Is time travel a defense to DUI?

Niles Gammons, a student at the University of Illinois, was arrested for DUI on November 4th at 1:08 A.M. You will recall that daylight savings time ended on November 4th at 2:00 A.M. and the clocks were set back one hour.  

The student was processed through the police station and released relatively quickly. Exactly one hour after his first arrest, a different police officer was driving through the parking lot of the police station when a vehicle rapidly backed out of a spot and almost collided with the police car.  

As you have probably already guessed, Mr. Gammons was driving that car. He was arrested for his second DUI in the same evening.  Both tickets are dated November 4th at 1:08 A.M., they each describe a different location of arrest, and are each signed by a different police officer.

There has to be a defense there somewhere!!!  HERE is a link to the Smoking Gun's report.

This isn't Russia, is it Danny?

The Kane County State's Attorney's Office has launched a Holiday Alcohol Testing program that will require certain offenders to submit to alcohol testing twice a day during major holidays, once in the morning and once in the evening.

As part of the program, the court can order a person already convicted of DUI to take part in the holiday testing program. Those who qualify would be people who have been ordered by the court not to drink — most likely repeat DUI offenders, or a person deemed by the court as "high risk" and likely to violate the terms of his sentence.

Testing periods not only fall during all major holidays, but also during SUPER BOWL WEEKEND and during MARCH MADNESS!!!!

Holy cow!! Not drinking is one thing, but if I had to drive up to the courthouse for a breath test during the March Madness games, I would be really angry!!

Also, is it really a good idea to require these people to be on the road during the holidays? The article in today's Aurora Beacon stated that the program started on Labor Day weekend. Two people out of 17 failed their breath tests. And the State's Attorney made them drive to the test center for the breath tests!!!

I can't wait for someone to be seriously injured as a result of this new policy. We'll see how brilliant it is then.

Now that is a coincidence.

According to this article from the Washington Post, a Maryland man recently crashed into and injured a retired judge who had spared him jail time in a separate DUI case eleven years earlier.

Operating Snowmobiles while Intoxicated in Illinois

With all the snow falling in Chicagoland over the past few days, it's a good time to mention Illinois laws regarding motorized snow activities.

After all, it's only been two years since CBS Chicago journalist, Randy Salerno, was killed in a Wisconsin snowmobile accident.

In January 2008, Salerno died when his friend Scott Hirschey, who's blood alcohol test showed he was legally drunk, crashed a snowmobile with Salerno riding on the back. Salerno, who was not intoxicated, was killed when his body hit a tree.

Even though this accident took place in Wisconsin, Salerno's death brought attention to all Midwest laws for operating snowmobiles while intoxicated.  At the time of his death, in Illinois and Wisconsin OWI – operating snowmobiles while intoxicated – and refusing to submit to a breathalyzer was punishable only be a fine.

This year Illinois legislators began working on a bill to deal with snowmobile OWIs.  These laws, amendments to the Illinois Vehicle Code and Snowmobile Registration and Safety Act, would change the penalties for operation of a snowmobile while under the influence so they are similar to the penalties in the Illinois Vehicle Code for DUI. The amendments provide for additional administrative sanctions for operation of a snowmobile while under the influence that are similar to certain administrative sanctions for a DUI violation in the Illinois Vehicle Code.  They would also ban people with active vehicle DUIs from snowmobiling.

After several final action deadline extensions for these amendments, the most recent Illinois Senate action for these amendments was on November 30, 2009, when a House Committee Amendment Motion to Concur was referred to Assignments.

Now the question is, what will happen with Illinois OWI Laws in 2010...?

The entire Illinois Snowmobiling Act may be found in the Illinois Compiled Statutes, Chapter 625. 
For more information visit:  Illinois Legislation Track - OUI-BOAT-SNOW-DRIVERS LICENSE

Man gets DUI for driving his motorized wheelchair...on the interstate.

What else can I say?

Full article here.

Kane County May End "No-Refusal" Weekends

Several newspapers reported last week that the Kane County State's Attorney's Office planned to conduct its second no-refusal weekend over St. Patrick's Day weekend, March 14-17, 2009.

Their plans may change, however, after a Friday ruling by Judge Kevin Busch which failed to find a defendant in contempt of court for his failure to comply with a warrant for his blood during the last no-refusal weekend.

Last Memorial Day weekend, suspected drunk drivers in Kane County who refused breathalyzers were held at the scene while assistant state's attorneys prepared search warrants for their blood and urine. The search warrants were then presented to an on-call judge for signature, oftentimes in the middle of the night. Most suspects who were confronted with a signed warrant then submitted to a blood draw. It is my understanding that the authorities did not forcibly execute those warrants, but rather arrested people who failed to voluntarily comply for contempt of court.

