Criminal Law

Cops with Needles

Posted on April 15, 2010
I’ve posted repeatedly in the past about a disturbing trend in DUI law enforcement: allowing cops to administer blood draws along the side of a road.  See, for example, Forced Blood Draws in Back Seats, Would You Want a Cop Taking Blood from You? and DUI Cops Now Armed with Guns, Batons and…Needles...

Judges Have ?Different Role? in DUI Cases?

Posted on April 10, 2010
Most of you out there probably thought that citizens accused of drunk driving were afforded the same constitutional rights as citizens accused of any other crime.  Included in this, presumably, is the right to have a fair and impartial judge hearing your case...

Can Your Body Manufacture Alcohol??.The ?Auto-Brewery Syndrome?

Posted on April 03, 2010
Can alcohol be created by the human body itself — without any drinking? Apparently so. In an interesting scientific article, two physicians at Union Memorial Hospital in Baltimore reported that they detected the odor of beer in three of their patients...

?Dial-a-Drunk?: How to Get Back at That Guy Tailgating You

Posted on March 29, 2010
It has become an increasingly common practice for police to receive anonymous phone calls about “drunk drivers” on the road. These “tips” are typically relayed by the police dispatcher to an officer in the field as a call to investigate a “suspected drunk driver”; the officer is rarely told that the [...

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Why is Drunk Driving Illegal?

Posted on March 22, 2010
As a former law professor, I would start my criminal law courses with the basics: There are two kinds of laws: malum in se and malum prohibitum.  With the first, a law exists because the prohibited conduct is inherently bad; murder, theft and rape would be obvious examples...

The DUI Double Standard

Posted on March 17, 2010
Many people who are convicted of drunk driving lose their jobs; it it’s a felony they’re almost certain to.  So what happens to a cop who is convicted of drunk driving?  What if the conduct involved an accident?  What if it’s a felony DUI with injury?  What if the drunk driving cop kills someone? Cops Who [...

Feds Threaten Nebraska if DUI Law Not Changed

Posted on March 13, 2010
As everyone knows, each state has the right to enact DUI laws it feels appropriate for its citizens. The federal government has no authority to dictate to the state legislatures what those laws should be.  That’s the theory. The reality is that federal bureaucrats routinely coerce states by threatening to withhold badly-needed federal funds...

Don?t Drink (Coffee) and Drive

Posted on March 10, 2010
Ok, you’ve had two glasses of wine with dinner and it’s time to head home. You feel fine, but throw down a couple of cups of coffee to clear your head just to be sure. Then you pay the bill, walk out to your car, get behind the wheel — and one [...

Whatever Happened to ?Drunk Driving??

Posted on March 05, 2010
Drunk driving is bad.  It’s potentially dangerous to human life.  It should be punished.  So, many years ago a law was passed:  "Thou shalt not drive drunk". It was a fair law and it addressed the problem.  So…what happened?  Why do today’s laws punish drivers when they are neither "drunk" nor "driving" — nor even in a [...

Drunk Driving Laws Trump Science Again

Posted on March 02, 2010
It is an unfortunate fact that law and politics repeatedly trump science when it comes to prosecuting citizens accused of drunk driving….. In People v. Bransford, to cite one notable example, the California Supreme Court was confronted with a defendant who was challenging his DUI conviction on the grounds that he was [...

Double Punishment in DUI Cases

Posted on February 26, 2010
When a person is arrested for DUI, his driver’s license is confiscated by the arresting officer and he is given a notice of "administrative suspension". He is also given a citation to appear in court to face criminal drunk driving charges...

Due Process and DUI License Suspensions

Posted on February 19, 2010
So you got stopped last night and arrested for drunk driving. And right after the Breathalyzer showed a blood-alcohol reading of .09%, the officer confiscated your driver’s license and gave you an official notice of immediate suspension. "What happened?", you ask...

The New ?Highway Robbery?: Money-Making DUI Roadblocks Growing

Posted on February 14, 2010
I’ve commented repeatedly in the past about how DUI roadblocks (MADD prefers the less oppressive term "sobriety checkpoints") are inefficient at apprehending drunk drivers.  See Do DUI Roadblocks Work?,  Do DUI Roadblocks Work (Part II),  As a means of apprehending drunk drivers, even law enforcement admits they are only effective as a deterrent — i...

Red Bull and Driving Don?t Mix

Posted on February 12, 2010
A recent university study confirms earlier research indicating that consuming energy drinks while drinking alcohol can reduce the symptoms and sensations of intoxication from the alcohol. Study Links Alcoholic Energy Drinks to Intoxication, Drunk Driving Feb...

The Latest Breathalyzer Proves No More Reliable Than Others

Posted on February 08, 2010
As readers of this blog are aware, one of my pet peeves is the public’s blind trust in the little metal boxes that analyze a DUI suspect’s breath and spit out a number that supposedly represents the amount of alcohol in his blood.  The simple, scientifically proven fact is that all the various models of [...

