Broward Judges are Divided in Their Rulings About a DUI Breath-Test
Device

By EVAN S. BENN – Miami Herald – August 20,2005
[email protected]

Broward County’s judges have begun to rule on an issue that could
affect hundreds of drunken-driving cases.

So far, seven judges have ruled on the validity of DUI breath tests
that may have been incorrectly calibrated. On Friday, Judges Gary Cowart
and Michael Kaplan fell on opposite sides of the issue.

Cowart joined four other Broward judges who have decided to allow
evidence from the disputed Intoxilyzer 5000 machines, which are supposed
to be calibrated with distilled water.

But Kaplan and another judge have made the opposite decision,
upholding defense motions to throw out results from breath-test machines
that used tap water.

In 2004, defense attorneys discovered that the Broward Sheriff’s
Office and Davie Police Department had been using tap water for the
monthly calibrations. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement
established rules in 2001 that called for distilled water to be used in
the calibrations.

The police agencies have since fixed the problem, but hundreds of
people arrested for drunken driving have filed motions to have their
charges dismissed.

Judges Fred Berman, Leonard Feiner, Joel Lazarus, Jeffrey Levenson and
Cowart will allow the disputed DUI tests in their courts, according to a
spokesman for the Broward State Attorney’s office.

“We applaud the actions of the judges who understand that the
scientific evidence shows that the kind of water has absolutely no effect
on the testing,” the spokesman, Ron Ishoy, wrote in an e-mail to The
Herald.

Judges Robert Zack and Kaplan have ruled in favor of defense attorneys
in throwing out the tests, Ishoy said.

Six Broward county judges have yet to rule on the issue.

“We intend to appeal the decisions of the two judges who ruled the
other way,” Ishoy said.

But defense attorneys cheered the judges who ruled against the
disputed DUI breath tests

“In criminal law, the statutes are construed in favor of the
defendant. It’s the state’s burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable
doubt,” Hollywood defense attorney Jerome Rosenblum said. “I think what
Judge Zack did was the right decision — to give the defendant the
benefit of the doubt.”

BSO processed 4,589 DUI suspects in 2004, while Davie police reported
271 DUI arrests in the same period.

More than half the suspects charged by BSO last year did not submit to
breath testing; they either refused testing or were tested through blood
or urine.

“My real concern is for the defendants whose readings were right
around .08,” Rosenblum said, referring to the legal limit for
blood-alcohol content. “You don’t want to convict someone erroneously.
You want it to be based upon reliable evidence.”

Ruling Raises Questions on DUI Suspensions
Judge says common practice in hearing cases creates a conflict
of interest.
By CURT ANDERSON, The Associated Press
Published Monday, February 27, 2006

FORT LAUDERDALE – Marcie Wyrobeck graduated from the Philadelphia
College of Art and worked in sales and for an arts and crafts store. She
had no formal legal training.

Yet, for nearly a decade, she was a state hearing officer who decided
the appeals of people whose driver licenses were suspended in
drunken-driving cases.

When a difficult legal question came up in one of those hearings,
Wyrobeck said she and other Department of Highway Safety and Motor
Vehicles hearing officers — some with only high school educations —
routinely asked the agency’s lawyers for advice about how to rule.

“It was pretty common practice that if you had any kind of legal
question you would call the attorneys,” said Wyrobeck, who left the
agency and her $27,000 salary in 2003.

Now a judge in Broward County has ruled that allowing hearing officers
like Wyrobeck to consult on legal issues with the department’s own
lawyers violates the fundamental constitutional rights of defendants in
drunken-driving cases.

“How can the specter of actual conflict, much less the appearance of
conflict, not raise its ugly head?” said Broward County Circuit Judge J.
Leonard Fleet in his ruling late last year.

Wyrobeck, who now consults for DUI defense lawyers, said the conflict
is obvious: “It’s like being the judge and the prosecutor at the same
time.”

Although Fleet’s decision is not binding statewide, the department has
voluntarily ceased any communication between its 71 hearing officers and
its legal staff pending the outcome of an appeal.

Department spokesman Frank Penela said its position is that Fleet’s
order “is procedurally and substantively defective.”

The Broward County case could eventually have a broader impact across
Florida and the nation, where similar systems are used by about 40
states, said Ed Fiandach, a Rochester, N.Y., lawyer and dean of the
National College of DUI Defense.

