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The Irvine Police Department arrested two people on suspicion of driving under the influence and issued 10 citations during a DUI and driver’s license checkpoint Friday night at Campus Drive and Bridge Road, Lt. Henry Boggs said.

Officers stopped 545 vehicles and conducted nine sobriety tests as part of the project, which including state and federal funding and was staffed by sworn police officers, professional staff and community volunteers.

An Orange County Register article on the DUi checkpoint cited Mothers Against Drunk Driving, saying that they estimated that communities consistently using sobriety checkpoints experience as much as eight times the reduction in DUI incidents as communities that use roving patrols alone.  This statistic is cited in a 2005 webpage from MADD Orange County, with no supporting studies, statistics, or mention that Laguna Beach has severely cutting, almost eliminating, the ineffective checkpoints.

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Our Newport Beach DUI Lawyers have learned that a Rhode Island state lawmaker says drunk-driving checkpoints are unfair and should be banned.

Rep. Charlene Lima, a Cranston Democrat, has introduced a bill in the General Assembly to prohibit police from conducting traffic checkpoints to identify drunk drivers. A legislative panel reviewed the legislation Wednesday.

Lima says she supports laws against drunk driving, but that checkpoints “smack of a police state.” She said there’s no reason sober drivers should have to prove to police that they’re not driving drunk.

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As Los Angeles DUI lawyers, We see celebrity DUI cases play out in the media, often with seemingly light or no criminal penalties. You may wonder what the potential criminal penalties for a DUI in California and what is the likelihood of such charges being brought?

Driving under the influence (DUI) sentencing occurs primarily within an alternative sentencing scheme under which offenders receive progressively more severe penalties for each successive DUI-related conviction.

Absent special circumstances, anyone arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol, drugs, or both is charged with violating Veh C §23152(a), commonly referred to as the “DUI count,” and is prosecuted for a misdemeanor. Veh C §§23536-23552. If the arrestee submitted to a blood-alcohol test and the results show a blood-alcohol content (BAC) of 0.08 percent or more, he or she will also be charged with violating Veh C §23152(b), commonly called the “0.08 per se count.”

Depending on the circumstances, other potential charges include:

• Driving a commercial vehicle by a person with a BAC of 0.04 percent or more. Veh C §23152(d). See Veh C §23153(d).
• Driving while addicted to any drug other than methadone. Veh C §23152(c). See Health & S C §11550 (being under influence of narcotic).
• Illegally or negligently causing bodily injury to others while DUI. Veh C §23153(a)-(b). This section is a “wobbler,” i.e., chargeable, at the prosecuting agency’s discretion, as either a misdemeanor or a felony.
• Child endangerment if a child was in the vehicle. See Pen C §273a.
• Driving with.01 or greater BAC if on probation for a DUI-related offense; the arrest will trigger an administrative hearing and possible suspension of license. Veh C §23154.

When a DUI results in a homicide, other statutes may come into play, with obviously much more serious penalties, including:

• Pen C §192(c)(1)-(3) (vehicular manslaughter), a wobbler, when death resulted from gross or ordinary negligence;
• Pen C §191.5(a) (vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence), a felony, when death resulted from criminal negligence; or
• Pen C §§187-189 (second degree murder), a felony with an indeterminate life sentence, when the defendant acted with implied malice. (note that second degree murder is normally not charged in DUI cases because it is difficult to establish implied malice; however, when the defendant has prior DUI convictions, they can be used to show that the defendant knew the dangers of drunk driving. See People v Marlin (2004) 124 CA4th 559, 21 CR3d 470).

Don’t think that kids can get away with a DUI. In fact, juveniles who drive while under the influence are subject to prosecution, as are adults who lend their cars to such juveniles. See Veh C §23140; Pen C §193.8. The minimum required BAC for a person under age 21 to be DUI is even lower — at only 0.05. Veh C §23140.

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Our Newport Beach DUI Lawyers have been enjoying St. Patrick’s Day, but we need to warn you of a few checkpoints and saturation patrols this evening and this weekend.

First, in Irvine, The Irvine Police Department will deploy a DUI/Drivers License Checkpoint on Thursday, March 17, 2010 at Jamboree Road and Alton Parkway, in the City of Irvine as part of their ongoing campaign to spend state funds and utilize MADD volunteers to have DUI checkpoints in the city.  Alcohol-impaired fatalities have declined substantially in recent years – down 26 percent since 2006 when the Office of Traffic Safety (OTS) and law enforcement began placing increased emphasis on funding toward sobriety checkpoints.  Driving under the influence related deaths declined by 7.6 percent in California between 2008 and 2009 alone.  However, it’s not due to checkpoints, which are money makers for the police departments.  The unfunded DUI saturation patrols are the current technology that has the highest rates of apprehending persons drunk driving.  The checkpoint will be clearly marked and vehicles will be selected to be checked on a pre-set basis to ensure objectivity.  Motorists will be greeted and given an informational brochure on impaired driving, courtesy of the political action group MADD.  Driver’s licenses will be checked, and trained officers will direct impaired drivers to a secondary check area for further evaluation.  Most motorists will experience little delay, if any at all.

