Search results for category: Nevada DUI

Police Checkpoint Leads to Arrests for DUI in Las Vegas

Weekend effort targets drunk driving in Southern Nevada along Vegas Strip.

Law enforcement agencies in Southern Nevada combined for a crackdown on drunk driving in Las Vegas. The Nevada State Patrol and the Las Vegas Police Department set up an eight-hour sobriety checkpoint just west of the Las Vegas Strip. More than 4,700 vehicles were checked, and 11 motorists were charged with driving under the influence in Nevada.

The checkpoint was conducted between 7:00 pm Saturday and 3:00 am Sunday near the intersection of Sahara Avenue and Valley View Boulevard. The effort was funded in part by a grant from the Nevada Department of Public Safety and was coordinated through the National Highway Safety Administration.

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Reno Police Given Devices to Test for Nevada DUI

14 portable breath testing devices will be used to combat drunk driving in Reno area.

The Northern Nevada DUI Task Force has donated 14 breath testing devices to the Reno Police Department for use in checking suspected drunk drivers. The handheld devices will provide a preliminary breath test result to determine if further investigation for driving under the influence in Nevada is warranted.

The units costs about $4000 each and they will allow officers to quickly test blood alcohol content of those suspected of drunk driving. Previously, investigators had to wait for a specially equipped patrol car with breath testing equipment to arrive on a NV DUI scene.

According to statistics from the Reno police department, the number of Nevada DUI arrests in the area was down 9.5% in 2008. Accidents related to being under the influence of alcohol or drugs dropped 11.6%. The reductions are attributed to increased awareness of the dangers of drinking and driving as well as DUI enforcement activities.

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Peculiar drunk driving articles for the week of June 5

Really odd drunk driving news – 'Hitting Things'

Three items and one Nevada DUI – Anthony Lacerra refused to pull his motorhome over after striking two other vehicles. At one point he indicated that he was going to pull into a parking lot but continued on and struck a power pole. After he was eventually stopped, Lacerra claimed he was not driving, because his license had been suspended. Multiple witnesses confirmed he had been driving however and he was arrested for third-offense driving under the influence in NV. He was also charged with failure to maintain travel lane, hit and run, driving on a revoked drivers license, driving with expired registration and driving without insurance.

Six items and one Missouri DWI – In the space of one block, a drunk driver in Springfield, Missouri hit two vehicles, two trailers, a house and finally a pole. The suspect tried to run but police quickly found him and charged him with driving while intoxicated in MO.

Seven items and one New York DWI – Robert Prentice of Newfane hit a guard rail, a sailboat display, another vehicle and two trees. He then swerved onto a lawn and struck a house. Not deterred, Prentice drove off on three wheels and hit a sign before reaching his house. Responding police arrested Prentice for drunk driving in NY while he was trying to put his key in his front door.

Ten items and one New Jersey DWI – Police responding to an accident scene found that a motorist had struck four parked cars, three parking signs, a picket fence and finally two more parked cars. Witnesses were able to point to Timothy Kelly and his gold Ford Taurus as the single source of the damage. Kelly was charged with driving while intoxicated in New Jersey and failure to have valid insurance.

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Peculiar drunk driving articles for the week of May 22

Really odd drunk driving news – 'Extra Stuff'

Connecticut DUI and a light pole on top of car – Edward Crouse, 49, struck a utility pole and, when asked by a witness if he was ok, waved and said he was fine and then drove off with the pole on top of his car. The pole fell off shortly after, though responding Farmington police were able to locate Crouse because his rear bumper was hanging off the vehicle and making a loud dragging noise. The rear window was broken out too. Crouse's BAC was twice the legal limit and he failed a field sobriety test. He was charged with drunk driving in Connecticut and evading responsibility.

Nevada DUI and a fuel hose sticking out of gas tank – An unidentified 40-year old Reno woman was stopped by the Nevada Highway Patrol after an ambulance crew spotted her driving down the road with six feet of fuel hose and the nozzle sticking out of her gas tank. The woman failed a field sobriety test and was arrested for driving under the influence in Nevada. Investigators were still trying to find the service station missing a hose and nozzle.

New Hampshire DWI and a dragged fire hydrant – Jeremy Aron, 33, was found guilty of driving under the influence in NH after an unusual incident. Aron struck a fire hydrant and drove off, dragging it under his vehicle. An off-duty Portsmouth police officer witnessed Aron drive by with damage to the vehicle, a deployed air bag and sparks coming from the undercarriage. After Aron pulled into a parking lot, the officer requested uniformed officer back-up. In addition to a NH DUI conviction being placed on his record, Aron was fined and his license was suspended for 90 days.

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Peculiar drunk driving articles for the week of January 9

Really odd drunk driving news.