“It’s an extremely common practice. You’ll find due process is being
stretched to the minimum when DUI is involved,” Fiandach said.

Florida’s system of DUI license suspension appeals was challenged by
Sam Fields, who frequently represents those accused in such cases. There
are about 7,000 DUIs each year in Broward County and some 65,000 around
the state.

Florida law allows immediate suspension of driver licenses when breath
tests show an alcohol level of 0.08 or more or when the suspect refuses a
breath, blood or urine test. The suspension must be appealed within 10
days, during which the driver is given a temporary permit. More than
22,000 appeal hearings were conducted in 2005.

A former department lawyer, Rhonda Goodman, testified in court that
hearing officers would often contact her “and beg me to give them a
ruling. They would say, `come on, can’t you help me out here?’ ” Goodman
said she was fired in November 2003 because she wouldn’t go along with a
system geared to sustain the suspension.

Florida officials say the hearing officers are given frequent training
on DUI law and recent decisions by appellate courts. Danny Watford, chief
of the Bureau of Administrative Reviews at the department, said about
21,000 appeals are heard each year and about 30 percent of license
suspensions are invalidated by hearing officers.

Watford said there are no rules stating that a hearing officers must
get approval from one of the agency’s lawyers to lift a suspension. “No,
that is their decision,” he said in court testimony.

Goodman, the former agency lawyer, said the decisions to lift a
suspension did have to get such approval and that it was commonly known
that agency higher-ups looked with disfavor on anyone who didn’t sustain
most of the suspensions.

Source: http://www.theledger.com/

Bumper Stickers Ordered for Drunk Drivers

Posted on Wed, Sep. 24, 2003

Associated Press

PENSACOLA, Fla. – Some motorists convicted of drunken driving may have
to wear it on the bumper.

A judge in Florida is ordering some of the convicted offenders to
place bumper stickers on their cars that ask “How’s my driving?” followed
by a toll-free telephone number.

The stickers ends with the statement “The judge wants to know!!!”

Escambia County Judge William White said he hopes the bumper stickers,
which include an identification number for each driver, will reduce
repeat offenses for driving under the influence of alcohol.

“We want to influence people to correct their behavior rather than
just use this as sort of a monitoring system,” White said.

White said he tried to use bumper stickers saying only “Convicted DUI”
in the past simply to shame violators. He hopes the call-in stickers will
be a stronger deterrent.

In late August he began ordering motorists convicted of drunken
driving to pay an annual fee of $50 to enroll in the monitoring system
offered by the I Saw You Safety and Scholarship Foundation as a condition
of probation.

The Pensacola-based foundation provides the same service to parents of
teenage drivers, borrowing the idea from trucking companies that use
similar stickers to monitor their drivers.

I See You plans to donate half of its enrollment fees to scholarships
for victims of drunken drivers.

The program has been approved for the 1st Judicial Circuit, which
covers four counties in the Florida Panhandle, and some other judges are
beginning to use it, foundation spokesman David Richbourg said Monday. He
said legislation also is being sought to make the program mandatory
across the state, but critics have questioned the tactic.

“I see this as providing very little deterrent,” Pensacola lawyer
Richard Alvoid said. “Punishment should be enough rather than also
shaming people.”

University of West Florida student David Blume agrees.

“It’s like a scarlet letter,” Blume said. “If you know you could go to
jail from drunk driving, I don’t see why a bumper sticker would be more
of a deterrent.”

White said embarrassment “comes with the turf when you’re committing
crimes.”

Doug Meyers, an insurance adjuster from nearby Pace, said the shame is
worth it if prevents traffic deaths.

“If people are embarrassed, they shouldn’t drink and drive,” Meyers
said.

———————————————————————-

Offenders Tagged with DUI Stickers

Others Can Call, Report Driving to Monitors

Published Monday, September 22, 2003

By Gina Pace

News Journal Correspondent

An Escambia County judge is using a dose of public shame to help keep
drunken drivers off the roads.

Judge William White routinely is requiring those convicted of driving
under the influence to attach a red and yellow bumper sticker that reads:
“How is my driving? Call Toll-Free 1-866-I- SAW-YOU The Judge wants to
know!!!”

He hopes it will reduce repeat offenses and ultimately reduce the
number of DUIs.

“I am open to new ideas that might assist in reducing the number of
DUIs and recidivism,” White said. “We want to influence people to correct
their behavior rather than just use this as a sort of monitoring
system.”

