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Our Orange County DUI Lawyers received the following as a portion of a press release from the Costa Mesa Police Department:

At the beginning of the 2011 Federal Fiscal Year, Costa Mesa Police Department was awarded a $364,000 Selective Traffic Enforcement Program grant, aimed at reducing the number of persons killed and injured in crashes involving alcohol, drugs, distractions, speed and red light violations. The current grant ends at the end of this month and preliminary results are promising. The Traffic Safety Bureau conducted 20 DUI/Drivers license checkpoints with 24,927 vehicles going through the checkpoints and 13,168 drivers being screened.

The press release goes on to talk about the drop in the number of speed related and red light collisions (perhaps related to Costa Mesa’s decision to take down the red light camera system in the city), but neglects to point out the low arrest rate for DUI cases from checkpoints in the city (sometimes as low as 0-1%), or the substantial fees raised from vehicle impounds not related to DUI.

If you have questions for a DUI specialist Orange County, call me, anytime, at (877) 568-2977.

Related articles

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• Costa Mesa police officer delivers baby (latimesblogs.latimes.com)
• Gang member threatened to stab boy, police say (latimesblogs.latimes.com)

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Our Orange County DUI Lawyers have learned that the Costa Mesa Police Department, in conjunction with the California Highway Patrol conducted a  DUI/Drivers  License  Checkpoint  on  Saturday,  April  9,  2011, and resulted in a 0.0028% success rate.

This checkpoint was one of many that have been or will be conducted throughout the year in Costa Mesa.  The location of Saturday’s checkpoint was on Newport Boulevard at 17 th  Street.

2,127  Vehicles through the checkpoint
611     Vehicles Screened
9         Drivers given field sobriety tests
6         DUI suspects arrested
12       Driver’s license investigations
13       Citations issued
11       Vehicles towed

The checkpoint was funded by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.  If you have any questions for an Orange County DUI Specialist, contact our firm at (877) 568-2977.

Our Orange County DUI Lawyers have learned from this article in the Daily Pilot  http://www.dailypilot.com/news/tn-dpt-1013-grant-20101012,0,3179960.story, that Costa Mesa Police Department have a

Some nuggets:  “Through September of 2011, the money will fund police overtime for a dozen DUI checkpoints, 16 saturation patrols, additional police training, 11 special stings and increased traffic enforcement.  More than $325,000 of that pays for police overtime, with the rest divvied among training and new equipment, according to the agreement with the Office of Traffic Safety (OTS).

Drunk driving is a big issue in the city every year, with police here regularly making more DUI arrests than in any other Orange County city, and at the same time having among the most alcohol-related traffic collisions.

According to OTS statistics …, Costa Mesa had more alcohol-related crashes than any other city in the state with populations of 100,000 to 250,000. It also had the fifth-most DUI arrests, 710, in 2008.

DUI-related crashes in Costa Mesa have dropped 47% since 2005, police reported.”

Note that the biggest funding is for overtime for Police Officers.  No wonder the Police Union is so happy.  As a DUI Specialist Orange County, I can tell you that DUI Checkpoints are all about money.

Our Orange County DUI Lawyers bring you the name of the Orange County Rehab where Lindsay Lohan is staying.  Radaronline was the first website to break the news that Lohan was staying in Orange County, after being bailed out.  After TMZ had reported that Lohan was to enter a Newport Beach facility, both Radar Online and TMZ deleted that information from their websites.

Lindsay Lohan is at the Morningside Rehabilitation center, a Costa Mesa facility.

A paparazzi crush is possible, but a Costa Mesa Police Department watch commander said city law enforcement will have “nothing to do with” the matter.

So did Morningside and other Newport rehab operators solicit Lindsay’s business while she was in jail?  TMZ wouldn’t say. When asked how Morningside would be handling the privacy issue of not only Lindsay, but other occupants of the facility, the rehab facility said “no comment”.

Why would anyone put rehabs so close to all the partying? Good question, and one resident have asked for years.

But celebrities in rehabs aren’t always great for business.

The inside buzz in Hollywood is Lindsay’s broke. So how is she paying for rehab? Is the media blitz part of a Morningside Recovery PR campaign? Morningside certainly benefits from having nationwide coverage of Lindsay at one of its facilities. But is that really the attention Newport or Costa Mesa wants?

Newport Beach City Manager Dave Kiff said he had found out early Friday morning Lindsay was slated to come to a Morningside facility but wasn’t sure if it would be Newport or Costa Mesa. The Costa Mesa police and Newport Beach department were put on alert anticipating media onslaught.

Bob Rush, who has been a vocal community activist fighting the proliferation of rehab homes in Newport, said he’d heard Lindsay could be in the home a few doors from him.