More False Blood-Alcohol Tests

Posted on February 04, 2010
I wrote a couple of months ago about a growing number of false blood-alcohol tests that had been discovered in the Colorado Springs Metro Crime Lab.  At the time, about 1,000 tests were suspect, of which 82 had been confirmed as being falsely high...

Guarding the Guardians

Posted on February 01, 2010
In the "Who will guard the guardians?" department… Activists want penalties for cops who protect colleagues who drive drunk Tuckahoe, NJ.  Jan. 20 — Reacting to a Journal News report in which 10 local police officers admitted anonymously that cops often give other cops a break when they are found driving drunk, (Tuckahoe Police Chief) Costanzo and [...

?and DUIs on Bicycles

Posted on January 27, 2010
A few minutes ago I posted about an arrest yesterday for driving a golf cart under the influence.  Then I stumbled over this news story from the same day: Man on Bicycle Charged with DUI Naples, FL.  Jan. 26 — A Tampa man riding a bicycle was charged with driving under the influence [...

More MADDness?

Posted on January 27, 2010
If you ever doubted that MADD’s "War on Drunk Driving" was more about alcohol than saving lives… Man on Golf Cart Arrested for Drunk Driving Bonifay, FL.  Jan. 26 — Florida State Troopers were on the scene of a fatal accident on County Road 177 Tuesday afternoon when Jerry Ogburn drove up on a golf cart just [...

The New Vigilantes

Posted on January 25, 2010
So where do we go next in MADD’s hysterical War on Drunk Driving? Craig’s List DUI Busters Milwaukee, WI.  Jan. 22 — We’re all fed up with drunk drivers. Some people on the popular website Craigslist have decided they’ve had enough, and they want to put a stop to it...

When Does the Insanity End?

Posted on January 22, 2010
So you thought the crime of drunk driving required….well, driving? High court: Asleep at wheel, not driving, enough to get a DWI Minneapolis, MN.  Jan. 21 — 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 [...

DUI Entrapment

Posted on January 18, 2010
Suppose a police officer asks or orders an individual to drive a vehicle — and then arrests him for DUI when he complies? This situation comes up more often than you might think. Take, for example, the following case that eventually made its way to the New Jersey Supreme Court…...

Unveiling?My New Author Website

Posted on January 13, 2010
Please excuse the blatant self-promotion, but….. Most of the readers of this blog are aware that I’m the author of two books on DUI laws, procedures and evidence:  Drunk Driving Defense, 6th edition (I wrote the original edition 31 years ago) and California Drunk Driving Defense, 4th edition...

More Fresh Air?.

Posted on January 11, 2010
Three days ago I posted an example of what appears to be a growing backlash against the practical and constitutional damages being wrought by MADD’s out-of-control "War on Drunk Driving".  See A Breath of Fresh Air.  Another example of this rational but politically incorrect view was recently presented by the President of the National Motorists [...

A Breath of Fresh Air

Posted on January 08, 2010
In today’s Is-the-tide-turning department, this from the Ron Paul blog: Cuccinelli and Drunk Driving Laws Drunk driving laws don’t often come up as a campaign issue, but when they do my reaction isn’t always what the person who brings them up in a campaign usually intends...

DUI Offenders Politically Re-Classified as ?Violent?, Returned to Prison

Posted on January 04, 2010
In today’s DUI double standard department: Early Release Sends Some DUI Offenders Back to Prison Chicago, IL.  Dec. 25 — Anti-drunken driving advocates reacted angrily earlier this week when the Chicago Sun-Times revealed that Gov. Quinn’s administration had released 18 felony drunken drivers from prison early to serve the rest of their prison time on home confinement...

Another DUI Cop Caught Duplicating Arrest Reports

Posted on December 27, 2009
I’ve written in the past about what I call "Xeroxed reports" in DUI cases — the increasingly common practice by lazy and/or dishonest cops to simply copy the facts from other reports or use templates in creating an essentially false investigation report...

Driving While Texting vs Driving Under the Influence

Posted on December 23, 2009
So which is more dangerous: driving under the influence or driving while texting?  And which one is severely punished? Dewd, U Think DUI is Bad…Try DWT CNET News, Dec. 22 — It’s no surprise that driving while texting (DWT) falls under the category of driving while stupid (DWS)...

DUI Roadblocks Act as Deterrents, But?Don?t Tell Anyone

Posted on December 18, 2009
I’ve posted repeatedly that DUI roadblocks, aka "sobriety checkpoints", are ineffective at apprehending drunk drivers.  See, for example, Do DUI Roadblocks Work? and Do DUI Roadblocks Work? (part 2).  Faced with irrefutable facts, police agencies simply switch horses and say that they are effective as deterrents...

Hundreds In Denver Possibly Convicted With Falsely High Blood Tests

Posted on December 14, 2009
I’ve written often in the past about the unreliability and inaccuracy of breath tests in DUI cases. Because some readers have said, "Ok, but what about blood tests?", I’ve also pointed out the many problems with testing blood samples as well...

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