The service is operated by the I Saw You Safety and Scholarship
Foundation, a Pensacola-based organization. The foundation monitors calls
to the toll-free number from the public and notifies law enforcement if
necessary.

“Bumper stickers asking about driving have reduced accidents in
commercial trucking by 50 percent,” said David Richbourg, the
foundation’s director of marketing and media relations. `’We created a
program for teen drivers, and we have come up with other applications for
our monitoring service, such as impaired drivers.”

White tried using bumper stickers in the past but said they were
problematic because there was no monitoring system, and the old stickers
read “Convicted DUI.” The new bumper stickers could be used for other
driving, alcohol or drug offenses. However, since White started using I
SAW YOU stickers in late August, they have been issued only in DUI cases
as a condition of parole.

White is the only judge using the decals. Kim Skievaski, chief judge
of the First Judicial Circuit, approved the decals for use as a
sentencing tool.

Offenders must pay $50 per year that they are enrolled in the decal
program. Usual probation periods for DUIs last for six months to one
year. Decals must be placed on all household cars.

The safety foundation plans to donate half of enrollment fees to
scholarships for victims of drunken driving.

Jerry Fifer, a member of Mothers Against Drunk Driving and a victim of
a drunken driving accident, fully supports the initiative.

“I think it’s a great deterrent once people realize it is going to get
smacked on their cars,” he said. “I spoke at Pace High School and showed
the bumper sticker, and one student said, `Mom or Dad better not get one
because it would end up on my car.’ It will help if people in families
are pressuring each other not to drink and drive.”

But other think the stickers cast an unnecessary stigma on the person
driving.

“I see this as providing very little deterrent,” said Pensacola
attorney Richard Alvoid. “Punishment should be enough rather than also
shaming people.”

University of West Florida student David Blume agrees.

“It’s like a scarlet letter,” Blume said. “If you know you could go to
jail for drunk driving, I don’t see why a bumper sticker would be more of
a deterrent.”

White thinks that embarrassment “comes with the turf when you’re
committing crimes.”

“If it’s a wholly distasteful experience, they may make the decision
that they won’t do this again,” he said.

Doug Meyers, an independent insurance adjuster from Pace, thinks the
shame those convicted would face is worth it if the policy can prevent
fatalities.

“If people are embarrassed, they shouldn’t drink and drive,” he
said.

White said the sticker program is worth an experiment.

“This doesn’t cost a lot. It’s embarrassing, but if it results in a
few lives saved, it is pretty minimal,” White said. “Maybe one of these
days we’ll find something that will be a solution.”

Drunk-Driving Device Put Into Use

Law forcing drivers convicted of DUI to use car device that would not
allow them to start vehicle when legally drunk is now in full effect in
Florida.

BY BRENT KALLESTAD

Associated Press

Posted on Mon, Feb. 02, 2004

TALLAHASSEE – Penalties against Florida’s drunken drivers are now much
stiffer.

The use of ”ignition interlock devices,” a mechanism that hooks to a
dash-mounted breathalyzer machine and will not allow anyone with more
than a .05 blood alcohol level on their breath to start the vehicle,
became law Sunday.

Drivers convicted of a second or third DUI charge since July 1, 2002,
are subject to the rule, which was approved in December by the Florida
Cabinet and Gov. Jeb Bush.

Nearly 4,000 letters were sent last week from the Department of
Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles to drivers who may need the device
before reapplying for a license following a DUI suspension.

”It will have an impact on those drinkers who have already had one
opportunity to come clean and have decided to show blatant disregard for
the law, driving drunk again,” DHSMV executive director Fred Dickinson
said Sunday.

The device would be installed following a second drunken driving
conviction, although judges will have discretion to order its use by
first-time DUI offenders.

Monitoring units also have measures to prevent a sober person from
having the ability to start the vehicle for someone under the influence
of alcohol. Following the reinstatement of driving privileges, those
convicted of DUIs will be ordered to use the device for at least a
year.

The person convicted of the DUI offense would pay $70 for installation
and $67.50 a month for a monitoring and recalibration during the period
the instrument is attached to the vehicle. That work will be done by
private sector DUI schools under contract with the state.

Critics say the cost is excessive.

”That’s a lot of money for some people,” Melbourne DUI defense
attorney told Florida Today for its Sunday editions.

Dickinson said the department hopes the cost of the program both
serves as a deterrent and raises ”the awareness level of those who will
make a decision” to drive drunk.