So how does he feel about massive paparazzi and media camped out on his street? He told me “It brings some good attention to the issue we’ve all been complaining about.”

Some surfers in the neighborhood plan to don their Hawaiian shirts and come out with a welcome banner for Lindsay. You have to love crazy!

But the fact remains Lindsay Lohan is a troubled girl with a serious problem. Whether it’s Newport or Costa Mesa, police will have their hands full with extra officers on duty. Who pays for this?

Can either city recoup those expenses from Morningside? Apparently not, but if it can be proven that Morningside did in fact solicit her business, why should residents have to pay?

Recovering from drugs and alcohol is a tough road under the best of circumstances. But getting sober under the media’s microscope won’t make it any easier for Lohan or the residents unlucky enough to be living around the rehab she finally lands in.

The plan is for Lindsay to stay at least until the next court hearing on October 22.  Morningside is one of only a few rehab programs here in Orange County, and one that our Newport Beach DUI Attorneys know well.

In an editorial about Orange County DUI Checkpoint Locations in Costa Mesa, published in the Daily Pilot newspaper, politician Jim Righeimer calls the recent Costa Mesa DUI checkpoint “unnecessary” and “ill-advised”, as follows:

“At 6:30 p.m. Sept. 16, 3,200 commuters sat in an unnecessary traffic jam because the Costa Mesa Police Department decided to run a sobriety check point at a primary intersection to the off-ramps of the San Diego (405) Freeway at Harbor Boulevard.

I was one of those frustrated folks trying to get home, or in my case, the Estancia High School football game. Most concerning to me was the safety of drivers slamming on their brakes on the Harbor off ramp.

It reminds me of the California Department of Transportation running a sweeper train during rush hour — it’s poor judgment and lacks common sense.

I decided to ask some difficult questions of the officers conducting this ill-advised check point. They are not used to citizens questioning their authority, which I think is a healthy thing to do.”

If you have questions related to an Orange County DUI, feel free to call our office anytime, at (714) 568-1560.

Our Newport Beach DUI Attorneys have learned that members of the Costa Mesa Police Association packed the council chambers Tuesday night, seeking disciplinary action for Planning Commissioner Jim Righeimer’s interruption of a DUI checkpoint operation last week.

Officer Allen Rieckhof, president of the police association, said to the council that a transparent investigation to show what happened last Thursday evening is imminent.

“I can assure you that an investigation will show that none of my members did anything wrong and acted professionally in the face of a man who used his appointed position and thug-like tactics to impose his will,” Rieckhof said.

While driving south on Harbor Boulevard toward Gisler Avenue, Righeimer, who is running for City Council, passed through the checkpoint. He then parked at the nearby McDonald’s and walked up to the officers asking why such operation would be conducted during evening rush.

Police contend that Righeimer tried to intimidate officers by using his position to try to shut down the operation. But Righeimer has said that he was only questioning the wisdom of holding the checkpoint during rush hour.

Grants from the California Office of Traffic Safety funded Costa Mesa’s checkpoint, an operation that is meant to remind people of the danger of drinking and driving.

One Costa Mesa police detective described how a drunk driver changed a young couple’s lives more than 20 years ago, a story that brought Councilwoman Katrina Foley to tears.

“They had their entire lives in front of them and they had a plan,” Det. Dana Potts said. “He was to go on to college to study criminal justice and become a police officer. She was going to continue college as time would allow as a new parent.”

But while heading home with her fiance, a drunk driver ran through a red light. Potts said the subsequent crash killed the young pregnant mother and her unborn daughter. He then revealed the identity of the fiancee, which startled many in the audience.

“I was the driver of the Volkswagen, and that was my daughter,” Potts said.

City Atty. Kimberly Hall Barlow said she’s conducting the investigation and will report back to the council.

Two Costa Mesa police officers blasted a City Council candidate Tuesday over his heated objections to a police checkpoint Thursday that snarled traffic near the Harbor Boulevard exit from the I-405.

One of them told of how his pregnant girlfriend had been killed by a drunken driver 22 years ago.

Residents said the checkpoint caused delays of 30 minutes to an hour, as well as a number of near-collisions, but Costa Mesa Police Association president Allen Rieckhof said the problem was candidate Jim Righeimer’s reaction to it.

After going through the checkpoint, Righeimer parked his car, and came back to confront the officers, demanding to know who had authorized it.

Politics overshadows the dispute, as Righeimer has made opposition to high public employee salaries an issue in his campaign. The police employees union is in negotiations with the city on a new contract.

Rieckhof suggested that Righeimer used his position as a member of the city’s Planning Commission to influence the officers, although the commission is not a part of the police department’s command staff. It has authority over zoning variances and such.