Nevada DUI for DUI tester – Kathleen Cherry, 53, is employed as a phlebotomist trained to draw blood for testing blood-alcohol content of those suspected drunk driving in Nevada. Cherry was charged with NV DUI herself after reportedly driving to work drunk. Though she claimed to have had only one margarita, she failed several field sobriety tests and had a BAC above the .08% legal limit for intoxication.

New Jersey DWI suspect leaves door at crash scene – Police investigating a hit-and-run accident scene found a car door that helped them track down an alleged drunk driver. Deirdre Ruth, 20, hit a utility pole and then fled the scene. Police found the door of her 1996 Chevrolet Cavalier at the scene, along with several personal papers with her name and address. Then came a report of a 1996 Chevy Cavalier with a missing door crashing into a stone wall two miles away. Ruth now faces charges of driving while intoxicated in New Jersey, underage drunk driving and numerous moving traffic violations.

Driver switches seats to avoid Utah DUI arrest – An unidentified West Valley City woman was reportedly driving recklessly through a Costco parking lot when she hit a curb and blew out a tire. Before police responded to the scene, the woman switched places with her 15-year old daughter. Witnesses were able to place her behind the wheel at the time of the accident however, and a breath test revealed a blood-alcohol content of .246% or more than three times the legal limit.

Pennsylvania DUI for man doing donuts on airport runway – Police responded to a 24-year old Ohio man doing donuts on the snow and ice covered runway of the Beaver County Airport, 40 miles northwest of Pittsburgh. After initially ignoring orders to stop spinning, the man finally explained to police that he had permission from the Federal Aviation Administration to test brakes on the runway. He was charged with suspicion of drunk driving in Pennsylvania, trespassing and other offenses.

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Number of Nevada DUI Fatalities Down in Clark County

Nevada sees one of largest reductions of traffic related deaths in the nation.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has released statistics showing that highway deaths dropped 3.9% across the country in 2007. The state of Nevada realized a 13% drop, from 431 to 371, making it sixth best in the nation for reducing overall traffic fatalities. More than half of the drop in total numbers came from Clark County.

The number of fatal accidents involving alcohol also dropped in Nevada; by 8%. Approximately one-third of all highway deaths in Clark County were attributable to drunk driving in the Las Vegas area.

Through the Labor Day weekend, state law enforcement agencies will be conducting a campaign titled ‘Over the Limit, Under Arrest’ targeting Nevada DUI offenses. In addition to law enforcement, public awareness campaigns have helped reduce the incidents of driving under the influence in Nevada. One such effort called ‘Every 15 Minutes’ has been successful in dramatically reducing high school student highway deaths involving drinking and driving in Clark County.

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Heidi Fleiss DUI in Nevada

Former Hollywood Madam arrested for Nevada DUI and drug possession.

Heidi Fleiss was arrested on charges of driving under the influence in Nevada, possession of drugs without a subscription and driving without a license. The 42-year old former Hollywood Madam was booked at Nye County jail, near her home in Pahrump and released after posting $1,376 bail.

Fleiss had made a trip to a plumbing supply store in Pahrump, 60 miles west of Las Vegas, on Thursday morning and was parked in the store lot when a sheriff’s deputy knocked on her window. Prescription pain pills fell out of her purse as she searched for her driver’s license. Police were on the scene after being alerted around 9:30 am to a possible drunk driver in a vehicle matching Fleiss’ in the center of town.

The passenger in her SUV, 53-year old John Owen, was also arrested and charged with possession of marijuana and being under the influence of a controlled substance. He reportedly is Fleiss’ plumber, hired to remodel her bathroom.

Fleiss denies being impaired and she passed field sobriety tests. She admitted to having taken a Vicodin about an hour before the arrest, saying she was sore from the remodeling work. She also made no apologies for not having the prescription for the powerful painkillers readily available, saying “If I want a Vicodin, I'm having a Vicodin.”

Fleiss earned the title of Hollywood Madam after running a high-priced call-girl operation for celebrity clients in Hollywood in the early 1990s. After being busted and sent to prison, she became a celebrity in her own right. Fleiss has said she wants to operate a brothel called Heidi's Stud Farm in Crystal, Nevada. To do so she will have to make an application to the state liquor board. She has expressed no concern for how the Nevada DUI case may impact that request.

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Tags: Heidi Fleiss

Reno Man With 7 Priors Dodges 8th!

Police Arrest Man with Seven Priors

March 27, 1998

RENO, Nev. (AP) - A Reno man police say has seven drunken driving arrests has dodged No. 8, but still faces a raft of other charges.

Joseph Donald Clichi, 48, was being watched by officers under funding provided by the repeat DUI offender grant.

