New York Criminal Lawyer Blog

Jaime Pressly was booked for a DUI offense after she was pulled over for a traffic violation. Pressly, the “My Name is Earl” star who plays Joy Turner, was given a breathalyzer test. She registered at .22 on the blood alcohol level test, a reporter was told.

The .22 blood alcohol level was almost three times the California’s legal alcohol limit, tells a policeman. California’s legal alcohol level is .08 for legal drinkers. It is against the law to drive under the influence no matter how much alcohol consumed. It is also against the law to drink if you are a minor.

She was not involved in a traffic accident. Drugs are not believed to have been found in her car. The police found no indication of any drugs in the blood test taken. No children were in the car when the cops pulled Pressly over for a traffic violation. It is unclear what the traffic violation was.

Pressly was driving around 11 p.m. in Santa Monica before officers stopped her, they told the newsman. Police in Manhattan and Suffolk are constantly on the lookout for drunk drivers.

She spent the night in Santa Monica Jail. She was released the next day on $15,000 bail. The normal amount of bail is $5,000. The amount of bail is usually raised if the individual is involved in an accident or if they have an alcohol blood level greater than .15. Pressly had an alcohol blood level greater than .15. It is unclear if this is her first offense.

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When an officer stops someone who is clearly intoxicated – smelling of alcohol, failing sobriety tests, and so forth, but refuses to allow a blood alcohol test, a police officer doesn’t really have much to go on. The officer will have to get a judge’s order to test the driver before the alcohol is gone.
Today, an officer can turn to Skype for help. Once such officer, in Palm Bay Florida, has used Skype five times between January and April of 2011, calling a judge with the internet video conferencing software.
“I typed up the warrant and connect with the judge using Skype while (the suspect) was still in the car,” the officer told New York Criminal Law Offices. It was his idea to use technology to speed up a search warrant for blood from drivers who are stopped on suspicion of impaired driving.
That Florida county is considering using Skype to help with driving-under-the-influence cases on a wider basis. In one particular case, a woman was shown to have twice the legal limit of alcohol in her blood, once the officer was allowed to test her. She was not only charged with DWI, she was already on probation for it.
“It’s like something out of ‘Star Trek,’” the officer said, as he spoke of the 15 minutes he talked to the judge on Skype.
So far, there is only one judge using Skype for warrants. Court officials explained to New York Criminal Law Offices that he was not allowed to comment.
Video technology like closed-circuit television has been in use in Brevard County, Florida for a while in bond hearings and first appearances at the jail. In these cases, the necessary documents are sent by fax and the judge can be seen on a large TV set near the bench. Video is also used to allow witnesses to testify when they are unavailable to be there in person.
Skype, being a video conference tool available on laptops and cellphones, can be of more use in the field and in places like Manhattan and Long Island, and can potentially save both time and money for law enforcement.

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A New York Criminal Lawyer reports about a fatal accident which occurred on Monday morning on Interstate 30. This crash has claimed the lives of a loving father and left a family devastated. It has also seen the wrong way driver locked up behind bars, and severe damage to the highway which will need to be repaired.
The driver responsible for the accident has apologized for killing the man and being irresponsible by driving when drunk.
The New York Criminal Lawyer said that the police were alerted about the drunk driver at 2:30 AM. 911 calls to the police department reported that the driver was traveling on the wrong side of the road.
A few minutes after these reports, the car crashed into a tanker truck. The driver of this truck – a father – lost his life.
The drunk driver has escaped with nothing more than a few stitches over the top of his eye. However, he feels guilty that he has caused a family such a tragic loss. DWI is considered a serious crime in jurisdictions like Manhattan and Queens.
The truck driver phoned his wife a couple of hours before the accident. He said that he only had a few more delivers that he needed to do before he would come home.
The court reports, obtained by the New York Criminal Lawyer, state that the drunk driver remembers drinking at least 10 beers. However, he doesn’t actually remember getting behind the wheel. He said that nobody could have stopped him from getting into the car.
He also has no memory of getting onto the interstate, and he doesn’t remember driving the wrong way down the highway.
The accident caused a fireball. This was frightening for onlookers and also caused extensive damage to the road. The heat warped metal supports under a bridge. It’s expected that repairs can take around five months to complete. It will take so long to complete because the steel beams need to be manufactured from scratch, and a new concrete road will need to be laid on top.
Two lanes on the westbound carriageway are due to re-open on Monday night. However, the rest of the lanes will remain out of operation for quite some time. This goes to show that drunk driving has serious consequences for everyone

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A current team member of the Cleveland Indians was recently arrested on charges of drunk driving.