Under the new law, it’s now a misdemeanor to refuse a breathalyzer
test.

Under state law, any driver stopped with a blood alcohol of .08 or
more is subject to arrest.

At least 42 other states have some form of the ignition interlock
program already in place, said Dickinson.

All states are required by a 2000 federal law to have the program in
place or risk losing up to 3 percent of their highway construction
funds.

Florida Breath Test Machine Codes Case

Slashdot.org

According to the Tampa Tribune, judges in the central Florida county
of Seminole are dismissing DUI charges when the defendant asks for
information on how the breath test works.

Apparently the manufacture of the device is unwilling to release the
code to the state, and all four judges in the county have been dismissing
DUI cases when the state cannot provide the requested information.

A Florida court this Friday will hear arguments in a case where the
accuracy of a breathalyzer is being scrutinized because the manufacturer
refuses to release the source code.

A state court ruling last year said that accused drunk drivers are
entitled to receive details about the inner workings of the “mystical
machine” that determined their guilt, and defense attorneys are now using
that ruling to open up the device’s source code. Is this part of a larger
trend?

Roads Grow More Deadly for Bicyclists

By LISE FISHER

Sun staff writer September 15. 2006 6:01AM

When a University of Florida graduate student died last month after a
car struck his bicycle, he became part of a sad and apparently growing
trend.

Bicycling fatalities have risen almost 25 percent nationwide since
2003, according to 2005 data from the National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration.

Florida figures mirror the national findings with a 23 percent
increase in bicycling fatalities from 2003 to 2005. Last year’s 124
bicycling deaths in the state were the fourth-highest over a 30-year
period, the NHTSA reported.

The national numbers prompted Andy Clarke, executive director of the
League of American Bicyclists in Washington, D.C., to send a letter to
the U.S. Department of Transportation, calling for more to be done to
ensure safer travel for cyclists on the country’s roadways.

“At some point we need to take responsibility for our actions as
drivers and not tolerate people simply for not paying attention when they
are in charge of a powerful machine,” said Clarke, who had heard about
the Aug. 27 crash in Alachua County that killed Welch McNair Bostick
III.

“There is responsibility that goes with driving just as there is with
cycling and crossing the streets. They are simply not paying attention
and the cyclist isn’t doing anything wrong . . . They are still getting
hit and still getting killed and there is no accountability for that,”
Clarke said.

The Florida Highway Patrol agrees, saying that it’s not only that more
people are on the state’s roads but that distracted driving is causing
more crashes, whether drivers are behind a wheel or riding a motorcycle
or bicycle.

“Small mistakes lead to big crashes,” said FHP spokesman Lt. Mike
Burroughs.

Distracted driving apparently led to Bostick’s death, information from
FHP’s preliminary investigation shows.

Bostick, 34, had been riding on the paved shoulder of Williston Road,
about three miles west of Gainesville, when he was struck from behind by
a car at about 7:25 p.m. He was wearing a helmet and had about a
half-hour of sunlight left.

Andrew C. Day of Micanopy, the car’s 18-year-old driver, had been
reaching to get something off the floorboard when the crash occurred,
Burroughs said.

Witnesses told troopers the car swerved abruptly into the
bicyclist.

A national study has shown that eight out of 10 of all crashes could
be the result of a motorist looking away from the road.

The study, called the 100-Car Naturalistic Driving Study, released
this year, was conducted by the NHTSA and the Virginia Tech
Transportation Institute.

The study tracked driver behavior for more than a year in 100 vehicles
that were set up with recording equipment.

With more technology, from cell phones to televisions inside vehicles,
officers believe drivers have become even more distracted in recent
years.

And the attitude among drivers is that it’s OK to do other things
while driving instead of focusing only on the road, troopers say.

Florida law does not specifically define distracted driving, making it
difficult for officers to cite motorists when distraction is the
suspected cause of a crash, Burroughs said.

Day, the motorist in the collision that killed Bostick, now faces a
traffic citation for failing to maintain a single lane that resulted in
serious injury or death, Burroughs said. Because there was injury or
death, the person must make a court appearance, Burroughs said.

The driver can be assessed up to a $1,000 fine and will have a
mandatory one-year license suspension.

Cracking down Some have called for tougher laws or requirements for
motorists involved in bicycling accidents with an injury or death.