He left his house for work Friday morning, stopping on the way to pick up a six-pack. By the time police could pull him over, officers say he was pretty well finished with his first beer of the day.

A preliminary breath test put his blood alcohol at 0.05 percent, half the 0.1 percent at which a person is presumed to be under the influence in Nevada.

But he faces charges of driving on a revoked license, possession of an open container, possession of marijuana and possession of paraphernalia. He was being held under $2,570 bail.

Police say he was arrested for DUI twice in the 1970s, three times in the '80s and twice in the 1990s.

Tags: DUI News |  Nevada DUI

Nevada City's Ban

Gold Country Town Bans Boozing in Street

NEVADA CITY (AP) -- As he strolled this historic gold-mining town in a steady downpour, Ike Frazee, a 25-year-old pastry chef with a black beret and a long goatee, bemoaned the ebbing of a hallowed tradition.

"Drinking on the street? Hell, yes! This is the only place I could do it,'' Frazee said. "It added a lot of character to the town.''

Ending a mining-town convention that endured for generations, Nevada City officials recently voted to ban public drinking on the city's downtown streets and sidewalks.

On New Year's Eve, revelers had one of their last chances to roam through the Sierra Nevada foothills town toting open containers of alcoholic beverages before the new law goes into effect Monday.

In reality, the Nevada City Council action -- giving police authority to issue citations and roust people for drinking -- brings the town into conformance with other cities that ban drinking on downtown streets, sidewalks, parking lots and alleys.

But in Nevada City, whose council over the years rejected several attempts to ban drinking in public, this was no casual action.

While some merchants and council members complained that a handful of people on sidewalks nursing bottles of beer and wine were a nuisance to the tourist town, others bemoaned the loss of a drinker's right.

"There is 140 years of tradition in town of drinking on the streets and that should not be thrown away for people who have socially unacceptable behavior,'' protested Tom Coleman, owner of the town's 144-year-old National Hotel.

After the council voted 4-1 to enact the drinking ban, Coleman said the matter should have been put to a citywide vote.

"Basically, the majority is suffering because of a minority,'' Coleman said, "and I don't want to see the erosion of another right.''

But council member Sharon Tobiassen, who pushed for the vote after city workers signed petitions complaining about inebriated people hanging out downtown, said the step was needed to halt a budding "skid row atmosphere."

She said nostalgia for Nevada City's mining days is a poor excuse for allowing open-air drinking downtown.

"When you see people openly drinking and defying all authority, I say, `Let's move into the 21st century,' '' Tobiassen said. "Some years ago, we banned lynching and dueling on the streets, another carryover from the Old West. We no longer need to live in that mode.''

The new law won't affect Nevada City's restaurants and bars, which will continue to serve alcohol. Under state beverage control laws, patrons have never been allowed to take drinks outside such establishments.

But the downtown drinking crackdown is bitter ale for residents such as Dee "Little Zappa'' Myers, 28, who said he's enjoyed his right to trudge through town swigging from a bottle of beer.

"Perhaps there's pressure from community leaders to gentrify the town, "Myers said. "Crusty old folks have been drinking here for years. What do they want us to do now? Drink `near beer' in back rooms?''

Under the new law, permits can be granted to allow open-air drinking during special events, such as the town's Victorian Christmas street festivals or its popular Fourth of July Constitution Day. But the law may be a death knell for the town's era as a drinkers' paradise.

As Nevada City was transformed over the years into a charming mecca of upscale boutiques, eateries and bed-and-breakfast inns, many trendy new businesses replaced old gin joints and hard-boozin' taverns.

"This used to be a working man's town,'' Coleman said. "The loggers, the truck drivers, the guys in Levis and suspenders don't come downtown anymore. If a guy with muddy boots walked into one of these yuppie places today, he'd feel very uncomfortable.''

Nevada City Mayor Harry Stewart said police have received increased complaints in recent months about individuals drinking and loitering downtown. He said he feared adults were providing booze to youths.

And as long as drinking in public was legal, Stewart said, police couldn't intervene until someone became intoxicated or disruptive.

"Nevada City is very strong on tradition, and one of the hardest things is change,'' Stewart said. "But I think people, down deep in their hearts, knew that the time had come.''

Published Wednesday, January 1, 1997, in the San Jose Mercury News

Tags: DUI News |  Nevada DUI

Las Vegas and DUI

Vegas Still Known for DUI/DWI Problems.

Las Vegas, NV-Several recent alcohol-related deaths and DUI arrests in the Las Vegas Valley have brought attention to reforming Nevada DUI laws.

In Sin City, last call is never announced, meaning that some drinkers never get a late-night halt to their vice before they hit the road.

