One Case In Which You Definitely Need a San Diego DUI Lawyer

Imagine being pulled over one night…You’ve been visiting a few bars and there’s a chance that you could be over the legal drinking limit.  What you don’t know is that private investigators who have been hired by your ex-wife have notified the police that you’re drunk driving.

So you’ve been pulled over and now you’re having health issues because you’re a diabetic.  You ask the police for medical help and they deny you urgent care.  It isn’t until several hours later that a nurse at the jail notices that your blood-glucose levels are extremely high.  The police finally decide to take you to the emergency room.

If this happened to you, what would you do?

Well, this has happened to John F. Steel IV, the former CEO of San Diego biomed company MicroIslit, and now he’s suing for allegations of false arrest, negligence, battery, excessive force and conspiracy.

Click here to read the full story at SignOnSanDiego.com…

This is definitely one of those cases in which you would want to hire a professional and experienced San Diego DUI lawyer to help you!

Law Enforcement Gets Grant to Step Up DUI Enforcement on Highway 76

KPBS reports that a law enforcement agency in San Diego’s north county is getting a grant to step up DUI enforcement along State Route 76.  The highway has seen 13 deaths and 303 injuries related to DUI’s on the road in the past three years.

California Highway 76 begins in Downtown Oceanside and runs east approximately 52 miles to a junction with California Highway 79 near Lake Henshaw.  It is only a two-lane highway, which may be another reason why there are so many accidents – and not just DUI accidents.  Accidents on 76 was such a common occurrence that the Californai Department of Transportation had to produce this video.

Sobriety Checkpoints and the Fourth Amendment

This Union Tribune article says that DUI checkpoints will increase in Escondido, an area in North County.  The Escondido police department plan to have 12 DUI checkpoints as opposed to 9 which have been set up in the past couple years.  According to traffic Sgt. Dana Ray, the department has made 69 DUI arrests in the past two years.  I don’t know about you, but 69 arrests doesn’t seem like much considering that there were probably so many more people out there who did drink and drive but didn’t get caught.

I often wonder if sobriety checkpoints are truly effective.  The Fourth Amendment comes to mind which is the amendment that guards against unreasonable searches and seizures.  Some would say that checkpoints are not unreasonable considering that they help protect the roads and highways while others feel that checkpoints violate our privacy.

Looking at the Fourth Amendment from another perspective…What if the police came knocking at your door every weekend wanting to search your home to make sure you weren’t harboring criminals?  Wouldn’t you feel violated?  Wouldn’t you want a search warrant?  What makes searching cars any different?

I believe that education is the key to prevent drunk driving, in addition to offering more help and counseling for repeat drunk drivers.

What do you think?

Here’s another article of interest: Legality of Sobriety Checkpoints

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Photo Credit:  ZanePaul Photos

Justice Is Served

Finally, justice is served.  John Joseph Taskey will be sentenced to 15 years to life in state prison on Nov. 12.  Taskey was on parole for a DUI conviction when he drove drunk and caused a freeway crash that killed a 75-year-old grandmother and injured a child back in September 2007 here in San Diego.  He pleaded guilty to murder to second-degree murder this week.

Yes, these seemingly senseless things happen and I’m sure they happen for a reason, but at the same time I know that this could have been prevented.  I’ve written before about the different ways that we could prevent drunk driving, but an idea has come to me that I’d like to share.  Tell me what you think…

What if drunk drivers had to watch so many hours of video showing people who were involved in San Diego DUI accidents?  What if that was part of their DUI program?  Let’s say every time they went to their rehabilitation or DUI class, convicted drunk drivers had to watch at least an hour-long video with images of people who had died from a drunk driver.  Wouldn’t that make some kind of impact?  I think so.

Source: San Diego 6

Is One Year For Vehicular Manslaughter Enough?

Earlier this month a 19-year-old San Diego man was ordered to year in jail after driving drunk and killing a homeless man.  The incident happened in January of this year and Alec O’Keefe Rowe pleaded guilty to gross vehicular manslaughter in July.

Vehicular manslaughter is the crime of negligently driving a vehicle and directly causing the death of another human.  A vehicular manslaughter charge can result in the death of a passenger in your own car if the death was caused while breaking the law.

Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Fraser presided over the case and it was noted that in his 11 years on the bench, he’s never given probation in this type of situation.  Fraser based his decision on the intense remorse and commitment to rehabilitation by the defendant.

So the question remains…

Was the judge right or wrong to give this 19-year-old a break?

Or better yet….What if O’Keefe had hit someone who wasn’t homeless?  There was nobody in the court to represent Darin Albert Victor who was the one killed in this tragic event.  Granted, the death of Victor wasn’t premeditated, however, is one year in jail enough?

Source:  SignOnSanDiego.com

If you need help with your San Diego DUI, contact a lawyer who specializes in DUI cases…