who needed help from deputies to get his son out of the vehicle.

Prosecutor Ben Perlman said Botos was so drunk he couldn't attend the hearing, so the judge issued a warrant. Deputies arrested Botos in the parking lot.

Another hearing is set for Tuesday. A jail spokeswoman said Botos remained in custody Friday. Botos' attorney didn't immediately return a call.

Botos had pleaded guilty to misdemeanor drunken driving in a September 2009 collision with five other vehicles.

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DUI arrest for anti-gay lawmaker on his way home from gay nightclub

2010-03-04T22:58:00.000-06:00

Anti-gay lawmaker arrested for DUI on his way home from gay nightclub

Sacramento, CA

This is the sort of story that confirms many of the suspicions surrounding homophobia:

Sources tell CBS13 a state senator from Southern California was arrested for allegedly driving drunk after leaving Faces, a gay nightclub in midtown Sacramento, early Wednesday morning [...]

The Sacramento County district attorney says Republican state Sen. Roy Ashburn’s blood-alcohol level was .14 percent when he was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving near the Capitol.

Ashburn, a father of four, is a Republican Senator representing parts of Kern, Tulare and San Bernardino Counties with a history of opposing gay rights [...]

A male passenger, who was not identified as a lawmaker, was also in the car but was not detained.

The story of the overtly homophobic lawmaker caught in the act (or nearly in the act) has become almost a cliché at this point. Of course, clichés are often as not fraught with deeper truths. Obvious truths, even. I say once something becomes a cliché you can almost – not quite, but almost – count on its veracity. It’s like when a proper noun becomes a verb, you know something must be working – like “Google” for instance. That’s how clichés work.

I’d say this particular cliché has reached maturity. This is not to suggest that all discomfort people may feel with the idea of homosexuality is wrong or bigoted. It’s only natural for people to resist change, to resist any break with cultural norms – especially sexual norms. With many breaks from cultural or sexual norms, this makes sense. There is a reason we have these norms, after all. We should keep some of them and lose others.

I’m all for promoting marriage myself. Free love can lead to all sorts of social problems, not the least of which is the spread of disease. Which is one of many reasons I think we should support gay rights – especially gay marriage. Free love wasn’t so good for the gay community, either – and the AIDS epidemic is evidence enough of that. Gay marriage will bring one of our stronger social institutions into the gay community – and that’s good for everyone – even for closeted, confused and ultimately sad men like Roy Ashburn.

How can we view this DUI as anything less than a cry for help, after all? We can call him a homophobic hypocrite all we like, but in the end it’s really a very sad story.

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DWI chair up for sale...agian

2010-03-04T22:29:00.008-06:00

DWI chair to be sold...one more time

Duluth, MN

If you never got a chance to place a bid on the infamous 'DWI chair,' you have another shot.

Proctor Police hope the third time's the charm, in their ongoing attempt to find a buyer for the motorized chair.

The chair was forfeited to authorities after a Proctor man drove it while drunk in 2008.

Authorities say the chair's former owner was three times over the legal limit when he crashed into a parked car.

Police say next week Oberfoell Auctioneers will pick the chair up, and officials say it is expected to appear online in the near future.

Two previous attempts to auction the chair off to the highest bidder failed after gaining national attention.

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Driver rearends patrol car, arrested for DUI

2010-02-21T22:28:00.000-06:00

Driver who rear-ended marked patrol car is arrested for DUI

Springfield, IL

A 34-year-old Springfield man was arrested for alleged DUI and marijuana possession after rear-ending a Springfield police squad car outside Marly’s Pub, 9 Old State Capitol Plaza, early Saturday.

Jamaine M. Hardy, of the 500 block of West Miller Street, was driving a Dodge van south on Fifth Street behind Springfield Police officer Donald Rummans, 34, of Rochester, about 12:40 a.m.

Rummans, who was in uniform and driving a department Ford Crown Victoria, was southbound and stopped his car after reportedly seeing a fight on the sidewalk outside Marly’s Pub, a police report states. As he stopped the car and was getting out, his vehicle was rear-ended by Hardy’s van.

Springfield Police Officer Jeffrey Coker’s report states Hardy was “agitated and walking in the roadway” and “stated the car just stopped in front of him.”

“I asked the driver for his identification,” Coker’s report states. “The driver attempted to walk to the driver side door of his vehicle. Officer Rummans and I grabbed the driver by his coat and arms and escorted him away from his van.”

When Hardy refused to get inside Rummans’ squad car, he was “pushed into the squad car” by the officers, the report states.

Hardy was then arrested for alleged DUI and cited for failing to reduce speed in time to avoid a crash, police said. Officers later found a bag of marijuana inside the van.

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Off-Duty cop who crashes into Tiffany's in New York, arrested for driving while intoxicated

2010-02-13T20:46:00.000-06:00

Off-duty cop arrested for drunken driving after cop car slams into front of Tiffany’s flagship 5th Avenue store

New York, NY

An off-duty cop was arrested for drunken driving after he slammed his car into the front of Tiffany’s flagship Fifth Avenue store at 3 a.m. today, police said.