In Long Beach, The Long Beach Police Department will be conducting a citywide DUI Saturation Patrol on Saturday, March 19, 2011, from 6:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m., and throughout Orange County tonight, the coordinated efforts of “Avoid the 38″, will have saturation patrols looking for people driving drunk.

If you have questions for a DUI specialist, call our Orange County DUI Lawyers at (877) 568-2977, and slainte!

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Our Orange County DUI Lawyers have learned that the Costa Mesa Police Department Traffic Safety Bureau will be conducting a DUI/Drivers License checkpoint on Saturday, March 12, 2011, on Adams Avenue at Mesa Verde Drive West between the hours of 7:00 p.m. and 1:00 a.m.  DUI checkpoints are a proven enforcement tool effective in reducing the number of persons killed and injured in alcohol involved crashes, as well as being a valuable means for heightening awareness of the dangers of impaired driving.

Officers will be checking drivers through the checkpoint for signs of alcohol and or drug impairments.  Officers will check for proper licensing and will strive to impact motorists only momentarily. If officers suspect that a driver has been drinking or is impaired, they will conduct a field sobriety test.  If you fail, expect jail, vehicle storage fees, license suspension, insurance rate increases, along with fines, fees, DUI classes, other expenses that can exceed $10,000.

Earlier this week, officers conducted a DUI Court Sting Operation at Harbor Justice Center in Newport Beach.  On Monday, March 7, 2011, officers arrested 3 people for disobeying judges’ orders not to drive as they arrived or left the court.  Funding for this operation is provided by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

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Our Newport Beach DUI Lawyers have learned that the Orange County Sheriff’s Department will be conducting a DUI/Drivers License Checkpoint in the City of Lake Forest on Friday, February 11, 2011, from 6:30 p.m. until 2:30 a.m.

DUI checkpoints are not a very effective  enforcement tool in reducing the number of persons killed and injured in alcohol involved crashes, but provide substantial funding from federal and state funds, and contributions from MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving).  UC Berkeley found that impound fees earned by police agencies from 30 day or longer impounds can provide substantial income to law enforcement.

Officers will be checking drivers through the checkpoint for signs of alcohol and or drug impairment and may conduct a field sobriety test.  For those that fail, expect that jail, vehicle storage fees, license suspension, insurance rate increases, along with fines, fees, DUI classes, other expenses that can exceed $10,000.

In 2010, all 8 of the officers on the DUI enforcement team made at least 100 DUI arrests that year.  If you have questions for our Orange County DUI Lawyers, contact us at the firm, toll free, at (877) 568-2977

Law enforcement officials earlier this year declared 2010 to be the “Year of the DUI Checkpoint.”

College students are of the many participants in growing DUI statistics in California.

Cal State Fullerton student Brandon Salgado, business major, is just one of many students to experience receiving a DUI.

On the night of his DUI, Brandon had met with one of his friends for dinner. He drank five margaritas and one shot of tequila before he left the restaurant.

“I realized that I was buzzed, but I had never really taken a breathalyzer and didn’t really understand what .08 felt like,” Salgado said.

He was pulled over by police when he was driving through Irvine on his way home to Ladera Ranch. When the police officer asked if Salgado had been drinking he said no. The officer pulled out a light and ran it back and forth across his eyes. Salgado was asked to get out of the car.

“He explained that my eyes ‘fluttered’ and that was a sign of being under the influence. When he brought out the breathalyzer, I blew into it, and soon after he put the cuffs on my hand,” Salgado said. “He was frustrated with me because I had not been honest, but was being a little more sympathetic once he had me in cuffs.”

Salgado was taken to Santa Ana jail, where he was given a blood test. But the amount of alcohol in his blood stream was too high, he was going to receive a DUI.

“Then I was placed in a holding cell with the rest of the people that had been admitted,” Salgado said. “The rest of the night was spent moving me into different cells, usually with people who also had been brought in for DUI.”

Consequences for DUI offenders persists even after jail time.

“I had to attend (Alcoholics Anonymous) classes once a week for about a month and a half and the classes lasted about seven hours,” Salgado said. “In the end, it ended up costing thousands, between actual DUI fines, classes and towing fees.”

The $10,000 ride home is usually a lesson learned for many people who have received a DUI.

“It’s a very sobering experience. You can’t drive for six months and it’s very job limiting because you can’t get a job outside of the neighborhood. It’s depressing,” said Damon Laguna, 32.

Tom Lavelle, 20, said he knows 30 people that will not drink and drive when they hear about his DUI experience.

“I feel like the whole thing was a learning experience,” Salgado said. “I have driven at times that I know I was more intoxicated than this unfortunate night. Also, I believe that after this experience, I have been more responsible about letting my friends drive. It was an expensive learning experience.”

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.

Welcome to the blog that has information on DUI Checkpoints and arrests  in Orange County, based upon information provided by Top Orange County DUI attorneys.

If you’ve been arrested for DUI, you’re probably embarrassed or ashamed, maybe a little mad, but most of all, you want to know what to do, what can be done, what you are facing, and if you even have a chance of fighting a DUI case. This website, run by the top guns in Orange County DUI, is to help you make sense out of all of this.  That’s what we are here for.

