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While this story doesn’t involve alcohol, it does involve speed and recklessness, two components of death and injury in the DUI arena.

A 27 year-old saleswoman was out on a test drive a few days ago. Perhaps she was showing off. In any event, Amy Thomas lost control of a 2003 Corvette, spun the car across the roadway on Mill Creek Lane in Laguna Hills, wrapping the car around a tree and killing her.

Her passenger survived. This story is a sobering reminder that most of us cannot handle the limits of the cars we’re driving and have to be extra careful around the streets of Orange County. Add the effects of alcohol into this story and perhaps more people could have lost their lives.

If you drink too much and want to get home, call a cab. Do not drive. Had this woman killed someone, instead of herself she could have faced life in prison. Whether you live in Newport Beach, Lake Forest or Anaheim Hills, if you are charged with a DUI, call an experienced DUI defense attorney to assist you.

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An Orange County prosecutor told a jury yesterday that Brittany Schuetz ignored her friends warnings not to drink and drive when she got into her car and later crashed into the car of April Whang, killing her instantly.

Schuetz had been drinking at a house party in Sherman Oaks and was returned to her car here in Orange County. Likely due to her intoxicated state, Scheutz declined her friends’ pleas to wait until she was sober. Alcohol intoxication, as it increases, eliminates our inhibitions, those red flags in the brain when we’re sober, that tell us not to do things that are dangerous.

That is why DUI murder charges are so tricky. The District Attorney argues that to blow off the warnings is a form of malice, a very high degree of recklessness that amounts to intent. But with the blood-alcohol level in her system, it was very likely she couldn’t have formed such intent, couldn’t have been able to consider the consequences of her actions. That is why the facts of the case suggest DUI manslaughter instead. Recklessness that doesn’t rise to the level of intent to kill. The jury will decide.

Whether you live in Santa Ana, Irvine or Newport Beach, if you are charged with DUI manslaughter, call an experienced DUI defense attorney to assist you.

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This could have been much worse. Yonic Serafin Cardenas Patino, of Garden Grove, oiled up after a bit of drinking, crashed his minivan into Honda Civic and then into an OCTA bus filled with passengers.

Patino won the Trifecta: He had an active warrant for a suspended license charge, he didn’t have a valid license, and he had previously been convicted of DUI! Oh, and he was on probation for domestic violence. When he’s finished recuperating at the hospital, he’s going to jail. He’ll need a good lawyer. With multiple probation violations, a multiple injury DUI and an active warrant, it would be likely that the district attorney would charge him with a felony DUI.

Whether you live in Westminster, Villa Park or Santa Ana, if you have been charged with DUI, call an experienced criminal defense attorney right away to assist you.

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Plenty of fish to catch in the net, so the Newport Beach Police thought. They were right. It isn’t really hard, either. Newport Blvd. is Deuce Alley, a place rife with bars and the drunk drivers who leave them. I’m surprised they caught only six drivers in six hours.

As I wrote back in November, checkpoint arrests require the police to issue warnings to the public that a checkpoint is going to be set up. The police also have to create an “escape” route for those who don’t want to have to go through it. Last, they have to make their procedures at the checkpoint uniform, so that everyone passing through is treated the same, with a patterned approach to stopping cars at random, rather than singling out someone.

To the general public, this sounds absurd. Why in the world would you tell someone you were going to stop them for driving drunk? Why would you let them get away? Well, this is the way the law developed and has been implemented. I didn’t create it. I represent drivers who have been arrested at checkpoints and I look to see that the police followed the correct procedure.

If you are driving under the influence, you will likely be caught at a checkpoint. Whether you live in Santa Ana, Fullerton or Tustin, if you have been charged with a DUI, call an experienced DUI defense attorney right away to assist you.

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South Orange County residents may not rest a little easier knowing that the Sheriff’s Department in Lake Forest is making progress in taming the DUI monster in Orange County.

In a weird twist, DUI arrests were up in 2009, between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Eve. More than 57%. But accidents were down the same percentage. Is there any significance to this? More people are being arrested for DUI in Lake Forest. That’s because there are increased patrols. That’s a good thing, for sure. But that is seventeen more arrests year over year. So does that mean that more people are driving drunk, or that simply more patrols equal more arrests?

It’s arguable that there is a trend away from DUI deaths, though it doesn’t appear to be substantial, in at least one view. If the results were scored for population increase the improvement might seem more substantial. In any event, the alcohol lobby, in conjunction with advertising, is a relentless force in creating more DUI drivers and cannot be stemmed without some shift in public perception.

If you are unfortunate to have been arrested for DUI, and whether you live in Costa Mesa, Newport Beach or Tustin, if you are charged with a DUI, call an experienced DUI defense attorney to assist you.

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Shana Calderon’s life will never be the same again. The person who she ran into and killed on December 12 lost his life. Was it an accident? It seems so. But could it have been avoided? It seems it could have.

Calderon had alcohol in her system and drug paraphernalia in her car. She hit Michael McLaughlin as he stepped off the curb at 19th and Newport Blvd in Costa Mesa, then pulled over and spoke to witnesses, then drove away.