The wreck happened as NYPD officer Raphael Ospina, 27, a cop since 2004, was heading east on 57th Street. He collided with a private garbage truck that was heading in the opposite direction and making a left turn onto Fifth Avenue south.

Ospina's Chrysler 300 sedan, with two passengers inside, jumped a curb and hit the famous façade of the legendary jewelry store.

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Man charged with 15th DWI, prosecutor requests bail be denied

2010-02-11T22:59:00.000-06:00

Don’t let man facing 15th DUI out of jail, prosecutor urges

Warren, OH

Trumbull County Prosecutor Dennis Watkins has asked that Keith J. Urso be kept in Trumbull County Jail without bail while the courts determine whether Urso is guilty of DUI for the 15th time.

Urso, 49, of Monroe Street and Vermont Street, was indicted Wednesday by a Trumbull County grand jury on two counts of driving under the influence with a prior felony conviction and repeat DUI offender.

Each charge carries a penalty of two to 10 years in prison.

Urso will be arraigned at 2:30 p.m. today by Judge Andrew Logan in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court.

The charges stem from an arrest by a Trumbull County sheriff’s deputy around 1 p.m. Jan. 31 in Mecca Township. Urso was charged with DUI and driving under suspension and found to have a blood-alcohol level of 0.286 — more than three times the legal limit of 0.08, Watkins said. He had no license and was driving a girlfriend’s car, according to the sheriff’s department.

“The evidence will show that [Urso’s] drunken stupor was so profound, he could not stand and walk. Miraculously, no one was killed or injured by his driving,” Watkins wrote in a motion he filed with the common pleas court Wednesday.

Watkins told the court that Urso killed someone in 1982 while driving drunk and was sentenced to one year in prison in 2006 for another DUI.

“Since 1982 this defendant has amassed 14 separate [DUI] convictions and additional violations related to failure to appear, leaving the scene of an accident, domestic violence and probation violations,” Watkins wrote in the filing.

He added that Ohio law allows a person to be kept in jail instead of being released on bond if the person is charged with a felony “where the proof is evident or the presumption great and where the person poses a substantial risk of serious physical harm to any person or the community.”

Urso pleaded innocent to the charges in Central District Court Feb. 1 and was released from jail later that day after posting $20,000 bond.

He was arrested again Wednesday following the indictment.

In the Jan. 31 incident, a deputy responded to Monty’s Carry Out and Restaurant at Bazetta Road and state Route 88 after a witness said she saw Urso driving intoxicated north on Bazetta Road and that he had pulled into Monty’s to sleep.

When the deputy arrived, he smelled alcohol coming from Urso, found a half-empty beer can in the car, and Urso fell forward when he tried to get out of his car, the deputy’s report said.

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NY Man arrested for DWI had BAC of .043%, five times legal limit

2010-02-10T21:38:00.000-06:00

Man arrested for DWI in New York had BAC more than 5 times the legal limit

Catskill, NY

State police say a Hudson Valley man is being held for observation at a hospital after he was arrested for driving with a blood-alcohol level five times the legal limit.

Troopers with the Thruway detail say 36-year-old Brian Tumas of Kingston was pulled over on Interstate 87 Tuesday afternoon when he made an illegal U-turn in the town of Catskill, 30 miles south of Albany.

Troopers charged him with driving while intoxicated and resisting arrest.

Police say he was taken to Kingston Hospital after troopers determined his blood-alcohol content was .43 percent, more than five times the .08 level for DWI under state law.

Tumas was given appearance tickets for Catskill Town Court. It wasn't known Wednesday if he has a lawyer

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Over 2 dozen DWI arrests over Super Bowl weekend in Albany

2010-02-10T07:46:00.000-06:00

More than 2 dozen charged in Super Bowl weekend sweep

Albany, NY

A countywide DWI sweep on Super Bowl weekend resulted in more than 1,000 traffic stops, with 23 alcohol-related arrests and two for driving while impaired by drugs.

Two of the 23 drunken driving arrests were for aggravated driving while intoxicated, which means they had blood-alcohol levels of 0.18 and above.

This year's arrests were "on average" with last year's Super Bowl weekend sweep, which netted 21 for DWI and three for aggravated drunken driving, said Sheriff's First Sgt. Leonard Crouch, administrator of Albany County STOP-DWI Program.

"The only thing that went up was people who claimed to be designated drivers," Crouch said. Last year there were 36 and this year, 44.

Also, 100 more vehicles were stopped this year -- 1,048 compared to 944 last year, he said.

In Watervliet, officers arrested a man who gave a false name to try to conceal his identity and a previous conviction, which made his arrest felony DWI, authorities said. He was also charged with criminal impersonation.

