Man arrested for drunk driving

A teenager wearing a Breathalyzer costume was arrested for driving while intoxicated (DWI),  minor in possession (MIP) and negligent driving.

Police in Lincoln, Nebraska arrested the 19 year-old after observing him “driving erratically” in a Ford pickup truck in the early morning hours of Monday, November 1.   He was was wearing a Breathalyzer test  Halloween costume with a less-than-tastefully placed “blow here” tube.  His blood alcohol concentration was measured at more than .16 when he blew into a real Breathalyzer.

Police reported finding a bottle of vodka and beer upon searching his vehicle.

History (and irony) repeats itself.  Check out our  November 9, 2009 DWI News post about a young man in Ohio busted for drunken driving while wearing a Breathalyzer costume for Halloween.

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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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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 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 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 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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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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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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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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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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