The Chicago Tribune reports that one person who was arrested for failing to comply with a warrant was acquitted of those charges last week at a hearing before Judge Busch.

The Tribune also reports that Kane County State's Attorney John Barsanti said he would study his options before proceeding with the upcoming no-refusal weekend, which may be postponed or eventually cancelled.

Former Major Leaguer Fails BAID Test 4 Times

I'm sure that most of you know that Illinois' DUI laws were amended effective January 1, 2009 to provide for monitoring device driving permits (MDDPs) in place of judicial driving permits (JDPs). As part of the MDDP process, a first time DUI offender with a statutory summary suspension can drive, but only after the installation of a breath interlock ignition device (BAID).

BAIDs are new in Illinois, but not in Florida where former Major Leaguer Jim Leyritz was recently arrested because his BAID registered alcohol consumption on four separate occasions.

Leyritz is currently awaiting trial on one count of DUI manslaughter and one count of DUI property damage. His trial is tentatively set for May 25, 2009. If convicted, he faces up to 15 years in prison. Authorities allege that Leyritz was drunk on Dec. 28, 2007 when he ran a red light in his SUV and crashed into another car, killing the other driver. Authorities said toxicology reports indicated that Leyritz's blood-alcohol level three hours after the crash was 0.14 percent. His license was also suspended at the time of that crash.

A condition of his bond is that he consume no alcohol. After his BAID registered positive for alcohol on four separate occasions, a judge revoked his bond and he was arrested. No word on whether he will remain jailed until his trial.

iPhone application helps DUI offenders find lawyers

I have blogged about Avvo before. They are the lawyer rating service that previously petitioned the Illinois Supreme Court for the master roll of all licensed attorneys in this state, and lost.

Well, they are back in the news. They have developed an application for the iphone which allows you to log each drink that you consume over a given time period. It then calculates your approximate BAC based on gender, weight, etc. Then, if you exceed the legal limit, it will suggest cab companies or other alternative means of transportation. Then, if you get pulled over for DUI, it will suggest a DUI lawyer in your area.

Check out the full article here.

Judge hits police car, gets DUI

The criminal courts judge from Hartford, Connecticut requested a transfer to the civil division following her arrest for DUI.

Click here for full details.

The Great and Mighty Secretary of State

For those of you who practice DUI defense and Traffic law, this may come as a nice little surprise and question for your practice.Recently in Champaign County the Secretary of State requested that approximately 100 ADR records of convictions for DUIs of convictions in 1998 be sent to the Secretary of State. The Circuit Clerk reviewed the records and told the Secretary of State that of those records some had been previously sent and well oops some of them had not. The Secretary of State did not care and requested all of them be sent.

Subsequently notices of Revocation were sent out to the people whose records were sent. Now realize some of these people knew this was a potential as their record had never been sent and their license never revoked. However, for other people who had already had their license revoked and had already had gotten their license reinstated it was quite a surprise. Not to mention, there was no warning - just a letter stating that their license was effectively revoked as of the date in the letter. Now the kicker to this whole scenario is that the application process to have your license reinstated can take quite a while. Also, in order to apply to have your license reinstated you need to have your original alcohol evaluation, a new evaluation, etc..... - well for those who did not keep good records, they were unable to get a copy of their original alcohol evaluation (the circuit clerk microfilmed the files and alcohol evaluations were not microfilmed and the main evaluator in 1998 for DUIs had since closed, etc...).

Now comes the question for the attorney, did the attorneys violate ethics or potentially liable to a malpractice claim for not making sure the ADR record was sent by the circuit clerk? And the most often question asked by the clients is there anyway around this? Well the simple answer I found is no - not really.The Circuit Clerk is required by statute to send the ADR conviction record within 5 days of the conviction. However, since there is no punishment for if they do not send it, they can send it at any time without repercussions. The Secretary of State by statute is allowed to impose a suspension or revocation of a driving license on the date it receives notice of the conviction. NOTE: date it receives notice of the conviction, NOT date of conviction. Thus, the Secretary of State could theoretically revoke a 90 year olds license for a DUI he/she received when they were 16.

How do you resolve the problem? Still to be determined, but if it is not alcohol related, I can tell you it takes a lot of calls to the Secretary of State before you will get any kind of answer. The answer I finally found after being told there was nothing they could do, was that when considering revocations and suspensions traffic ticket convictions over 7 years old cannot be considered (Lucky for me and my client).Will this issue come up again - Most definitely - previous to the Champaign County event, MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) found boxes of records that had not been sent to the Secretary of State in another County, and promptly made sure they were sent causing many similar revocation letters to be sent out.