Police in Delaware Step up DUI Enforcement as St. Patrick’s Day Nears

With St. Patrick’s Day a week away, Delaware highway officials are urging holiday revelers to avoid drinking and driving. Police across the state will be cracking down on those who do.

National statistics show that in 2008, 50 people died in traffic crashes involving an impaired driver on St. Patrick’s Day.

That is why the state Office of Highway Safety is coordinating statewide DUI enforcement for the upcoming weekend, St. Patrick’s Day itself and the following weekend as well.  Fifteen state, county and municipal law enforcement agencies are scheduled to conduct a total of 127 DUI Saturation patrols March 13, 17 and 19– 20.

Additionally, the New Castle County DUI Task Force will conduct an 8-hour-long sobriety checkpoint on March 13t to coincide with the annual St. Patrick’s Day Loop (or Shamrock Shuttle), which involves activities at several bars in Wilmington.  OHS has placed a designated driver message on Loop bracelets that every participant must wear throughout the night.

Agencies conducting patrols include: Camden police, Delaware State Police, Dover police, Felton police, Georgetown police, Laurel police, Middletown police, Milford police, Milton police, New Castle City police, New Castle County police, Newark police, Rehoboth Beach police, Seaford police and Wyoming police.  Last year, police arrested 52 people for DUI during St. Patrick’s Day enforcement activities.

According to the OHS, in 2009, 35 percent (41 of 117) of all vehicle deaths in Delaware were alcohol-related. Since Jan. 1 of this year, three of the state’s 18 motor vehicle fatalities have been alcohol-related.  For more information on OHS’s year round DUI efforts, visit  www.ohs.delaware.gov .

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MADD Pushes for Tougher Wisconin DUI Penalties

The national president of Mothers Against Drunk Driving wants Wisconsin lawmakers to toughen drunken driving penalties in the state.

MADD’s president wants lawmakers to hold a hearing on a bill that would legalize sobriety checkpoints and make a first-offense drunken driving arrest a crime instead of just a traffic violation.

Democratic State Senator Mark Miller of Monona says it doesn’t make sense to move ahead with the costly bill. He says the state should wait to look at another proposal to toughen drunken penalties until a bill passed last year takes effect.

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Kingsport, TN Man Arrested for 10th DUI

Kingsport Police have filed a 10th DUI charge against a driver who was going about 20 miles per hour on Interstate 26 and weaving. The Kingsport Times -News reported that the 57-year-old man told the officer on Tuesday, “I’m drunk. Do what you gotta do.” The police report stated that when asked to take sobriety, breath or alcohol tests, the man kept repeating that he was drunk.

Police charged him with DUI, violation of the implied consent law and being a habitual motor offender.

The man has no driver’s license. Police said it had earlier been revoked for repeated offenses.

If you have been charged with DUI for a first time or a subsequent offense you should contact a DUI lawyer for a free consultation.

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Nevada Attorney General Reverses DUI Parole

One of eight drunken driving offenders, returned to prison in February after a Reno Gazette-Journal investigation showed they failed to serve the mandatory two years, was paroled briefly Tuesday but reincarcerated after the Nevada attorney general ruled against giving the prisoners credit for time on house arrest.

Jennifer Hovey, 27, was told she must return to prison after Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto issued the long-awaited decision about house arrest.

For two weeks, the Gazette-Journal asked Masto numerous times whether the offenders would receive credit for their house arrest or must serve the full two years in prison.

After receiving calls and e-mails from the newspaper on Tuesday about Hovey’s release, Masto in an e-mail notified Howard Skolnik, director of the Nevada Department of Corrections, that the eight offenders must spend two years in prison.

Masto said they would get credit for the time they spent on house arrest, but it would count toward the end of their sentence. They first must serve two years behind bars, she said.

Hovey went on house arrest three months after starting her prison sentence in March 2008, for the death of her passenger in a 2007 crash on U.S. 395 near Red Rock. Under the law, Masto said she must serve 21 more months in prison before being eligible for parole.

Hovey’s lawyer, Scott Freeman, was incensed by the opinion and vowed to fight the order.