FHP, for example, follows a policy to request a voluntary blood sample
from a motorist where a death occurred, even if there isn’t probable
cause to require the blood draw. Troopers didn’t ask for the voluntary
sample in the crash involving Bostick because it did not initially appear
his injuries would cause death.

Changing the law and giving officers the right to require a blood test
in all traffic crashes involving a death may result in more criminal
charges instead of only traffic citations against drivers in fatal
accidents, said Chief Assistant State Attorney Jeanne Singer. But, she
said, people may not support that kind of legislation.

“It’s a real balance because each of us who has a driver’s license are
routinely in the custody of a deadly weapon. The citizenry may not be
willing to make laws that would put each and every one of us who are
behind the wheel under the possibility of being imprisoned for what is
not willful and wanton (reckless driving),” she said.

But some legal changes around the country show there has been a change
in the way people are thinking about bicyclists and their place on
roads.

Earlier this year, Iowa increased its penalties for drivers who kill
or injure others, such as motorcyclists, bicyclists or pedestrians. The
punishments are similar to Florida law and add a fine and driver’s
license suspension when there is a serious injury or death. A similar law
also went into effect in West Virginia this year.

Starting Oct. 1, a new Florida law will require vehicles to pass
bicycles and other nonmotorized vehicles with at least a 3-foot
clearance.

Friends and co-workers of Bostick’s plan to meet, starting today, to
discuss bicycle safety issues. The meeting will be held starting at noon
in Room 122 of Rogers Hall at UF.

“I guess the general feeling is we claim that Gainesville is a
bicycle-friendly community. But there are many, many incidents where you
wear a helmet and are in the bike lane and you’re still struck. This is
not a bicycle-friendly community. We want to let everyone know that, and
we want to do something to make this a bike-friendly community,” said Jon
Lizaso, 53, a research associate with UF’s agronomy department who worked
with Bostick. Four people in the past two years who have worked with
Lizaso have been injured in bicycle crashes, he said.

Problem areas Some of the worst areas for bicyclists in the county are
U.S. 441 and County Road 225, said Bob Newman, president of the
Gainesville Cycling Club. Motorists sometimes drive at a high rate of
speed on U.S. 441 and are tired from long trips. The other road is
narrow, has no bike lane and is traveled by trucks.

Areas around the university where traffic is heavy and congested are
always a potential problem area for bicycle accidents, said Gainesville
Police Lt. Don Dennis, who oversees the department’s traffic unit.

Preventing these kind of accidents comes back to how motorists and
cyclists treat each other, Newman said.

“Safety is a two-way proposition,” Newman said. “Motorists must
realize people on bicycles are essentially helpless targets that in many
cases don’t even realize they are approaching. Cyclists must be aware of
the same thing and never venture out on the roads without an approved
helmet and a mirror. Whether riding in the road, on a shoulder or in a
bike lane the cyclist should ride defensively as far to the right as
practical, make frequent use of their mirror and obey all traffic
laws.”

Bostick’s wife, Carmen Valero Aracama, is working with others who knew
her husband to create a memorial for him. Her husband was also survived
by their 9-month-old son.

“We just hope there will be more drivers aware of the bicyclists so
this doesn’t happen anymore in the community,” she said.

Lise Fisher can be reached at 374-5092 or [email protected].

Source: http://www.cicle.org

Delaware government tracks private insurance activity and confiscates
license plates of those accused of being uninsured.

Delaware Insurance Commissioner Matt Denn held an event yesterday
touting the state’s use of agents who confiscate license plates belonging
to anyone the commission’s database says is uninsured. “I am committed to
reducing the number of uninsured vehicles on the road, in part by warning
the owners of those uninsured vehicles that we will take their license
plates,” Denn said in a prepared statement.

Last June, lawmakers enacted a provision granting insurance commission
agents the authority to mail a letter to the registered owner of any
vehicle the computer database believes is uninsured. Seven days later, if
the owner has not proved his innocence, the agents will attempt to locate
the vehicle and take its license plates. Each time, the state will
collect substantial fines for the retrieval of the plates.

The state determines whether a particular vehicle is “uninsured” by
monitoring the policy status of every resident. Insurance companies must
notify the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) whenever a policy lapses.
The DMV must also randomly audit ten percent of the state’s drivers.
Anyone being red-flagged by the computer is sent a warning letter. If the
owner is unable to respond within 30 days because he is on vacation or
the notice is lost in the mail, he is automatically declared “uninsured”
regardless of whether he carries insurance or not. The penalties for
being declared uninsured include the cancellation of the motorist’s
registration, for which the DMV is able to collect a restoration fee of
$150, plus an additional $5 dollars a day for every day after a 30-day
period has elapsed.