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MADD used as a model by group for laws against driving while texting

2010-02-06T19:03:00.000-06:00

St. Louis, MO

Over and over, the comparison is made to a battle that started 30 years ago with the death of a 13-year-old California girl.

The loss of Cari Lightner, who was run down by a drunk driver, served as a catalyst for change by spawning Mothers Against Drunk Driving, one of the best known nonprofit advocacy groups in the nation's history.

For those wanting to take cell phones out of the hands of drivers, MADD provides both inspiration and a road map for how to use the power of public opinion, political pressure and heart-wrenching stories of lost mothers, sons and daughters to force change.

"We're just borrowing their game plan. Law by law, they got it done," said Jennifer Smith, founder of fledgling FocusDriven, a Texas-based nonprofit that wants to reshape how society treats cell phones.

Already, a nationwide movement is underway to regulate their use in cars. Seven states ban handheld phones, while 19 others, including Illinois, ban all text messaging. Another nine states, including Missouri, ban texting for younger drivers — though it appears Missouri could expand the ban to all drivers this year.

Legislatures across the nation are debating dozens of new laws. And the federal government, which recently banned texting for all commercial truck and bus drivers, is making noise about tying highway funding to texting bans.

"People think they can drive safely while using a cell phone, but they can't," U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said in a news conference last week. "We take this texting while driving as an epidemic."

Opponents of distracted driving are facing obstacles similar to those encountered by drunk-driving opponents back in the 1980s. Chief among them is the fact that many people don't see a problem with using a cell phone, or even texting, while driving.

This, despite numerous studies, including one in 2005 by researchers at the University of Utah, showing cell phone users' reaction times are on par with those of drunk drivers. For many, it comes down to the simple issue of personal freedom and not wanting to be told what to do.

Even in areas where texting or using a handheld phone is illegal, penalties are often relatively light. Along with education and public awareness campaigns, stiffer penalties is an area of focus for safety advocates such as Douglas Horn, a lawyer from Independence, Mo., who argues that cell phone violators should face the same consequences as drunk drivers.

"If you take away their driving privileges and you make some examples, you are going to get people's attention," Horn said.

Often, punishments can vary widely, even in deadly traffic accidents where cell phones are a contributing factor. Consider a pair of fatal accidents that occurred in the St. Louis area in 2008.

The first, in July, was the highly publicized Highway 40 incident in which a truck driver plowed through a line of cars, killing three people and injuring 15 others. According to police records, driver Jeffrey Knight, 49, of Muscle Shoals, Ala., said he was reaching for his cell phone when he realized the cars ahead had stopped. Knight was charged with three counts of involuntary manslaughter, felonies punishable by up to four years in prison each.

The second occurred in Arnold in August, when a pickup driver veered out of his lane and struck and killed a motorcyclist coming the opposite direction. According to police reports, driver Michael Oldani, 20, of Arnold, said he was answering his cell phone just before the accident occurred. And although Arnold police recommended manslaughter charges, prosecutors opted for a lesser charge of careless and imprudent driving, a misdemeanor punishable by a year in prison and a $1,000 fine.

Jefferson County Prosecuting Attorney Forrest Wegge would not discuss Oldani's case while it is pending. But he said manslaughter charges in general require the prosecution to prove criminal negligence.

"A lot of the time, it's a judgment call on the prosecutor's part," Wegge said.

It's one of the areas where distracted driving opponents want changes. They say it's reminiscent of the days before MADD, when drunk driving was more or less ignored by society and a legal system that often handed out slaps on the wrist for violators.

"It was a joke on late-night TV. It was perfectly acceptable," said Laura Dean-Mooney, national president of MADD.

That was until Candace Lightner's daughter was killed while walking to a church carnival. The fiery Lightner unleashed a grass-roots campaign — fueled by tearful stories of lost loved ones — that spread rapidly across the country. The organization, which has hundreds of chapters across the nation and raises millions of dollars each year, is often looked upon as a model for effecting change.

Lightner and an army of volunteers attacked the issue at the local, state and national levels, pushing for increasingly strict laws and penalties for those who broke them. When they started, there were 30,000 drunk-driving deaths each year in the United States. The number was down to fewer than 12,000 in 2008.

Scoring a similar victory in the distracted driving battle won't be easy, suggests MADD founder Lightner, now a real estate agent in Florida. She empathizes with the distracted driving movement but sees obstacles that didn't exist when she started MADD.

The economy was better. There weren't nearly as many nonprofits competing for donations. And most importantly, no one had ever seen an organization like it before.

"I don't think I would be as successful today as I was then," Lightner said. "In the 1980s, we were unique. We were one of a kind."

Distracted driving opponents also face a relative dearth of statistics showing the size of the problem. According to government estimates, nearly 6,000 people die each year as result of distracted driving, with officials citing cell phones as a major source of those distractions. But the data are far from complete, with many states — until recently, Illinois was among them — doing little to track cell phone-related accidents.