“It is patently unfair and unjust,” Freeman said. “The fact that the attorney general’s office is using Ms. Hovey as a political yo-yo doesn’t serve any purpose. It is destroying her family.”

“Since the prison allowed her to be on house arrest, she should be given credit for all the time she’s been under their supervision and supervision of parole and probation,” he said. “An independent parole board granted her parole. She should be allowed to serve it.”

On Feb. 14, the Gazette-Journal reported that a 2005 Nevada Supreme Court ruling said that drivers convicted of killing or severely injuring someone while drunk must spend at least two years in prison before being released on house arrest or parole.

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Yankees VP Charged With Florida DUI

Yankees senior vice president in charge of minor leagues, Mark Newman, was charged with a DUI late Monday night.

Newman, 60, was arrested at 10:56 p.m. in Tampa, according to the area sheriff’s web site.

He has been with the organization for 22 seasons and was released after posting a $500 cash bond.

“The New York Yankees do not condone this kind of behavior,” the team said in a statement. “We take this situation seriously and we are looking into the matter. We will have no further comment at this time.”

If you have been charged with DUI in Tampa Bay call the Musca Law Firm at 813-362-5623.

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Proposed Kansas DUI Law Eliminates Reporting Rule

A bill in the House Judiciary Committee could remove the requirement that drunken drivers who are required to get ignition interlock devices installed in their vehicles report to the state that they had done so.

Opponents to the proposal say fewer convicted drunken drivers would get the devices installed in their vehicles without the reporting requirement.

The change came in an amendment offered by Sen. Mary Pilcher Cook, R-Shawnee, when Senate Bill 368 was being debated on the Senate floor.

The House committee will debate the bill next week and the amendment will likely be altered or removed, said Rep. Lance Kinzer, R-Olathe, committee chairman. Kinzer also sits on the state’s DUI Commission, which is in the midst of a comprehensive overhaul of Kansas’ drunken-driving laws.

Cook said she was trying to address the problem a constituent had alerted her to. The constituent was required by the court to drive with the ignition interlock device for a year before regaining a driver’s license. The problem was the constituent did not have a car.

“I don’t want people to drive drunk,” she said. “I want our roads to be safe; I just want to find a solution for everybody.”

Matt Strausz, director of Smart Start of Kansas and president of the Kansas Ignition Interlock Association, said he frequently gets calls from people saying they don’t have a car and wanting to know whether there was a way out of the requirement.

“The initial reaction is, ‘How do I get out of doing this?’ ” he said.

Often those people come back later with a vehicle and get the devices installed, he said. The devices cost $50 to $70 for installation and $65 to $75 a month in fees after that.

The amendment would give everyone who wants to avoid installing the devices a loophole, he said. The interlock devices — which won’t start the car if the driver’s blood alcohol limit is half the legal limit and which randomly test the driver’s levels while the car is moving — are also behavior modification tools, Strausz said.

“It is a way the person can prove they can drive without drinking,” he said. “It’s a way to earn that trust back.”

Currently, drivers who are convicted of a second drunken-driving offense, who refuse a breathalyzer test or who are caught with a .15 blood alcohol level — almost twice the legal limit of .08 — must drive for a year or more with an interlock device, said Marcy Ralston, chief of the state Driver Control Bureau, Division of Motor Vehicles.

Once the devices are installed, the installation company notifies the state and the clock starts running on how long the device must be on the car, Ralston said.

“Your driving privilege is not reinstated until you’ve kept that interlock for the full period,” she said.

On July 1, 2006, the state began requiring the notifications. Before then, the court would order the devices but compliance was low, she said.

In 2006, courts issued 1,441 notices of mandatory interlock restrictions and had 308 notices of instillation, she said. Many drivers would simply drive without the devices and risk getting pulled over.

In 2009, courts issued 6,361 notices and Ralston’s office received notification of 2,420 installations, she said.

Ralston said her office frequently gets calls from people describing situations such as Cook’s constituent.