Source: http://www.thenewspaper.com/

House Backs ‘DUI’ Plates

By Michelle Dally Johnston

Denver Post Capitol Bureau

April 4 – People convicted of multiple drunken-driving offenses could
be forced to drive with license plates spelling out their transgressions
under a bill given preliminary approval by the state House of
Representatives on Friday.

The bill by Rep. Bob Hagedorn, D-Aurora, increases penalties for
drivers convicted of repeated alcohol-related driving violations.

Hagedorn’s measure would require those who have had multiple
drunken-driving convictions, or who have had their license revoked more
than once, to turn in their license plates or have them replaced with a
special set of plates that identifies the car as having been driven by a
drunken driver.

Hagedorn said a key aspect of the bill, HB 1334, is requiring a
$10,000 bond for those defined as repeat offenders.

Too often, he said, drunken-driving offenders continue to drive on
revoked or suspended licenses, thus suffering few consequences of their
actions.

Hagedorn’s measure is fueled in part by his own experiences. He had a
well-publicized drinking problem and started a new life of sobriety 18
months ago.

“For an alcoholic or addict to really come to grips (with their
disease), they have to hit bottom,” he said.

The experience of “spending a night in jail” could do much good in
convincing alcoholics that they need help, Hagedorn added.

The 45-year-old political science instructor said the key to his
legislation was letting the people around the individual with the problem
know that there is trouble that needs to be addressed.

“There would be notice to the owner of the vehicle that they could
become liable. . . . They can get someone to help and work with the
(alcohol-troubled) person.”

Hagedorn also said the special license plate would be a red flag to
other drivers and law enforcement that the driver of the vehicle may be
driving under the influence or on a revoked license.

Rep. Frana Mace, D-Denver, took exception to what she saw as the
stigmatizing tag.

“It’s pretty hard punishment to make a spouse drive around with a “I’m
a drunk’ license plate,” Mace said. “Co-owners of cars are not
responsible.”

But Mace was outvoted as the House passed the bill on a resounding
voice vote.

The issue will be revisited by the House next week.

DRUNKEN DRIVER GETS 137 YEARS FOR 9 CRASH VICTIMS

Wednesday, July 17, 1996

By: Associated Press

A drunken driver got nine prison terms for nine lives lost in a
flaming freeway accident on Father’s Day 1995. The total sentence for
Teodolo Bermudes was 137 years, eight months, without chance of parole.
”When I first learned the details of this case, I was heartsick over
it,” Superior Court Judge J. Thompson Hanks said when handing down the
sentence Monday. ”He killed a whole family. It’s beyond tragic.”

Bermudes was convicted last month on nine counts of second-degree
murder for causing a wreck on Highway 60 near the junction with
Interstate 10 outside Beaumont.

The family of Jose Rodriguez and Mercedes Diaz de Rodriguez, packed
into a 1968 Plymouth Valiant, was struck from behind by Bermudes’
fast-moving Ford pickup. Witnesses said the truck had been weaving. The
Valiant flipped and burst into flames.

Bermudes kept going but was arrested in nearby Banning. The parents
and a small daughter were pulled from the burning car, but the girl died
from burns a month later. Four of the Rodriguez children, three
grandchildren, their adult daughter and the father of two grandchildren
were killed.

Witnesses testified that Bermudes had been drinking all day and had
enough alcohol in his blood to equal 10 to 12 beers. Hanks said he owed
the Rodriguez family equal punishment for every life lost. The parents
weren’t in court Monday.

Bermudes got 15 years to life for each death, plus two years, eight
months for six related felony and misdemeanor drunken driving charges.
”With all due respect, I have asked for forgiveness five times,” said
Bermudes, 36, a landscaper from Cathedral City. ”Not so that charges be
removed or punishment lightened. In public, I am regretful for what I
have done.” ”He is a decent, conscientious, hard-working fellow,” said
Bermudes’ attorney, Deputy Public Defender Frank Scott. ”But he is an
alcoholic.”

Prosecutor Creg Datig told the judge Bermudes was a threat because he
couldn’t seem to control the urge to drive while intoxicated. Bermudes
had two previous drunken driving arrests.

SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS