Huge Win for DUI Defendants

Typically when a prosecutor intends to present a forensic or toxicology report, they must subpoena the person who actually did the work that produced the report.  However,  in DUI cases, prosecutors have successfully been allowed to admit the report without the supporting testimony.  DUI defense attorneys challenged this approach arguing that admitting the test without the actual testimony of the person who prepared the results violates a defendant’s Sixth Amendment rights under the Confrontation Clause.

On June 23rd the United States Supreme Court ruled that those accused in all criminal prosecutions have the right to be confronted by adverse witnesses, including lab technicians who analyze blood samples for DUI prosecution.  Bullcoming v. New Mexico,131 S.Ct. 587 (2010).

In a 5-4 decision, the Court reversed a ruling from the New Mexico Supreme Court that accepted the trial testimony of a different forensic analyst who neither tested the accused's blood sample or prepared the report of the resulting blood alcohol level. In the opinion of the Court, this procedure denied the accused the opportunity to cross-examine the actual analyst involved in the testing and certification.

Proper Passanger Etiquette on a DUI stop

Yesterday morning a 45-year-old Seattle woman gave Kitsap County sheriff's deputies and Bainbridge Island police officers an earful early Tuesday after her boyfriend was arrested for DUI.  According to the Kitsap Sun, at 1:30 a.m. Tuesday, the officers pulled over the driver of a van because they recognized him and knew his driver's license was suspended. The stop led to the man's arrest for DUI. Officers soon discovered that a woman was in the back of the vehicle when she "screaming at the top of her lungs" and kicking her legs in the air.  Not wearing pants or shoes and believed to be highly intoxicated, the woman "continued this screaming of vulgar insults non stop," officers said.
The woman was seated on a curb but soon began running for the patrol car in which her boyfriend was seated. Officers took her to the ground and placed her under arrest. Deputies had to use leg restraints on the ride to jail, in which she continued her tirade using "colorful terms" and made threats. She had also urinated on at least two officers before being booked into jail on suspicion of obstructing a law enforcement officer, the documents said.

While most of us know that urinating on officers will get you no where, it does raise the question, how should one behave if they are a passenger that is getting pulled over? Officers will likely request passengers to provide identification but passengers are free to refuse to provide identification however, this can lead to additional problems. If the police officer has reasonable suspicion that there may be drugs, weapons or other contraband in the vehicle, the passenger may also be arrested and detained. Passengers who choose to provide identification willingly to an arresting officer will likely have their names run in the system for warrants or outstanding tickets. 

The best thing for a passenger to do is keep quiet and at the soonest possible time ask the officer if they are free to leave.  If the passenger is unfortunate enough to have an independent  reason to be arrested they at least are afforded the same rights to challenge the basis of the stop as the driver is afforded.  So, things might turn out okay for our Ms. Urinating Seattle woman because the basis of the stops seems suspect.

Going out this weekend in Tacoma? So are the cops!

 Cops will be going out in Tacoma this weekend as a part of a DUI emphasis.

posted By Stacey Mulick on June 1, 2011 at 3:18 pm Share this

Pierce County law enforcement officers and commanders will be visiting bars throughout Tacoma this weekend as part of a new effort to raise awareness about the dangers of drinking and driving.
They'll go to bars where impaired drivers report they'd been drinking right before their arrests.
"There's no enforcement action," said Fircrest Police Chief John Cheesman. "We are just hoping to change some behaviors."
The first weekend for the Home Safe Bar program marks the beginning a month-long public awareness program near the most frequent sites of the county's fatal drunken driving car crashes, the Tacoma Pierce County DUI and Traffic Safety Task Force.
Here's how the Home Safe Bar program will work. Extra law enforcement officers will be out Saturday night, patrolling for drunken drivers.
When they make arrests, the officers will ask the drivers where  they'd been drinking. If the driver had been at a bar in Pierce County, other law enforcement officers and commanders will then visit the bar, Cheesman said.
The commanders will talk with the management at the bar about the enforcement effort, ask them to abide by the state's alcohol laws and provide them information from the Liquor Control Board. They'll also help the customers find designated drivers or call taxis.
"It's pretty low key," Cheesman said.
Frank Blair, a Tacoma father whose 24-year-old daughter was killed in a drunken driving crash in Everett, will be with law enforcement officers and visiting the bars.

Categories: Emphasis patrols, Tacoma
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DUI drivers in Washington may have special plates

DUI drivers in Washington may have special plates

The Associated Press • Published February 14, 2011
OLYMPIA, Wash. – Washington drivers with a record of drunken driving
could be required to have special license plates designated with the
letter Z.

Legislation introduced by Rep. Norma Smith of Clinton would require
that drivers pay an additional $100 for the Z-plate, which would be
good for three years. The drivers would be allowed to drive only a
vehicle with a Z-designated plate.

The Z would appear as the last symbol at the end of any sequence of
license plate letters and numbers.

Motorcycle riders with a drunken-driving offense also would be
required to have a Z-license, but the special charge would be only
$25.


http://www.theolympian.com/2011/02/14/1543454/dui-drivers-in-washington-may.html
 

Washington Lawmakers propose harsher DUI penalties.

 By MOLLY ROSBACH | Associated Press • Published February 14, 2011

OLYMPIA, Wash. – Law enforcement officials and families of drunken
driving victims rallied on Monday in support of several bills
proposing stricter penalties for DUI convictions, asking lawmakers to
hold offenders responsible for their actions.