Austin Kearns of the Cleveland Indians, age 30, was taken into custody by a Lexington patrol unit after the officer observed the man “flashing his headlights and weaving on U.S. 68” on the evening of Feb. 12 in the county of Jessamine. A New York Criminal Lawyer stated that the defendant was driving a 2007 Cadillac Escalade at the time, and was requested to submit to roadside sobriety tests following his sporadic stop-and-go driving while on the road. Though the Lexington officer was out of his jurisdiction, he requested and received permission from Jessamine county authorities to pursue Mr. Kearns.

Upon apprehension, sources say that Mr. Kearns refused roadside sobriety tests, was “very unsteady on his feet” according to an officer. Additionally, the official police report of the Jessamine County Police Department states that Mr. Kearns had admitted to a sheriff’s deputy that during the course of the night just prior to the apprehension, he had consumed “a couple bourbon and cokes” , and was thus taken into custody. However, he was later released upon posting $100, which was 10% of his $1,000 bond. Mr. Kearns has an upcoming court appointment on March 10, which his attorney will attend on his behalf. In Manhattan and Queens, DWI is a serious crime and treated as such by Law Enforcement.

Austin Kearns was originally drafted by the Cincinnati Reds in 1998, right out of his Lafayette high school. He also had short stints with the Washington Nationals and the New York Yankees, before finally signing with the Cleveland Indians in 2009. A NY Criminal Lawyer notes that Austin Kearns is currently a resident of Nicholasville, KY. An official report further states the MLB player, who has been in the majors for nearly 13 years, maintains a second dwelling in Sarasota, Fla. Though representatives of the Cleveland Indians declined to comment with much depth, a statement was released that said, “The Indians’ organization takes these issues very seriously and is disappointed by the circumstances…We will handle the matter internally and will not have any further comment until we have complete information about the incident and the legal process has run its course.”

It rings true that “no one is above the law”. A successful baseball player for a well-known organization has been charged with drunk driving. Since this is such a common and serious offense, the repercussions are often of great magnitude.

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A woman was just charged with DUI manslaughter charges for a wreck that happened recently, according to a New York Criminal Lawyer. The woman, who was only 20 at the time of the accident, was driving while under the influence of alcohol. Her breathalyzer tested .154, which is almost twice the legal limit allowed. Other criminal charges might be pending due to the level of her intoxication and underage status. She was not injured in the accident but the passenger in the car was killed. Cases like this are handled by local lawyers when they occur in Manhattan and Long Island.
The passenger in the car was a 22 year old male. It is not known what his blood alcohol level was or why he was not driving the car. The accident occurred when the driver of the vehicle left a bar and was traveling down a highway. She thought she was being followed by a car and claims she ran off the road when she took her eyes away from the road to look behind her. She veered and struck the pole on the passenger side of the car. No other car matching her description was found in the area.
A blood test also showed the woman had amphetamines in her system, but the exact drug was not listed. If there were illegal drugs in her system, there may be more criminal charges filed against her, according to a New York City Criminal Lawyer. She is currently awaiting a court date to determine her sentence. It is not known if this is her first offense on a DUI charge. If so, she might pay fines and a jail sentence.

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A group of students at a TX, high school recently participated in a Shattered Dreams mock drunk driving crash, a New York Criminal Lawyer just learned. Students at the high school played certain roles including both living and dead victims, and as the drunk driver who went to jail.

Shattered Dreams is a program that introduces high school students to the grim realities of what happens when someone drinks and drives. Sources went on to say that the event, which lasts two days, stages a mock accident in front of the participating school’s entire student body. As part of this mock crash, members of the local police, fire, EMS, and coroner’s office all react as though the crash was real. This is not difficult for first responders to do, as thankfully, they train for these situations often.

During the course of the mock crash, students will see “victim” students treated and transported to the local hospital by ambulance and helicopter. They will also see the “deceased” students transported by a local funeral home, and the “drunk” driver will be arrested and transported to the local jail for further processing, including arraignment. As a reminder that local students are the participants in these crashes—this brings the reality of the situation a little closer to home, claimed the Manhattan Criminal Lawyer.

Another part of the Shattered Dreams program, involves a “Grim Reaper” visiting a classroom every 15-minutes to select a student victim. This student victim would then be considered as the “living dead.” This represents the statistic that every 15-minutes someone is killed by a DWI offender. At the end of the first day of these mock events, those who participated in the crash, as well as those who were selected as the “living dead” will be taken to an overnight retreat, which further enhances the experience for each of the students.

The second day of this two-day event will be filled with mock memorial services for each of the crash victims and the “living dead.” While those students who participated as crash victims and “living dead” are permitted to return to class this day, they are not supposed to speak to anyone, as if they are not there.

While officials say that success of this program is difficult to measure, that if one life is saved as a result of the program it is worth it.

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