Still, FocusDriven, which launched last month and has just five regional chapters, does have one of the key ingredients of MADD's success: the victims.

More specifically, they have the willingness to put names, faces and stories to the thousands of people killed each year in cell phone-related accidents. They've set up victim memorials on social network Facebook and photo-sharing site Flickr, where survivors post images and tell stories. They plan to testify and speak on the issue whenever possible.

And in today's world of instant communication, that's easier than ever.

"That's one advantage we have. They didn't have social networking," said founder Smith, whose mother was killed by a distracted driver in Oklahoma City in September 2008 while driving to get cat food.

But social networks and the Internet have their drawbacks — as anyone who has tried to reach the masses can attest.

"It's easy to create an authentic message and spread it to some people," said Matt Carlson, an assistant professor of communications at St. Louis University. "The problem is, how do you reach everybody? It's not easy."

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Prosecutors: Invalid DUI BAC tests in Colorado Springs double

2010-02-01T22:16:00.000-06:00

Colorado Springs, CO

The number of flawed Colorado Springs police DUI tests has doubled to 167 since a crime lab audit last year discovered that some blood-alcohol results were inflated, the Colorado Springs Gazette reported.

The Police Department launched internal and external investigations after reporting Dec. 11 that a routine audit revealed errors in 82 initial cases.

El Paso County prosecutor Frederick Stein confirmed the doubling of flawed cases to The Gazette, but he could not say yet what the impact of the erroneous tests might be on prosecution of those criminal cases. He said the district attorney's office hopes to have a report compiling those outcomes within the next two weeks.
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At the time, the department started re-testing about 1,000 blood alcohol test results taken since January 2009, The Gazette reported. Meanwhile, prosecutors contacted individuals in the cases that were based upon the incorrect test results.

The Colorado Bureau of Investigations is conducting the external investigation and the Police Department is conducting its own internal review.

While the department review isn't completed, police spokesman Lt. David Whitlock told The Gazette: "We've narrowed it down to the point where we believe it is likely a human error. We believe very strongly that it’s not an equipment failure or something inherent in the lab itself."

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Texas cop's DWI case dismissed when arresting officer is no-show for court

2010-01-28T20:03:00.000-06:00

McAllen, TX

An Hidalgo County judge killed a McAllen policeman’s criminal case after one of the defendant’s fellow officers failed to appear in court and testify against him, court records state.

Judge Jay Palacios of Hidalgo County Court-at-law No. 2 dealt a “fatal” blow to the prosecution’s case, Hidalgo County District Attorney Rene Guerra said, when he granted a motion to suppress evidence in Officer Alex Alvarez’s pending case on a charge of driving while intoxicated.

McAllen police arrested Alvarez on July 5, 2009, after they found him in his red Ford pickup truck at Chili’s, 521 E. Nolana. An anti-theft locking device was still attached to the steering wheel as he allegedly attempted to leave the restaurant while drunk. In the process, his truck collided with a parked car.

“The outcome of last night may determine his future,” McAllen Police Chief Victor Rodriguez said the day after Alvarez’s arrest.

But in criminal court, at least, it appears Alvarez may have avoided a DWI conviction. The arresting officer failed to appear for a court hearing where he was to explain why Alvarez had been arrested.

“Nobody showed up to testify,” said Alvarez’s attorney, Toribio “Terry” Palacios. “We got all the evidence suppressed. There’s not much I can comment on.”

Alvarez refused a breath test and would not submit to other sobriety tests at the police station, according to Monitor archives.

Restaurant employees told police Alvarez had been bothering four female customers and was told to return to his table. The restaurant manager suspected Alvarez was too drunk to drive and called a taxi to take him home. While waiting for the cab to arrive, the manager tried to stall Alvarez, who apparently stripped a pair of glasses from his head and threw them to the floor.

District Attorney Guerra said he learned Wednesday that the case was set for dismissal when a Monitor reporter contacted him about the matter. Guerra said he would ask Palacios to reconsider his decision to suppress the evidence in the case.

“Legally, I don’t know if he can reconsider it,” the district attorney said. “I don’t know until I try.”

But why the arresting officer missed the court date remains unclear.

Court records show the officer was served a subpoena Jan. 12 to appear in court for the scheduled hearing one week later.

Guerra said he learned the arresting officer had worked the graveyard shift the night before the hearing and missed the Jan. 19 court date.

McAllen’s Police Chief Rodriguez said he believed the officer was hospitalized. Rodriguez provided no further details.

Two officers from the McAllen police force’s internal affairs division were in the courtroom that day as part of their administrative investigation, Guerra said.

“They knew he had been subpoenaed and failed to show up,” the district attorney said.

Alvarez, meanwhile, remains on unpaid administrative leave — as he has since his arrest last summer, Rodriguez said.

No decision has been made about any consequences the 14-year police veteran could face, the chief said, but those could range from suspension to Alvarez’s firing. The arresting officer could face administrative consequences for failing to appear in court, as well.