The Orange County District Attorney’s office decided to charge her with Hit and Run with DUI, along with other charges. Her lack of criminal background will be helpful to the judge who decides what kind of consequence she deserves, and can take into account that she turned herself in within two hours of the collision. Fortunately, the prosecutor’s office didn’t charge her with manslaughter or homicide, as they have in the past, likely due to the specific facts of her case and her absence of criminal history, as compared to the Nick Adenhart case in Anaheim last year. There, the driver had a DUI history and had been warned of the consequences of DUI, including death.

murder is one of the most serious crimes you can be charged with. To prove that someone committed murder, a prosecutor must prove that the murder was willful and premeditated. This means that the suspect must have had a plan and the intent to kill the person, or that they behaved so recklessly that malice was implied. This case doesn’t show Calderon’s intent to kill nor any recklessness to the degree required for a homicide prosecution. Whether you live in Westminster, Villa Park or San Clemente, if you have been charged with murder, call an experienced criminal defense attorney right away to assist you.

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Californians, what does it cost to get a DUI? That has been the subject of numerous articles. As each year passes, new fines are piled on top of fines, costing the dui driver thousands and thousands of dollars, along with other little-known consequences. The average cost hovers over ten thousand dollars, up to twenty, including bail, attorney’s fees, court fines and increases in insurance costs, not to mention job loss and personal consequences.

What if you can’t drive to work anymore? What if you are DUI in your work truck? The DMV will take your license for a year. How are you going to work? How will you support your family?

DUI drivers don’t consider these things. They don’t consider hitting another car or pedestrian and causing injury or death. The best defense against the DUI driver is education. WIth the rise in binge drinking among teens and college-age people, the potential for harm at all levels remains a threat.

It is up to adults to teach younger adults and children the risks of DUI, not to mention alcoholism and its related social problems. There are numerous resources available for this purpose.

In the event you find yourself having been cited or arrested for DUI the law provides for safeguards to make sure that law enforcement is doing it’s job correctly and in accord with the constitution and other state laws. I don’t endorse DUI driving, but I defend those accused so that the system for dealing with them is fair, not a witch hunt. Whether you live in Irvine, Mission Viejo or Huntington Beach, if you are charged with a DUI, call an experienced DUI defense attorney to assist you.

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According to a study done in Massachusetts, drivers who are forced to use an ignition interlock device on their car following their second DUI conviction are far less likely to suffer rearrest.

Typically, DUI drivers who are on probation must blow into the device in order to start their car. The device registers any measurable amount of alcohol and will then disable the car.

There has been some discussion in California about putting IID’s into vehicle following a first conviction. The DUI Offenders Ignition Interlock Device Pilot Project, effective July 1, authored by Assemblyman Mike Feuer (D-West Hollywood), established a pilot project in Alameda, Sacramento, Tulare and Los Angeles counties to mandate installation of an Ignition Interlock Device (IID) for first-time DUI offenders.

If the statistics show recidivism rates declining, expect this to become mandated state-wide. Whether you live in Irvine, Newport Beach or Anaheim, if you are charged with a DUI, call an experienced DUI defense attorney to assist you.

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Here’s a service that saves lives. If you have had too much to drink and don’t want to drive, call them. http://www.thelevfoundation.org/rides/
But here’s the kicker: The organization offers ideas for parents to communicate with their kids about alcohol and drugs. They also offer peer-to-peer mentoring and creates a healthy and Youth to Parent classes, offering “an open environment where parents and children feel comfortable asking and answering questions. Through the “Communicating in a New Millennium” series, LEV has created a unique forum where parents and children engage in dialogue over issues ranging from relationships, to academics and substance abuse”.

This is truly a public service. If you or someone you know fails to take advantage of a service like this and is ultimately arrested, feel free to call my office to discuss your legal problem, no matter where it occurs in Orange County.

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According to nationally compiled statistics, In the United States, 12.8% of all fatal traffic crashes were alcohol-related, and 40% of that number involved teens driving while drinking alcohol.

This is a staggering number, and a preventable situation. Alcohol awareness is a catch-phrase. Teens need to understand first-hand what happens to their bodies and their emotional states when they drink alcohol.

Teen DUI drivers face the loss of their driving privilege for one year, heavy fines and DUI education classes. Their parents face a massive increase in insurance premiums, embarrassment and the knowledge that they cannot monitor their children all the time.

But what if someone is killed by a teen DUI driver? In certain circumstances the parents may be held liable for negligently entrusting their children with a car, knowing the child may drink, drive and possibly crash into someone, causing death.

Southern California and Orange County are heavily populated areas in the United States. More important, people living in all parts of Orange County, whether Irvine, Newport Beach or Santa Ana, are totally dependent on cars for a variety of reasons.

If a teen drinks alcohol and needs to drive home, call a cab. As a parent, tell your kids they get to take a cab once without penalty. Do not drive. If a child kills someone they may face prison. Whether you live in Irvine, Lake Forest or Anaheim Hills, if you are charged with a DUI, call an experienced DUI defense attorney to assist you.

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