“We hear that almost every day — they don’t own a vehicle, he is military and leaving the country, or they are in college and leaving the country,” she said.

The problem is there is not a way to confirm the claims’ veracity, she said.

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Virginia Toughens Underage DUI Laws

RICHMOND, Va. – If you’re under 18, drive drunk and get convicted twice, you could lose your license – and your car – under a bill that Gov. Bob McDonnell is expected to sign.

The legislation is one of four bills aimed at underage drinkers approved by the General Assembly this week.|

Another bill would change current law to prevent a judge from allowing people convicted of a DUI from driving to and from school on a restricted driver’s license.

Washington Regional Alcohol Program spokesman Kurt Erickson says one bill that was aimed at adult drunk drivers failed to pass in the General Assembly.

The legislation would have required an ignition interlock system on the car of anyone convicted of a DUI – even first-time offenders.

Ignition interlocks require the driver to blow into a breathalyzer before the car can start.

“At the very last minute, that bill was tailored to not apply to all DUI offenders, but those with a .10 or higher BAC,” Erickson says.

The changes killed the bill, Erickson says.

A similar bill is being considered in Maryland.

Last week, the U.S. Partnership for a Drug-Free America released a new study showing that alcohol use among high school students increased by 11 percent in 2008.

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Pienaar Pleads Guilty to DUI

South Africa international Steven Pienaar has been banned from driving for 12 months and fined 1,000 pounds ($1,496) after pleading guilty to drunk driving.

Pienaar was also ordered to pay a 100 pound ($150) fine on Tuesday for failing to obey a traffic signal.

The 27-year-old Everton midfielder was stopped by police on Feb. 21, the day after his club’s 3-1 win over Manchester United at Goodison Park. He was found to be nearly twice the legal limit.

The South African starred in Everton’s 5-1 win over Hull City on Sunday and is expected to be a key member of the host’s team at the 2010 World Cup later this year.

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Two Years After DUI Arrest, Politician’s Trial Hasn’t Begun

In 2008, police accused state Assemblyman Adam Clayton Powell IV of drunk driving when he was spotted driving erratically on the West Side Highway. But after two years—and multiple delays—his trial still hasn’t begun, raising questions about whether his case has been adjourned repeatedly because of his political clout as the son of a famed Harlem lawmaker. “It certainly has all of the bells and whistles of ‘Hmm,’” defense lawyer Mark Cohen told the Times. “I would think that the typical client who is not attending to, quote unquote, state business does not get the courtesy to put his sink in or perhaps go to a trade show.”

Unlike most people accused of driving under the influence, the Assemblyman—who was twice accused of sexual assault in 2004—says he wants his case to go to trial. He has turned down a plea deal that would have given him a $300 fine, a 90-day license suspension, and enrollment in a drunk-driving program. His lawyer insists he wants the case to proceed in court, but due to Powell’s busy schedule including special legislative sessions and a 10-day overseas business trip, the politician has missed multiple court dates.

The trial has also been delayed due to a dispute over the exchange of evidence and scheduling conflicts involving defense lawyers and witnesses. If found guilty of the misdemeanor charges, it’s doubtful that Powell will receive any jail time and equally unlikely that he would get booted from office. Powell’s lawyer says the politician doesn’t want to delay the case—in fact, he wants to wrap it up. “It’s not a situation where there’s any type of avoidance,” said attorney Stacey Richmond. “This ongoing situation is more of an inconvenience to him.” The next scheduled court date is Monday, but the trial probably won’t begin then because one of the police officers involved in the case is busy.

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Calif State Senator Says he’s Gay After DUI Arrest

Republican state Sen. Roy Ashburn of Bakersfield says he is gay.

The conservative lawmaker came out Monday on KERN radio in Bakersfield, saying he felt compelled to address rumors that he had visited a gay nightclub near the Capitol before his arrest last week for driving under the influence.

The 55-year-old father of four says he broke the law, putting people at risk, so he owes the public an explanation.

Ashburn has consistently voted against gay rights measures since he was elected to the state Assembly in 1996.

He has said those votes reflected the way constituents in his district wanted him to vote.

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