“Now I need to figure out what will happen in this one,” Rodriguez said.

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Utah Senator arrested for DUI was strong proponent for strong anti-drunk driving legislation

2010-01-24T21:12:00.000-06:00

Salt Lake City, UT

Arrested Utah Senate Majority Leader, Sheldon Killpack was slated to speak to Senate Rebublicans along with the Governor Friday. But was previously arrested for DUI suspicion, leaving Sen. Wayne Niederhauser in his place.

Just last year, Killpack sponsored two major pieces of legislation aimed at cracking down on drunk driving.

"It's difficult as a legislator to be always there on the top of the stand for everybody to see and to look at and by no means are we perfect people," said Neiderhauser.

Killpack's collegues are not making any excuses for the arrest. And both sides of the aisle know the situation feeds public cynicism.

"I'm not sure how we'll respond to that, but we'll respond to it prudently, deliberately, and in the best interests of Sen. Killpakc and his family," says Neiderhauser.

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DWI conviction of man sleeping in parked car upheld by Minnesote Supreme Court

2010-01-24T21:03:00.000-06:00

Minneapolis, MN

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.

Fleck's appellate lawyer, G. Tony Atwal, an assistant state public defender, disagreed with the ruling. "Presumably, if you're in or about your car, the county attorney could now charge you with a physical control DWI," Atwal said.

In 2007, Fleck was drunk and asleep in his car with the driver's door open in the assigned parking spot at his apartment building when someone called police. He got his fourth drunken-driving conviction and was sentenced to four years in prison. The state Court of Appeals affirmed his conviction, setting up the appeal to the Supreme Court.

Atwal said he pushed the appeals because 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.

Page emphasized that the law says "physical control of a motor vehicle" in an attempt to deter intoxicated people from getting into cars except as passengers and to help nab drunken drivers.

"Mere presence in or about a vehicle is insufficient to show physical control; it is the overall situation that is determinative," he wrote.

He acknowledged that Fleck's circumstances were not typical for a "physical control" drunken-driving offense because the jury couldn't infer Fleck drove to the spot where he was found.

But a jury could reasonably determine that "Fleck, having been found intoxicated, alone, and sleeping behind the wheel of his own vehicle with the keys in the vehicle's console, was in a position to exercise dominion or control over the vehicle and that he could, without too much difficulty, make the vehicle a source of danger," the justice wrote.

Page said that in evaluating whether someone has control, the courts and juries consider a number of factors: proximity to the car, the location of the keys, whether the person was a passenger, the ownership of the car and whether it was operable.

He cited a case in which the state Supreme Court reinstated the drunken-driving charge of a person found behind the wheel of a car that was stuck and couldn't be moved without a tow truck. Page said the court determined that "intent to operate" isn't a requirement for finding that someone was in "physical control" of the vehicle.

Fleck remains in treatment and under court supervision, Atwal said.

Steve Simon, a University of Minnesota law professor and head of the DWI Task Force, said arrests such as Fleck's are so common the suspects have a name: "slumpers." He said that more often police find drivers passed out at a stoplight or parked by a roadside.

He said state law broadly defines "physical control" because "you don't want people to get into a car if they've been drinking." In one case, a person got a drunken-driving charge because he was steering an inoperable car that was being towed, Simon said.

In another Minnesota case, a man was drinking at home, then went to listen to the high-end stereo in his new SUV parked outside. Simon said neighbors called police about the noise, and the man ended up with a drunken-driving charge and an impounded vehicle.

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Man suspected of DUI fled police wearing only women's underwear

2010-01-19T21:44:00.000-06:00

Highland, CA

A suspected drunken driver who led sheriff's deputies on a high speed pursuit through Highland late Monday was arrested after fleeing on foot wearing only women's underwear, officials said.

Bruce Parker, 42, was arrested on suspicion of being under the influence of an alcoholic beverage and a controlled substance and violating his parole.

Deputies tried to pull him over about 10:15 p.m. after seeing him go straight from a right hand turn lane on Highland Avenue. He allegedly refused to pull over, eventually hitting the San Manuel welcome sign and a signal light control box at the intersection of Victoria and Citrus avenues.

He then leaped out of the car and tried to run, wearing only women's underwear, officials said.

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New York police officers admit protecting their own from DWI

2010-01-19T21:08:00.000-06:00

Asbury Park, NJ

A driver speeding through Tarrytown, N.Y. rolled over and struck a fence and guardrail. Another was accused of running a red light before smashing into a Scarsdale police car. A third hit a Greenburgh ambulance, and a fourth rammed into a truck on Interstate 287.

Four accidents involving allegedly drunken drivers within a three-week period is hardly unusual in Westchester. What made these stand out were the drivers: All were off-duty law enforcement officers, and all now face misdemeanor charges of driving while intoxicated.