Rieckhof asked the City Council to investigate whether Righeimer “used his appointed position and thug-like tactics to impose his will.”

Although several police officers who were at the checkpoint know the facts, Rieckhof did not actually accuse Righeimer, making his points by asking questions.

“I would ask the council not to get sidetracked with the reasons he got upset,” Rieckhof said, urging them to focus on whether Righeimer identified himself as a member of the planning commission or had made any threats.

Detective Dana Potts, the police association vice president, told the council about the drunken driver who killed his girlfriend, Jamie Squires, who was 7 months pregnant. On June 13, 1988, Potts, then 18, was driving the 17-year-old Squires through Fountain Valley, when a drunken driver ran a red light, killing her and the unborn girl.

Potts called Righeimer selfish for caring more about getting to a high school football game on time than about drunken driving.

City Attorney Kimberly Hall Barlow said she is investigating the incident.

“I think it’s appropriate to look at what happened or did not happen,” Mayor Allan Mansoor said. “I also think it’s appropriate not to jump to any conclusions.”

Reached for comment Tuesday night, Righeimer said, “I will continue to ask the tough questions. It is part of the democratic process. I do not care if they bus in a thousand cops with manufactured anger. I will not be intimidated.”

The checkpoint was held from 6 to 11 p.m. Thursday at Harbor Boulevard and Gisler Avenue, just south of the I-405. There were 3214 vehicles that went through the checkpoint, resulting in two arrests on charges of driving under the influence.

There were also 12 vehicles towed from unlicensed drivers.

A California Watch investigation earlier this year found that vehicle impounds far outnumbered DUI arrests at the checkpoints. It also found that the widespread impounding – which appears to violate a 2005 federal appeals court ruling – usually results in property forfeiture. Towing fees and fines generated more than $40 million in California in 2009, California Watch found.

Police officers, who work the shifts as overtime, were paid more than $30 million in 2009 to conduct checkpoints.

Studies by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and others have found that checkpoints are inefficient at catching drunk drivers; officers on patrol are more likely to find drunks weaving.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving advocate Vicky Macia, who spoke after the two police officers, conceded the point.

“The primary goal of a DUI checkpoint is not to arrest people,” she said. “It is to deter people.”

Councilwoman Wendy Leece echoed the remark.

“It’s just informing and reminding people to be sober,” Leece said.

In a guest column for the Daily Pilot, Costa Mesa resident Nancy Marcus wrote, “I was almost hit three times on the offramp as other drivers slammed on their brakes because of the massive traffic back-up on Harbor.”

Carl Lekawski was coming home from work when he hit the traffic, which backed up onto the offramps and all the way up Harbor to South Coast Drive.

“It took me nearly an hour and I didn’t even get to the checkpoint,” Lekawski said. “I turned before I got to it.”

Lekawski turned off at Gisler Avenue. He said many others did the same. Most of the other drivers either did u-turns on Harbor to avoid the backup, or got on the freeway to get out of the mess, he said.

Drunken drivers could have done the same, he said.

“If I were drunk, I would have tried to avoid it,” he said.

Righeimer said he was stuck for a half-hour in the traffic.

Righeimer, Rieckhof said, “minimizes his egregious conduct and tries to turn it around and blame the police department.”

If you have questions about a DUI checkpoint location in Orange County, contact our Orange County DUI Attorneys at 877-568-2977.

Our Orange County DUI Lawyers have learned from the Costa Mesa Police that they will be checking for sobriety and drivers licenses at a checkpoint in Costa Mesa Friday, April 2, 2010

The checkpoint will target drunken and unlicensed drivers from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. at Newport Boulevard and Flower Street.

Last weekend, police arrested three drunken drivers and gave out 33 citations for license violations at Harbor Boulevard and Peterson Place.

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COSTA MESA An intoxicated pedestrian who walked up to a sobriety checkpoint to see what was taking place was among five arrested Monday, police said.

Police arrested Rodrigo Sajvin Cumes, 37, of Costa Mesa, on a public intoxication charge after he went up to the checkpoint held on Harbor Boulevard at Fair Drive, said Costa Mesa police Sgt. Phil Myers. Cumes was so intoxicated that he could not care for his safety, according to police.

Three people were arrested on suspicion of drunken driving and 15 citations were issued, police said. Police screened 633 cars out of 2,055 that went through the checkpoint.

Also, police said two drivers switched seats with passengers out of fear of being arrested for driving under the influence. Those drivers were not arrested, Myers said.

Related articles

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An Orange County DUI checkpoint looking for drunk drivers in Costa Mesa resulted in three arrests this weekend, police said.

The Costa Mesa Police Department set up a checkpoint Friday at the intersection of Baker and Bear streets, according to a department press release.

