DUI
FL DUI News
Toddlers Roam Street After DUI Mom Passes Out
Mother of two charged with DUI in Florida after being found passed out in minivan.
A 3-year old boy and a 4-year old girl were found wandering the streets of Cooper City, Florida around 5:00 pm on Wednesday, nearly two miles from their house. The two had got out of the family mini-van and walked off after their mother passed out in her driveway with the engine running.
Brenda Dulcos was reportedly on her way to pick up an older child from school when she passed out. When her mother failed to arrive, the daughter walked to an uncle's house. The uncle then contacted the Sheriff's department. In the mean time, the two toddlers were found, barefoot, by a good Samaritan while they were about to cross a busy road and also called authorities. They said they were trying to find their older sister.
When found by police around 6:00 pm, Dulcos refused to submit to a breath test to check blood alcohol content. While not actually driving the gold Ford Windstar, police arrested her for Florida DUI because she was in physical control of the vehicle. She was also charged with child neglect.
Brenda Dulcos wept while being charged with driving under the influence in FL. It is her first alcohol related offense. She was told she would not be allowed to drink when released, or drive with children in the vehicle. Broward County Florida judge John Hurley said the drunk driving incident was a danger to the children, and liken it to having a loaded gun with the kids around. He vowed to personally call the Florida Department of Children and Families to make them aware of Dulcos' actions.
Dulcos, 44, was being held in the North Broward jail on $4,500 bail. The children are in the custody of their father.
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University Dean Arrested for DUI in Florida with BAC Under Legal Limit
Two breath tests showed Ave Maria Dean of Students was not legally intoxicated.
The Dean of Students at Ave Maria University was charged with driving under the influence in Florida despite submitting to two breath tests that showed a blood alcohol content below the legal limit. Dan Dentino was stopped by the Collier County Sheriff's Department around 11:30 pm on September 3 for allegedly weaving in his lane. After reportedly failing several field sobriety tests, the officer initiated a breath test. Dentino registered .068% and .066% in two tests. The legal threshold for intoxication in Florida is .08%.
A sheriff's department spokesperson said that an officer can initiate an arrest for DUI in Florida even if the motorist has a BAC below .08%, when impairment is suspected. That said, she doubted the charges would stick, stating, "What the state does with it after this is up to them."
Ave Maria University officials are standing behind Dentino. In an email, the school president said “Please remember that a police charge is not a conviction; Dan is entitled to a presumption of innocence.” He went on to describe Dentino's FL DUI arrest as "an overzealous police intervention."
Dentino, 34, has been with the university for eight years. He serves as Vice President of Student Affairs and Adjunct Professor of Theology. He is a graduate of the Franciscan University and holds a Master's in religious studies and a Doctorate in systematic theology.
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Man Charged with Florida DUI after Passing Breath Test
72-year old had to walk home after being stopped at a DUI checkpoint in Cape Coral.
Vincent Tallo was driving home after an evening of dancing with his friend Mary Debenedetta when he was stopped at a sobriety checkpoint in Cape Coral. The 72-year old man told the officer that he had sipped one beer over two hours. The officer required him to perform several field sobriety tests and declared Tallo under arrest for suspicion of driving under the influence in Florida.
Tallo requested a breath test and he registered a .000% BAC. The elderly man was then taken to a portable toilet and asked to provide a urine sample. A preliminary result, which tests for 12 drug classifications, revealed something that the police did not like and they proceeded with the arrest for DUI in FL. The official result from the state lab will take some time. Debenedetta told the police that Tallo is a health-nut and doesn't even take Advil. The Cape Coral police say that they are convinced there was enough indication of impairment to initiate the arrest.
Tallo's vehicle was impounded, and he and Debenedetta, 62, were forced to walk two miles to her house after midnight. A police sergeant explained that the couple just didn't ask officers for a ride.
The couple is fighting the charges, and Debenedetta said "I want other people to not go through this ever."
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Female Wrestler Nabbed for DUI in Florida
Perez is under contract with WWE.
A female wrestler under contract with World Wrestling Entertainment was arrested for driving under the influence in Tampa Florida. Karlee Leilani Perez was stopped shortly after 1:00 am on June 14 and later booked on suspicion of FL DUI. She is part of the WWE’s development operation Florida Championship Wrestling.
Perez, 23, who performs under the name 'Liviana', is a Tampa model was signed with the WWE a few months ago. Her duties have included being a ring girl and managing Sweet Papi Sanchez. She also recently began wrestling.
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NBA Player Arrested for DUI in Florida
Reserve player for the Denver Nuggets arrested for drunk driving in Hillsborough County.
Renaldo Balkman, a reserve forward for the NBA Denver Nuggets, was arrested last weekend for driving under the influence in Hillsborough County, Florida. Balkman was stopped around 4:00 am on Saturday morning by the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office and after refusing to submit to a breath test he was booked on suspicion of FL DUI. He posted a $500 bond and was released.
Balkman, 25, was a first round pick for the New York Knicks but has not lived up to his billing. He was traded to Denver, where he averaged 5 points and 3.8 rebounds during his first season for the Nuggets. A team executive said he was aware of Balkman's arrest but declined comment "out of respect for the legal process."
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Sheriff's deputy cut corners during investigations of drunk driving in Florida
Prosecutors in Polk County have dropped charges against 54 defendants accused of driving under the influence in Florida. The reasons stem from a sheriff's deputy taking shortcuts in preparing DUI arrest reports and conducting tests to determine blood alcohol content.