At a time when police brass are pushing DWI crackdowns, which have led to a record number of arrests, the recent cluster of crashes allegedly by drunken police officers from Dobbs Ferry, Westchester County and White Plains, plus a county correction officer, has been an official embarrassment and a public eye-opener. However, police say it's not completely surprising, given that many in law enforcement quietly turn a blind eye to drunken off-duty officers when they're stopped.

"If you can get them a ride home and put their car someplace safe, that's what you do," said one central Westchester patrol officer who agreed to speak anonymously. "It's kind of an unwritten rule. You don't jam up another cop unless you have to."

In conversations with 10 police officers who spoke under the condition that their names and departments not be identified, all told The Journal News that off-duty cops are rarely charged with driving while intoxicated unless they were involved in an accident.

"That's a situation that you can't hide," said one officer. "I'm not going to risk my career in a case like that."

Even when they are arrested, law enforcement officers, familiar with the legal system, do what they can to protect themselves. In the recent cases, White Plains Police Officer Joe Zepeda, county Officer Joseph Kraus, Dobbs Ferry Officer Michael Huffman and Correction Officer Patricia Yancy-Johnson all refused to submit to chemical tests that determine blood-alcohol levels, despite knowing that their driver's licenses could be automatically revoked for a year.

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Minnesota man with dozens of DWI's is going to prison

2010-01-16T20:21:00.000-06:00

Fergus, MN

One of Minnesota's worst drunk drivers is going to prison.

Danny Lee Bettcher, 57, of rural Wadena, Otter Tail County, was sentenced Thursday to four years in prison for driving while intoxicated after refusing a chemical test.

Bettcher has more than two dozen DWI convictions in the past 20 years. Among them are 14 confirmed DWI offenses in Minnesota, according to the Otter Tail County Attorney’s office.

He was most recently arrested May 8, 2009 in New York Mills after police said he went through a stop sign on his motorcycle and was arrested on suspicion of felony first-degree DWI.

In May, the County Attorney’s office charged Bettcher with operating a motor vehicle under the influence of alcohol, refusal to submit to testing in the first degree, and the lesser charges of driving after revocation and possession of a small amount of marijuana. All but the DWI-refusal charges were dismissed in Otter Tail County District Court. He had been held in the Otter Tail County Jail since May and reported to the St. Cloud Correctional Facility on Friday.

In January 2004, Bettcher was sentenced to 4 1/2 years in prison for first-degree DWI, his first felony DWI conviction.

He was placed on supervised release in October 2006.

In June 2007, he was sent back to prison for a minimum of one year for violating conditions of his release by consuming alcohol and entering a business that sells alcohol.

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MADD Unhappy with Ohio Prosecutor over ride with DUI suspect

2010-01-15T02:12:00.000-06:00

CLEVELAND, OH

The group Mothers Against Drunk Driving is unhappy with an Ohio prosecutor for taking a ride home with a political ally who was stopped by police and charged with drunken driving.

The MADD organization in Cleveland says it's disappointed with Cuyahoga (ky-uh-HOH'-guh) County Prosecutor Bill Mason because his office has worked to lock up drunken drivers, especially those involved in fatal crashes.

The group says the outcome of the incident could have been tragic.

Mason says he didn't think his friend, a Parma city councilman, was impaired when he accepted a ride from him.

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South Dakota woman prosuectors claim had record BAC of .709 pleads not guilty to DWI charge

2010-01-06T20:08:00.000-06:00

Sturgis, SD

The Sturgis woman who prosecutors say was arrested with a blood-alcohol level almost nine times the legal driving limit, has pleaded not guilty in Sturgis to driving under the influence.

Marguerite Engle, 45, entered the plea Tuesday in Meade County Magistrate Court in Sturgis. Engle was arrested Dec. 1 when she was found passed out behind the wheel of a stolen delivery van along Interstate 90.

Meade County State's Attorney Jesse Sondreal said Wednesday that other charges against Engle will be presented to a grand jury on Thursday, Jan. 14. Those include driving under the influence, misdemeanor marijuana possession, possession of drug paraphernalia and not having a valid driver's license.

Sondreal earlier said Engle had a blood-alcohol level of .708 percent, possibly a state record, when she was found behind the wheel of the vehicle parked on I-90.

A South Dakota Highway Patrol trooper discovered Engle passed out behind the wheel of a delivery truck reported stolen from Rapid City.

Her blood-alcohol level was almost nine times South Dakota's legal limit of .08 percent.

Engle's reading may be the highest ever recorded in South Dakota, Sondreal said.

Sondreal said a state chemist recalled a sample that tested .53, but nothing higher, in his more than 30 years on the job.

Dr. Robert Looyenga, who recently retired from the Rapid City Police Department's forensic laboratory, told Sondreal that the highest blood-alcohol sample he tested measured .56 percent.

Sondreal's research indicates that a blood-alcohol level of .40 is considered a lethal dose for about 50 percent of the population.

"Engle's was almost double that," Sondreal said.

After she was found, Engle was hospitalized and freed on bond.