Friends and family members of people killed by drunken drivers say the
potential costs to the justice system could not be more important than
the safety of other drivers, and that lawmakers need to hold offenders
accountable.

"You have not done enough to protect victims in this state," said
Erica Benge, whose friends were killed by a drunken driver last year.
"We need to get these people off the road."

But opponents to the bills argue that laws targeting DUI offenders
need to focus on prevention and treatment, instead of more
cost-incurring jail time, which many smaller jurisdictions cannot
afford.

Lawmakers in the House Judiciary committee heard testimony on a slew
of bills that address a range of DUI-related issues, including longer
sentences for first-time offenders and the required installation of
ignition interlock devices for convicted negligent or reckless
drivers.

A bill presented by Rep. Orcutt, R-Kalama, would raise the seriousness
level of vehicular homicide and vehicular assault and enact longer
sentences accordingly. Vehicular homicide would be equated to
first-degree manslaughter. In most cases of vehicular assault and
homicide affected by the change, the bill would more than double the
sentence length imposed under current law.

The bill also proposes that sentences be served consecutively, not concurrently.

Orcutt reminded listeners of a case last summer when a couple was
killed by a drunken driver while on their motorcycles. The offender
received less than four years for causing the deaths of two people, he
said.

"The sentences did not fit the crime," he said.

Rep. Steve Kirby, D-Tacoma, proposed a bill to impose harsher
sentences on first-time DUI offenders. For offenders with a
blood-alcohol level of 0.15 or lower, the minimum would increase from
one day to three days, and for those over a 0.15 level, the minimum
would increase from two days to one week. Offenders would pay the cost
of incarceration.

Patricia Fulton of the Washington Defenders Association argued that
most offenders will not be able to pay for their incarceration, and
those costs will fall upon the city or county to pay.

"We think the cost is too burdensome," Fulton said. "Current law as it
stands is appropriate."

If someone is going to be impacted by a short period of jail time, she
said, they will be impacted by the current one- or two-day minimum; if
they're not, then an increase to three days or a week still isn't
going to solve the problem.

Other bills presented at Monday's hearing proposed including prior
offenses when determining if an offender's DUI should count as a
felony, and requiring that persons convicted of reckless or negligent
driving be required to install ignition interlock devices to ensure
they cannot drive while impaired.

Lawmakers also touched on the establishment of DUI specialty courts,
where nonviolent offenders would go through substance abuse therapy.

The DUI bills are HB 1113, HB 1167, HB 1556, HB 1789 and HB 1646.




http://www.theolympian.com/2011/02/14/1543851/wa-lawmakers-propose-harsher-penalties.html#storylink=mirelated

Horwath Law launches new DUI website

Horwath Law is happy to announce the release of our new DUI website.  For information on the DUI criminal process in Tacoma and Pierce County Washington please visit http://www.horwathtacomadui.com 

High-profile attorney charged with DUI

Prominent Seattle lawyer and TV legal analyst Anne Bremner has been charged with drunken driving, according to court records, despite her claims that she suffered a head injury in a hit-and-run accident and was mistakenly arrested.

On June 4, Bremner, 52, was stopped in Kenmore after driving on three flat tires. She was returning from a dinner party at a judge's home in Seattle. The charge was filed Wednesday in King County District Court in Shoreline. Her arraignment is set for Sept. 1.

Bremner, a partner at Stafford Frey Cooper who often represents police officers accused of misconduct, has been fighting the release of the police report stemming from her arrest after it was requested under open records laws by several local media outlets, including seattlepi.com.

King County Superior Court Judge Laura Inveen ruled last week that most of the records should be made public.

The judge, however, immediately stayed that decision as Bremner's attorney announced an appeal of the decision.

Bremner claims police failed to respond to two 911 calls some time before her midnight arrest in Kenmore and, in a statement submitted to the court on her behalf by her doctor, alleged that she was manhandled by the sheriff's deputy. In a complaint filed under the name "Jane Doe," her lawyer argued she would suffer "substantial and irreparable harm to her personal and professional reputation if the unsubstantiated DUI allegations" were made public.

Her lawyer could not be immediately reached for comment Wednesday.

Bremner frequently appears as a legal analyst on several television networks.

She has been one of the most vocal advocates for Amanda Knox, the University of Washington student convicted of killing her roommate in Perugia, Italy. Knox's attorneys are appealing.

Bremner appeared as a TV legal commentator about several criminal cases with a national profile, including the Laci Peterson murder and Michael Jackson child molestation trial, and she maintains a virtual library of her TV appearances on her website.

She previously contributed to seattlepi.com's City Brights section of bloggers. Seattlepi.com recently ended its relationship with her to avoid any conflict of interest.

To support their contention that Bremner suffered a head injury, her attorneys in the filed a statement by local psychiatrist Dr. Philip Lindsay.

Lindsay wrote in court documents that Bremner had been the "victim of a hit and run driver at 50 mph and had suffered a concussion," and argued that the deputy who stopped her in Kenmore "rushed to judgment."

"She was mistakenly arrested for DUI based solely upon the symptoms of traumatic brain injury," Lindsay wrote the court.

Attorneys for the county called the doctor's statements "grossly misleading" and contended Bremner never reported a hit-and-run crash or head injury until well after her arrest.

Bremner's defense investigator interviewed the dinner party host, Rosselle Pekelis, a former state Supreme Court justice and former King County Superior Court judge. Pekelis, her husband, and others reported no issues with Bremner regarding her balance, coordination or thought process and speech, before she left, according to summaries of their statements.
By Scott Gutierrez, SeattlePI.com