Deputy Tex Thomas joined the Polk County Sheriff's Office last year and made 124 arrests for suspicion of DUI in FL. In a court deposition for a drunk driving case, Thomas admitted to clearing just the top portion of an arrest report and reusing words from a previous arrest. The use of such a template, rather than writing specific details and observations unique to an arrest, is a violation of procedure. In one case, he inadvertently left in the name of the previous suspect's last name. Thomas also admitted to not properly observing a 20 minute period of direct observation before conducting a breath test to ensure that the suspect did not belch, vomit or ingest something that could affect the accuracy of the test. He would include the drive time from the point of the traffic stop to the testing facility as part of the intended face-to-face window of observation.
Prosecutors felt the shortcuts jeopardized the DUI cases and they elected not to file official charges against 50 defendants and dropped four other charges. Those arrests were made between October 2008 and early July 2009.
Thomas, 27, has not been disciplined though there is an ongoing internal investigation. While he has been reassigned from targeted DUI enforcement to general patrol, he is still able to initiate traffic stops for suspected Florida DUI.
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Cops Caught Framing Woman for Crash During Florida DUI Arrest
Dash cam captures police officers making up story about accident they caused.
Last February, a police officer struck the rear-end of another vehicle with his squad car at a traffic light in Hollywood, Florida around midnight. When other officers converged on the accident scene, they suspected that the woman who was hit was driving under the influence in Florida, the veteran colleagues decided to frame her for the initial accident. The audio pick-up on the dashboard camera, however, recorded their actions.
The officer who caused the accident, Joel Francisco, collaborated with Sgt. Dewey Pressley in fabricating a story of how Alexandra Torrensvilas was driving with a large gray cat on her lap and that the cat jumped out the window, causing Torrensvilas to swerve and stop unexpectedly. Torrensvilas was subsequently charged with suspicion of drunk driving in Broward County Florida and for an improper lane change. While coordinating their stories, Pressley is heard saying, "We'll do a little Walt Disney to protect the cop because it wouldn't have mattered because she is drunk anyway." He was also heard saying that he didn't want to make things up but was willing to "bend it a little bit to protect a cop." The person photographing the scene was instructed to deliberately take images from certain angles to make it look as though Torrensvilas swerved in front of the officer. The officers acknowledged that they knew what they are doing is illegal, obviously unaware that they were being recorded.
As a result of the audio, four veteran police officers and a crime scene technician have been placed on administrative duty with pay until an internal affairs investigation is completed and the Broward States Attorney’s office can review the findings. The Broward County Chief Public Defender has asked state investigators and the FBI to become involved.
The Florida DUI case against Torrensvilas has been dropped. Other cases the officers have been involved with may also be jeopardized, as they are now on record falsifying testimony.
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County Judges Challenge Use of Intoxilyzer in Florida DUI Arrests
Judges say machine not approved for use in the state.
Two Manatee County judges have issued an order stating that the Intoxilyzer 8000 does not meet state law requirements. The equipment is used by the county sheriff's Office, as well as other law enforcement agencies across the state, when determining blood alcohol content of motorists suspected of driving under the influence in Florida. The order was issued after the state was unable to prove the micron band measurement used by the breath testing machine, thus establishing 'compelling evidence' that the machines are not the ones approved for use in the state.
State law requires equipment issued to law enforcement agencies be approved by the US Department of Transportation. Unauthorized changes in the equipment after the rigorous review process would void that approval. Florida DUI laws further stipulate that an officer can only request a breath test using approved equipment.
Florida DUI defense attorneys have long questioned both the authorization of the Intoxilyzer 8000 and its accuracy. The recent ruling gives them a stronger challenge in court.
Because of the court order, motorists stopped for suspicion of drunk driving in Manatee County Florida are not required to submit to a breath test. Testing can only be done on an approved machine. Previously, those refusing to submit to a breath test were subject to suspension of their driver’s licenses.
CMI of Kentucky, Inc, manufacturer of the Intoxilyzer 8000, has been in court battles across the country regarding the computer source code used in its equipment and changes to the software without state approval. Minnesota recently ruled that the company must make the source code available to DUI defense attorneys. In June, Sarasota judges found discrepancies in the specifications of the machines used by local law enforcement.
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Deputy Resigns for Inappropriate Touching During FL DUI Arrest
Incident occurred during traffic stop for suspicion of drunk driving in Broward County.
Broward County Sheriff’s Deputy Charles E. Grady resigned in April just two days after prosecutors filed two misdemeanor battery charges against him. Grady is accused of touching women in an ‘unwelcome and deliberate’ manner during traffic stops in September and December of 2008.
In the first incident, Grady stopped an exotic dancer shortly after she had left the strip club where she worked for suspicion of driving under the influence in Florida. The second involved a 20-year old Coral Springs woman who filed a complaint with the Fort Lauderdale police. Dozens of other Florida DUI arrests initiated by Grady have been compromised, leading to reduction or dismissal of those cases.
Grady, 39, was a twelve year veteran with the force when he was suspended from duty last December. Both of the charges filed against him are punishable by up to a year in jail.
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Patrols Target Florida DUI
Effort was part of a local initiative and state DUI enforcement campaign.
In April, Atlantic Beach Florida conducted enhanced patrols looking for suspected drunk drivers. A spokesperson for the police department said that too many people die from DUI in Florida and the patrols targeted an area where incidents of driving under the influence were known to occur.
The patrols were conducted as a combined effort of the Atlantic Beach Enhanced DUI Enforcement Initiative and the Florida DUI Sustained Enforcement Campaign. The goal was to apprehend all suspected impaired drivers and to send a message that those who plan on drinking need to use public transportation or taxis, or assign a designated driver.
Statewide statistics show that during 2006 16,319 people were injured and 1,099 were killed in automobile accidents involving alcohol.
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