An organization called Stop DUI believes that because of Nevada's easygoing attitude toward drinking, the state should have the strictest DUI laws in the United States. Instead Nevada has a blood alcohol content (BAC) limit of 0.10, lower than many states' limit of 0.08.

Clark County District Attorney Stewart Bell hopes that these serious accidents will attract more attention to the DUI problem in Nevada, and result in positive reform.

One driver killed six teens on a roadside work crew after she passed out at the wheel. The driver, 21-year-old Jessica Williams, survived and is held on $5 million bail.

Juanita Kim McDonald, 25, crashed into a group of tourists on a sidewalk in front of the Aladdin Hotel. She injured six of them, and one died weeks later due to serious injuries.

Another intoxicated driver, Michael Pickett, 24, killed four innocent bystanders, including a pregnant woman. They were parked at a stoplight when Pickett slammed his truck into their vehicle. He had a BAC of 0.22, more than double that of the legal limit of 0.10.

Several survivors of other drunk-driving accidents are undergoing long-term rehabilitation, their lives put on hold due to the carelessness of drunk drivers.

Despite the long list of accidents and fatalities of late, Bell believes that the numbers look positive. According to the Nevada Highway Patrol and county records, the 11,913 DUI arrests of 1999 were down from 12,196 in 1998. The number seems more significant when considering the state's high population growth.

The Office of Traffic Safety at the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles (NV DMV) and Public Safety record traffic fatalities. They found that 35.4% of Clark County's vehicle fatalities were from drunk driving in 1999. The county had 69 drunk driving deaths. In 1993 the amount of deaths were less, however the percentage accountable to drunk driving was roughly the same at 38.7%.

Sandy Heverly, head of Stop DUI, would like the Nevada's legal BAC limit to be lowered from 0.10 to 0.08, a level that is common in several states. She would also like a DUI-caused death to be considered as second-degree murder, which requires 25 years to life in prison.

June 23, 2000

Also See:

• Nevada's Drug Impairment Law Hailed, Criticized

Related Links:

• Las Vegas DUI Attorneys and Lawyers
• Nevada DUI Laws

Tags: DUI News |  Nevada DUI

Nevada's New Drug Driving Law (Marijuana Intoxication)

Nevada's Drug Impairment Law Hailed, Criticized.

8/30/2003 09:45 pm
By Martha Bellisle
RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL

Too many drivers high on drugs are causing fatal crashes while avoiding prosecution, say federal officials who are calling for new laws nationwide that would send a driver to prison without proving drugs caused the accident.

The new legislation, to be modeled after statutes recently passed in Nevada and eight other states, would make it illegal for drivers to have drugs, including marijuana, in their systems.

Under these laws, prosecutors don't have to prove that the drugs impacted the driver's ability to stay on the road. They simply must show the drugs were in the driver's body.

A positive test could mean a 20-year sentence for each count.

Two Reno drivers and one woman from Las Vegas who face decades in prison after being involved in fatal accidents and testing positive for marijuana are challenging the law in court. Their success or failure could affect legislation across the country.

"The intent (of the law) was to make sure that if someone was driving under the influence of a controlled substance, they would be held responsible for loss of life," said U.S. Rep. Jon Porter, R-Nev., who sponsored Nevada's prohibited substance drug bill in 1999 while a state senator.

But critics of Nevada's law, including toxicologists, lawyers, civil libertarians and some lawmakers, say the statue is unfair and unconstitutional because it does not require proof that the driver was actually impaired by the drugs.

And, they say, the cut-off levels for the drugs listed in the statute are so small that impairment would be unlikely in many circumstances.

This means that a person who uses marijuana at a party on Saturday night could test positive when in an accident on Monday, days after the drugs were taken, critics say. That's because unlike alcohol, some drugs can stay in a person's system for a long time.

"People are going to prison for smoking a joint a day or two or three ago," said John Watkins, a Las Vegas lawyer for one of three Nevadans currently charged under the law.

"The whole idea of driving under the influence is driving under the influence," he said. "But we're putting people in prison who are not impaired."

Last year, Watkins challenged the law in the Nevada Supreme Court. But the justices upheld the statute, saying: "the governmental interest in maintaining safe highways is sufficient for our prohibited substance statute to survive a constitutional attackâ"

Despite the high court's ruling, Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani, D-Las Vegas, is determined to overhaul the law.

She and two other lawmakers, Bernie Anderson, D-Sparks and Marcus Conklin, D-Las Vegas, introduced a bill during the last session that would increase the statute's allowable amounts of marijuana in an attempt to measure impairment, not just the presence of drug.

They plan to bring it back in 2005.

Tags: DUI News |  Marijuana Intoxication |  Nevada DUI