The checkpoint screened 318 vehicles. Three people were arrested on suspicion of DUI, nine citations were issued and six vehicles were impounded.

“This checkpoint was one of many that have been or will be conducted throughout the year in the city of Costa Mesa,” Sgt. David Makiyama, a police spokesman, said in a statement. “The goal of the DUI checkpoint was removing impaired drivers and to bring awareness to the public of the dangers of driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol.”

As mentioned, DUI Sobriety Checkpoints are becoming more about the money than public safety.  I’ve seen this happen with Los Angeles DUI and Orange County DUI cases, and I can say that with some certainty as one of the top Orange County DUI Lawyers in the area.

Related articles

• Cypress: DUI Checkpoint On Saturday (cehwiedel.com)
• Seal Beach: Results of DUI Checkpoint (cehwiedel.com)
• LAPD Ups DUI Patrols and Checkpoints for Super Bowl Sunday (laist.com)
• Car Seizures At DUI Checkpoints Raise Money, Legal Questions (huffingtonpost.com)

While the police were spending their time on profit making Perhaps, then, it should be no surprise that DUI-related collisions that injured three people and left two dead happened instead in Garden Grove, Irvine and Costa Mesa.
A commercial truck tractor went off the residential street of Woodbury Road in Garden Grove around 11 a.m. Friday and hit several trees, a fence, concrete planters and a block wall before coming to a stop at 11052 Woodbury Road.

That’s not all the rig hit, as 36-year-old Olga Quiroz, who was standing in her yard, was struck and dragged under the truck until it came to a halt at the block wall at the back of the property.

Paramedics treated the woman at the scene before having her taken to a local hospital with lacerations, fractures and other injuries to her legs.

The truck’s driver, William Davis, 44, of Orange, was held at the scene by residents until police arrived. Uninjured, Davis was evaluated to have been driving under the influence of alcohol and was later arrested on suspicion of felony DUI.

Several heavy-duty two trucks eventually removed the damaged rig, and the street was closed for about three hours.

The truck and driver were also linked to a non-injury hit and run traffic collision that happened about 45 minutes before at Euclid Avenue and Trask Street. Surveillance video from a nearby home on Woodbury Road is helping investigators piece together the truck’s course of travel moments before the collision. Anyone with other helpful information is asked to contact police Investigator Jason Perkins at (714) 741-5823.

An Irvine police officer saw a 2004, 4-door Nissan Altima zooming at speeds in excess of 80 mph through the Alton Parkway and Harvard Avenue intersection, running a red light, around 1:30 a.m. Saturday.  The chase was on heading east on Alton, but the officer lost sight of the Altima as it continued eastbound through Culver Drive.

About 30 seconds later, another Irvine cop saw the Altima approach the Alton and East Yale intersection, lose control, strike the curb and then collide with a group of trees at the southeast corner. The driver and lone occupant of the Altima was killed instantly. The 24-year-old Garden Grove resident’s name was withheld pending notification of his family.

Around 2:15 a.m. that same morning, a patron of the Red Night Club at 4647 MacArthur Blvd., Newport Beach, reported that his 2004, 4-door Nissan Altima was stolen from the nightclub’s parking lot. Newport Beach and Irvine police put two and 4-door together and determined the car wrapped around the trees was the stolen Altima.

Because an Irvine officer had tried initially to pull-over a speeding vehicle that was eventually involved in a traffic collision, the California Highway Patrol is conducting the collision investigation. The Orange County Sherriff-Coroner’s Office is conducting toxicology tests on the driver. Anyone with information is asked to contact the CHP’s Santa Ana Office or the Irvine Police Department.

Finally, some time before 2:30 a.m. Sunday, a 2008 white Toyota Tundra that had earlier been involved in a non-injury accident in Santa Ana was seen heading south on Flower Street before going through a red light at the intersection with Sunflower Avenue in Costa Mesa and broadsiding a 2008 gold Toyota Carolla that was heading west on Sunflower.

The passenger in the second car, Cara Lee, 20, of Santa Ana, was killed in the collision.

The Corolla’s driver, Hao A. Nguyen, 21, of Santa Ana, was taken to Western Medical Center in Santa Ana for treatment of minor abrasions. He was later arrested on suspicion of DUI.

The Tundra driver, Gustavo A. Vega, 22, of Costa Mesa, was treated for minor abrasions at the scene and arrested on suspicion of murder, vehicular manslaughter, felony DUI, felony injury hit-and-run and possession of a controlled substance. He also faces additional charges from the earlier hit-and-run in Santa Ana.

Remember to be careful out there.  And, if you ever have questions for a DUI specialist orange county, call me at (877) 568-2977 anytime.