Posts Tagged ‘District attorney’

Tuesday, January 3rd, 2012

Our DUI Lawyers Orange County

Image by DutchAstrid via Flickr

have learned that The Orange County Crime Laboratory (OCCL) has received a $350,000 grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety to purchase new instrumentation for increased identification and quantitation of prescription and abused drugs for cases when driving under the influence of Drugs (DUID) is  suspected. This technology will provide more comprehensive toxicological testing of DUID case  samples. Obtaining these additional equipment funds was done in cooperation with and through the  assistance of the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.

In recent studies, 23 percent of all fatally injured drivers tested positive for drug involvement. In another study where drivers voluntarily allowed for testing, more tested positive for marijuana (8.4 percent) than for alcohol (7.6 percent).

If you have any questions for our DUI Lawyers Newport Beach, call (877) 568-2977, anytime.

Posts Tagged ‘District attorney’

Tuesday, January 3rd, 2012

Image via Wikipedia

Our Orange County DUI Lawyers have learned today that Dylan Morse, 18-year-old son of the Merced County, California District Attorney has been sentenced to 12 years and 4 months in prison, according to Lori A. Carter, a reporter who writes for the Santa Rosa Press Democrat.

Judge Ken Gnoss made what he called an “extremely difficult” decision last week when he sentenced Morse to what Carter calls one of the harshest DUI sentences in the past decade, in response to the crash that killed one man and left his best friend in a coma.

Morse will spend at least ten years in prison, following the recommendation of the county probation department, which reported that he was “well aware” of the risks posed by a DUI offense.

“This was grossly unfair and unjust,” says Morse’s lawyer, Chris Andrian, who said that Morse was “appropriately remorseful” and seeking alcohol treatment.

Morse pled guilty to three felonies and three misdemeanors connected to the February 14 collision that killed Berkeley art student and musician Alex Ruiz, 22, and left two others with significant injuries, including Ryne Spitzer, 19, who incurred permanent disabilities. Nonetheless, Spitzer’s family has protested the sentence.

“We are trying to intervene on the excessive confinement thrown at Dylan Morse,” said Mark Spitzer, Ryne’s father. “This is not to lessen the devastating effects of drinking and driving, but we are also talking about an 18-year-old young man who needs a chance after any incarceration to still salvage a productive and influential life. We will try to help.”

Gnoss said that he put himself in the position of Spitzer’s family, and felt that Morse deserved the maximum punishment. He believed that Morse knew his behavior was illegal and dangerous. In fact, just the day prior to the accident, Morse had driven Spitzer to a court-ordered class following his own DUI arrest.

Morse’s blood-alcohol level was 0.15% when he ran a red light and smashed into Ruiz at Highway 116 and Stony Point Road.

Lynn Darst, a Mothers Against Drunk Driving advocate who lost a daughter-in-law to a drunken driving accident in 2005 said she supported the sentence.

“I believe it was too harsh to have Alexander Ruiz lose his life as a result of two young men in a vehicle under the influence of alcohol. That was a harsh sentence for the Ruiz family.”

Over the past decade, sentences handed down by judges in Sonoma County have varied widely for DUI fatalities. Some defendants have received probation, while others have been sentenced to a year or less in county jail.

In cases where the defendants had prior DUIs or left the scene of the accident, they received sentences of up to nine years in prison. The Press Democrats report no cases with similar circumstances in a decade that received such a lengthy prison sentence. The maximum sentence for the offense is 15 years.

There are some concerns that the lengthy sentence factors in the reality that Morse’s father is an elected prosecutor, which may affect his treatment in prison and where he will be housed.  And our Newport Beach DUI Lawyers say that the Harbor Justice Center is the toughest courthouse for DUIs in the state – this sentence beats anything seen there.

Source: Santa Rosa Press Democrat

Posts Tagged ‘District attorney’

Tuesday, January 3rd, 2012

Orange County Man Receives 15 Year Sentence for Killing Bicyclist

Our Orange County DUI lawyers have learned that a Garden Grove man was sentenced to 15 years to life in prison for killing a bicyclist for a drunk driving crash that occurred in 2008.

The man already had a DUI conviction from 2002 and had attended nine months of alcohol awareness crashes. In October 2008, the individual had taken two different types of painkillers, an anti-anxiety drug, a muscle relaxant and alcohol before he went out one evening to run some errands. He was on his way home when his truck ran over a curb and hit and killed a 45 year old mother bicycling with her son. His blood-alcohol level was measured at .09 over an hour after the crash. The legal limit in California is .08. His alcohol level at the time of his 2002 DUI was 0.25.

The driver was convicted of second-degree murder after the District Attorney argued that he showed a “conscious disregard for life” when he killed the bicyclist. The judge ruled before trial that the jury would not be allowed to consider a lesser charge of vehicular manslaughter. The judge found that he was not completely remorseful and was an alcoholic with drug issues.

The driver will be eligible for parole in about 13 years because he has already served almost two years in prison before the conviction. His lawyer, who is one of the better known Orange County DUI Lawyers in this area, are planning an appeal.