Articles Posted in DUI Penalties

In a recent California appellate decision, the appellate court considered the denial of a motion to suppress in a case involving felony DUI within 10 years of three prior DUI convictions in exchange for formal probation and dismissal of an enhancement and other charges. The DUI arose when a police officer saw the defendant’s vehicle travel into a field. He came up in his patrol car and directed his spotlight to the front of the defendant’s vehicle.

The defendant left his vehicle and tried to talk on a cell phone. The officer came up and asked what he was doing there. He smelled alcohol within moments of talking to the defendant and saw the defendant became nervous when providing responses to questions.

Later, the defendant identified himself, but the patrol officer suspected this identification was false and put him in handcuffs. The defendant gave his true name, and through a records check, the patrol officer learned his license had been suspended and he was on probation for prior DUIs. The defendant refused a chemical breath test, which was a condition of his probation. He refused a second time, and was then arrested and taken to the hospital for a blood draw, which revealed his blood alcohol concentration (BAC) was .093.

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Sometimes drunk driving leads to someone’s death. In that case, you may face multiple charges on top of any DUI charges that apply. In a recent California appellate decision, the defendant appealed a conviction for gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and challenged the lower court’s denial of probation, among other things.

The prosecutor filed a three county felony complaint charging the defendant with a gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated under section 191.5(a), DUI causing injury under Vehicle Code section 23153(a), and driving with a measurable blood alcohol concentration (BAC) triggering injury under Vehicle Code section 23153(b). With regard to these two other counts, it was alleged the defendant personally caused great bodily injury, that his BAC was at least 0.15% or greater, and proximately caused bodily injury or death to more than one person.

The defendant pled guilty and admitted the truth of the enhancement allegations. The factual grounds for the plea was that he had knowingly and unlawfully killed someone without malice aforethought while drunk driving and the killing was the result of an illegal act that was not a felony, which resulted in death. He also admitted his blood alcohol was .15 or greater.

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If you are arrested for drunk driving in San Diego, you may be ordered to SCRAM, (which stands for “Secure Continuous Remote Alcohol Monitor”). The judge may include this in your sentence after you enter a guilty plea, after a conviction after a trial, or, any time before the conclusion of the case if the judge is concerned about public safety, recidivism, or your continued alcohol use. Typically, repeat offenders and cases involving high blood-alcohol content and severe accidents are ordered to abstain from all alcohol use and are often monitored by this program.

SCRAM is a bracelet that is worn on the ankle, 24/7, for the period of time ordered by the judge. You are also given a base station to plug into your landline telephone or internet router at home or work, which stores and transmits the data collected by the bracelet.

The offender is required to pay $100 to install the device, plus a daily fee of $15, paid two weeks in advance. This can be scaled from $7 t0 $15, depending on the offender’s ability to pay. They accept cash, checks, money orders, and all major credit cards.