She failed to appear in court on Dec. 15, but Sturgis police located her Jan. 4 in another stolen car sitting in a ditch along S.D. Highway 34 near Fort Meade.

Engle was arrested for second offense driving under the influence and taken to jail. She is being held without bond.

Sondreal said Engle has been living in a hotel after recently moving here from Minnesota.

Engle is most likely facing charges in Pennington County since both vehicles were stolen in Rapid City, Sondreal said.

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Police Chief may get job back after DWI conviction

2010-01-06T19:51:00.000-06:00

Lancaster, NH

The former Errol police chief could get his job back because the town didn’t follow proper procedures when it fired him following a drunken driving conviction.

A judge ruled last week that the firing of Randolph "Randy" DiFruscio had to be reversed because the town selectmen took three months to give him a written reason for his firing.

The New Hampshire Union Leader says state law requires that police chiefs be given written notice when they are fired. They then have 45 days to appeal.

Lawyer Rick Lehman says DiFruscio’s certification as a police officer was reinstated Jan. 1 following a six month suspension.

DiFruscio was on a personal leave of absence last April from his job as Errol’s only police officer when he was convicted of DWI.

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Minnesota man charged in 20th DWI arrest

2009-12-30T19:40:00.000-06:00

Stillwater, MN

Authorities say they can't charge a St. Paul man with a felony after he was arrested for the 20th time on suspicion of drunken driving.

Minnesota law makes a fourth drunken driving offense within 10 years a felony. But prosecutors say that because only 2 of Paul Garay's DWI convictions were in the past 10 years, the 55-year-old could only be charged with gross misdemeanors Monday.

Washington County Attorney Doug Johnson says it's another example of a system that's too lenient on drunken drivers.

Garay remained jailed Tuesday on a parole violation and couldn't be reached for comment. Jail records don't list his attorney's name.

Garay crashed at Highway 61 and Interstate 494 in Newport Thursday evening. The complaint says his blood alcohol level was 0.16 percent, twice the legal limit.

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New drunk driving ignition interlock law in Illinois required IID for 1st offense DUI, doubles number of ignition interlock devices

2009-12-30T04:46:00.000-06:00

Springfield, MO

Advocates say a year-old Illinois DUI law is saving lives.

As of last Jan. 1, Illinois law requires first-time DUI offenders to install a Breathalyzer in their vehicles in order to keep driving.

Officials say about 6,100 of the devices have been installed. Before the law, about 3,000 Illinoisans with multiple DUIs had the devices.

The ignition interlocks prevent engines from starting until drivers blow into the alcohol detectors to prove they're sober.

The device also does periodic checks to keep drivers from getting someone else to blow for them to get the vehicle started.

Susan McKinney is the program's director. She says putting the devices in for first-time offenders may keep them from driving drunk again.

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Twitter helps drivers avoid DUI checkpoints

2009-12-29T23:43:00.000-06:00

FRESNO, CA

In a ritual nearly as familiar as Santa Claus and crowded stores, police agencies have again stepped up enforcement of drunken-driving laws this holiday season.

Studies have found sobriety checkpoints reduce alcohol-related crashes because they create awareness about the risk of arrest.

But some public-safety officials say that message might be lost on the group most at risk _ young drivers. Trying to elude arrest for drunken driving, young people use technology to keep each other informed about the location of sobriety checkpoints, said Sgt. Dave Gibeault, head of the Fresno Police Department's traffic unit.

Tools include Twitter, text messages and an iPhone application specifically designed to identify checkpoints, Gibeault said.

Statistics provide a cause for concern: The number of people killed or injured in alcohol-related accidents during the holiday season in Fresno County has hovered around 34 for the last four years, according to state figures _ stubbornly resisting high-profile enforcement campaigns.

Gibeault thinks young people are drinking more, in part because clubs aimed at that population have proliferated. And young drinkers can check their cell phones to find out where police are stopping motorists, he said.

His own daughter often sends him text messages about where she's heard he's running checkpoints.

On Twitter, a free electronic message service that runs on both cell phones and computers, drivers can warn each other with "tweets" listing intersections where police have set up checkpoints.

Fresno attorney Brian Andritch sees nothing wrong with efforts to spread the word about checkpoints.

Andritch, who used to prosecute drunken drivers when he worked in the Fresno County District Attorney's Office, now defends them _ and warns others about sobriety checkpoints on Twitter.

"I don't see how it's any different than what police are doing in promoting checkpoints," he said in an interview.

Gibeault said it's one thing to spread the word about checkpoints in general, which police want. It's quite another to provide information that might encourage people to drive drunk, he said.

Wayne Ziese, a spokesman for the California Office of Traffic Safety, said he's heard a lot of stories about young people using technology to avoid drunken driving arrests.

"Young people continue to be the most dangerous drivers," he said. "They will continue to drink and drive until they have families and realize they have something to lose."