What defenses are there in a DUI case?

Your friends, even other attorneys, are usually not aware of all the defenses in a DUI case.  The following are 12 ways that you can fight a DUI case:

• Forcing the DA to prove you were driving. Intoxication is not enough: the prosecution must also prove that you were driving. This may be difficult if, as in the case of some accidents, the police arrive after the scene, and there is no witnessing actual driving..
• Forcing the DA to prove Probable Cause. Evidence can be, and will be suppressed, if the officer did not have legal cause to (a) stop, (b) detain and (c) arrest. DUI checkpoints and sobriety roadblocks in particular present many defenses to a DUI, but often the police will stop someone for a non-driving violation, and then use that as a pretext to “fill in the blanks” for probable cause.  Case law could not be more clear in many cases — this is not allowed and not proper.
• Failure to give Miranda warnings. Incriminating statements may be suppressed if warnings were not given at the appropriate time.
• Implied consent warning defenses. If the officer did not advise you of the consequences of refusing to take a chemical test, or gave it incorrectly, this may invalidate a DMV license suspension based upon a refusal to provide a breath/blood sample.
• Forcing the DA to prove that you were “Under the influence”. The officer’s observations and opinions as to intoxication can be questioned — the circumstances under which the field sobriety tests were given, for example, or the subjective (and predisposed) nature of what the officer considers as “failing”. Witnesses, including bartenders or waitresses, can also testify that you appeared to be sober.
• Breath alcohol testing defenses. There exists a wide range of potential problems with breath testing. Most breath machines will register many chemical compounds found on the human breath as alcohol. Temperature and even the pattern of blowing can wildly cause the breath reading to fluctuate from normal. And breath machines assume a 2100-to-1 ratio in converting alcohol in the breath into alcohol in the blood; in fact, this ratio varies widely from person to person (and within a person from one moment to another). Radio frequency interference can result in inaccurate readings. These and other defects in analysis can be brought out by obtaining the maintenance and calibration records of the machine, or in cross-examination of the state’s expert witness and/or the defense can hire its own forensic chemist.
• Blood alcohol testing defenses.  There exists a wide range of problems with blood testing, also, including the requirement in California that alcohol swabs not be used, that the person drawing blood be a licensed phlebotomist (not just a police officer), that the blood vial have a certain percentage of preservatives and anti-coagulants, that the blood be available for re-testing, that the blood not be exposed to bacteria (in the air or otherwise), that the blood testing machine be maintained and calibrated, that the blood be homogenized, that the vial follow a chain of custody, and that the blood be taken within three hours of driving.
• Medical issues:  Being a diabetic, on Atkins related diets, a person with acid reflux, with eye, knee, neurological or other physical defects, or on medication, can often create a false positive conclusion that someone was under the influence.
• Testing during the absorptive phase. The blood, breath or urine test will be unreliable if done while you are still actively absorbing alcohol (it takes 30 minutes to three hours to complete absorption; this can be delayed if food is present in the stomach). Thus, drinking “one for the road” can cause wildly inaccurate test results.
• Retrograde extrapolation. This refers to the requirement that the BAC be “related back” in time from the test to the driving.  A number of complex physiological assumptions are made with retrograde extrapolation, and in general, it involves bad science.
• Regulation of blood-alcohol testing. The prosecution must prove that the blood, breath or urine test complied with state requirements as to calibration, maintenance, etc., and often, it is discovered that a machine had mechanical problems, or tests “off”, making the test excludable and sometimes dismissing the entire case.
• License suspension hearings. A number of issues can be raised in the context of an administrative hearing before the state’s department of motor vehicles, including mistakes by the officer.

The thing is, most of your friends don’t know about the scientific issues involved.  They usually just urge you to plead guilty.  Even most attorneys are unaware of the complex issues and defenses involved in a DUI case.

A qualified DUI attorney, however, can review the case for defects, suppress evidence, compel discovery of such things as calibration and maintenance records for the breath machine, have blood samples independently analyzed, negotiate for a lesser charge or reduced sentence, obtain expert witnesses for trial, contest the administrative license suspension, and handle a DUI trial with the greatest odds of success.

A top DUI attorney can also help you by handling the Department of Motor Vehicles hearing, which you must request within 10 days of your arrest, saving your license, and can minimize the impact on you from a DUI.  In almost all cases, we can appear for you in court, without you ever having to take time off and experience the embarrassment of the court process.  We can ask the court to minimize the fees and other punishment in your case, even if your case isn’t dismissed or reduced.

A DUI can stay on your driving record for life, and also leaves a criminal record (it’s a misdemeanor or a felony).  It can expose you to jail time, hefty fines with the court, expensive and inconvenient alcohol schools, and a huge insurance increase that lasts for years.

It’s time for a hired gun to protect and defend you.  Call the top DUI lawyer in Orange County at (877) 568-2977 today, or fill out the form at the top of this page for immediate service, to ask any questions that aren’t covered here, or to get started defending your DUI case right away.