Ziese said law enforcement hasn't figured out how to respond to the more immediate and precise information about checkpoints circulating on the Web and via cell phones. The Office of Traffic Safety provides funding to help with such enforcement, including more than $5 million to Fresno County agencies in the last five years.

"New technology brings us new challenges, whether it's warfare or DUI," Ziese said.

Fresno police are known for their innovative approaches to DUI enforcement, and will likely figure out an appropriate response, Ziese said.

But changing the checkpoints can be a problem, Gibeault said. Police can't easily move them once their location has been broadcast, because of legal requirements and the large number of officers and equipment involved, he said.

In any case, the purpose of the checkpoints isn't to take drunken drivers off the road, Gibeault said. The point is preventing them from getting in the car in the first place.

In 2001, experts convened by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reached the same conclusion. The group concluded that checkpoints reduced alcohol-related accidents by an average of 20 percent.

"Although checkpoints may remove some drinking drivers from the road, their primary goal is to reduce driving after drinking by increasing the perceived risk of arrest," the researchers said.

Saturation patrols _ in which police focus on troubled areas with a lot of officers on the move _ are more effective than checkpoints at catching drunken drivers, Gibeault said.

In the last three winter holiday seasons, more than 18,000 vehicles have passed through checkpoints in Fresno and Madera counties, according to the Office of Traffic Safety. Only 1 percent of the motorists were arrested for driving under the influence.

By contrast, saturation patrols conducted during the same time produced seven times as many arrests for driving under the influence.

"I was a hard sell on checkpoints," Gibeault concedes. "I wanted to put drunk drivers in jail."

But he said he learned over time how effective checkpoints are.

He said he remains a strong supporter of checkpoints, even though the number of drunken-driving accidents has gone up during winter holidays in Fresno.

Last winter holiday, motorists charged with driving under the influence were involved in 49 crashes, compared to 36 five years earlier, police figures show.

Some of the increase is likely due to population gains, and the jump would have been higher if not for checkpoints, Gibeault said.

Clovis Police Chief Janet Davis said more people would have been hurt or killed if checkpoints weren't set up, and police must continue the effort.

"We're still doing these campaigns because people aren't getting it," she said.

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Free funerals offered for drunken drivers in GA

2009-12-29T23:40:00.000-06:00

Rome, GA

Funeral Home Says Effort Designed To Save Lives

Planning to drink and drive this New Year's? A north Georgia funeral home has a deal for you.
Between now and noon Thursday, drivers can visit McGuire, Jennings and Miller Funeral Home in Rome to sign a contract stating they plan to drink or take drugs and then drive on New Year's Eve. If they die in a wreck that day, the funeral home will give them a free burial.
Services included in the package are a casket, grave, limousine and preparation of remains.
Funeral home officials said the program is designed to save lives by making partygoers think twice about drinking and driving.

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Drunk driving suspects and DWI arrest information to be posted on Twitter by Texas district attorney

2009-12-25T21:56:00.000-06:00

Houston, TX

A drunk-driving arrest can costs thousands of dollars and maybe your job, but in one local county it could cost you public embarrassment, too.

The Montgomery County District Attorney has an active Twitter site, and he says he'll be "Twittering" names and arrest information of DWI suspects.

“There is definitely a deterrent effect in the potential public humiliation people may face when they get arrested for DWI," said Warren Diepraam, an assistant district attorney.

This is part of a widespread crackdown on drunk driving over the Christmas and New Year's Day holiday period. But not everyone thinks the new program is fair.

Tyler Flood is one of Houston’s top DWI defense attorneys and thinks only the names of those convicted should be posted.

“Here is another form of punishment, if you are arrested for DWI, the problem is it's a punishment. That is something that comes after a conviction, not before," said Flood.

It's also a "no refusal" period between Dec. 18 and Jan. 3, 2010, which means peace officers can get a court order to take blood samples of DWI suspects who refuse a breathalyzer test.

Some agencies also use an infra-red camera, known as a "hawkeye," to record a suspect's eyes during a field sobriety test.

“What everybody needs to understand is that when you get arrested by a police officer, that can be in the public domain for rest of life even if you're not convicted and people need to think about that before they make a poor decision," said Diepraam.

Many agencies will have extra officers on the street though grant programs designated to crack down on drunk driving. Agencies use the extra money to pay overtime for officers.

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Amish driver of slow-moving horse-pulled buggy arrested for DWI

2009-12-12T23:52:00.000-06:00

Lancaster, PA

Big news in Quarryville, PA, the other night: Police charged the driver of a slow-moving horse and buggy with drunk driving. The man was Amish, slumped over and asleep as the slowly-moving buggy meandered through town.
After police who him up, 22-year-old Elmer Stolzfoos Fisher blew a point-18 on the breathalyzer --legal limit is point-08 in P-A.

Wait, isn't the horse a designated driver?
--The good news: None of his family will find out about this on the television.
--"The reason I pulled you over sir is that you had your turn-candle on for the last five miles."

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