NY Governor Declares New Drunk Driving Regulations

New York’s governor, Andrew Cuomo, has announced new drunk driving regulations. The new regulations basically state that if a motorist has had a minimum of three alcohol or drug related driving charges throughout a 25-year period and then happens to get just one more “serious driving offense,” the individual will “permanently lose their driver’s license.” In addition, the same regulations apply if an individual accumulates five alcohol or drug related charges throughout their lifetime.

Cuomo told the public, “We are saying ‘enough is enough’ to those who have chronically abused their driving privileges and threatened the safety of other drivers, passengers and pedestrians.” Moreover, he hopes that these new regulations will help to keep New York streets safer. According to studies, drunk drivers in New York annually kill more than 300 individuals and cause injuries to more than 6,000.

Cuomo’s office explained that a “serious driving offense” constitutes “a fatal crash, a driving-related penal law conviction, an accumulation of 20 or more points assessed for driving violations within the last 25 years, or having two or more driving convictions each worth five points or higher.” However, they made it clear that in any given case that motorists have three or four alcohol or drug related charges but have NOT received a “serious driving offense” in the past 25 years, harsh consequences will still be enforced. For example, they may be required to have an interlock installed on their automobile, have license reinstatement requests denied, or restrictions to drive to and from work or on medical visits. The DMV predicts that in cause of these new regulations, about 20,000 motorists will permanently lose their driver’s license by the end of this year.

If you have been arrested for drunk driving, contact a skilled and experienced New York DUI attorney for legal assistance.

On September 22, 2012, a man in Clay County, Florida was pulled over and arrested for DUI, which he initially blamed on his pet squirrel. When police saw Warren Michael, 23, swerving in and out of lanes and almost hitting 2 other vehicles they pulled him over on suspicion of driving drunk. Oddly, Warren told officers that it was his pet squirrel trying to eat him, which caused him to swerve and not alcohol intoxication. Police however, noticed other signs of intoxication such as slurred speech and blood shot eyes, so they asked Warren to complete several field sobriety tests, which he failed.

The police report stated that Warren was “very talkative and frequently using profanity“. During the sobriety tests, Warren could apparently not keep his balance and kept putting his foot down during a one leg stand test. Police then placed Warren under arrest for DUI but allowed his girlfriend to come and pick up the squirrel as well as his car. When she arrived, she allegedly told Warren that he was too drunk to be driving. Police then took Warren to the County Jail where he submitted a breathalyzer test showing his BAC level to be .145%, almost double the legal limit of .08%. Warren was cited for DUI as well as driving without a seat belt and issued a written warning for driving in an unsafe manner.

If you or someone you know has been arrested for driving drunk, contact a skilled Florida DUI attorney for legal assistance.

On October 3, 2010, Tyler G. McNeely was pulled over and arrested for DUI in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. When the arresting officer noticed that McNeely displayed symptoms of intoxication, he asked him to perform several field sobriety tests which McNeely failed. After placing McNeely under arrest, the officer and 17 year veteran of the highway patrol asked him to submit a breath test but McNeely refused. The officer, having just read an article describing a change in Missouri Law that meant warrants were no longer required for blood tests, drove McNeely to a nearby hospital and ordered a blood test to be done.

McNeely was charged with DUI but claimed that the blood test constituted an illegal search and seizure, violating his Fourth Amendment rights. The Missouri Supreme Court took McNeely’s side last January, claiming that there was no emergency situation in which the evidence was in danger of disappearing. Missouri State Prosecutors appealed that decision and now the 9 justices in the Federal Supreme Court have agreed to hear the case. Often, police implement ‘no refusal’ time periods where drunk drivers can have their blood tested despite refusal and are often used to crack down on drunk driving during holidays, when drunk driving is at its highest. Officers use these ‘no refusal’ periods to quickly test drivers blood because as time passes, a person’s BAC level can decrease and may not accurately represent a persons level of intoxication at the time of arrest.

If you or someone you know has been arrested for driving drunk, contact a skilled Missouri DUI attorney for legal assistance.

Charles Cowart, Drunk Horse Rider Gets DUI

Police in Bunnell, Florida were in for a different kind of chase than usual when reports of a drunk man riding his horse dangerously through town were called in. Charles Cowart, 29, lead police on a chase spanning more than 5 hours through downtown Bunnell. Apparently, police even had to stop traffic as well as a train when Cowart began riding his horse through the tracks on US-1. Police were unable to catch Cowart while he was on his horse but luckily his father caught up to him and managed to pull him off before he or the horse were seriously injured.

His father Chuck told reporters “That’s my son and he’s mentally depressed and the family is behind him and we’ve got him where we can help him“. After his father tackled him off the horse, Charles ran away again into some nearby swampy woods, where police did manage to find him with the help of a K-9 unit. While on his drunken horseback ride through town, many of the local townspeople apparently were seen talking to Charles and even lending him earphones after he lost his, so he could continue to ride and listen to music.

If you or someone you know has been arrested for driving drunk, contact a skilled and experienced Florida DUI attorney for legal assistance.

On Saturday, September 22, seven people were killed in Moscow when a drunk driver lost control of his car and plowed into a bus shelter. The seven people killed included a group of five teenage orphans and their teacher and her husband, who were all returning from an arts and crafts festival for disabled children. Alexander Maximov, 29, allegedly lost control of his car and crashed into the bus shelter, the speed of his car was an estimated 125 miles per hour. He survived the accident with head injuries. Maximov admitted he had been drinking for two days, and it has emerged that he has a prior DUI on his record from 2010. He faces a sentence of 9 years in prison which is the limit for causing multiple deaths from dangerous driving, regardless of whether or not drinking was involved. The accident has prompted Russian lawmakers to re-think the current maximum penalty for such incidents.

Shamsail Saraliyev is an MP from Russia’s ruling party, United Russia, who told Russian media, “Last year, drunk drivers killed 2,103 people. This is a colossal number. This year, as of September, tragedies on the roads have killed 2,300 people.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin encouraged the call for toughened legislation, saying, “We will have to toughen legislation in that area. The current legislation does not work.”

Fiona Apple Releases Odd Statement After DUI Arrest

Fiona Apple was arrested last week in Hudspeth County, Texas for possession of marijuana and has released an odd statement regarding her treatment while in custody at the county jail, sparking a public debate between her and the arresting officers. Apple said in a statement, “Now, most of the people were very nice to me. There are four of you out there, and I want you to know that I heard everything you did“. The singer goes on to say that she overheard four officers talking about her inappropriately and proceeded to write it all down before encoding it and ripping it all up. She also claims that she would make the officers “f*cking famous” for their actions if she chooses to.

Now, the Hudspeth County Sheriff’s Department is fighting back with their own statement. Information Officer Rusty Fleming wrote a statement back to the outspoken singer saying, “First, Honey, I’m already more famous than you” and “Two weeks ago nobody in the country cared about what you had to say, — now that you’ve been arrested it appears your entire career has been jump-started. Don’t worry Sweetie, I won’t bill you.” Fleming goes on to point out to her that if she read publicity outside of her own she would’ve known that they already arrested 3 other well known celebrities for driving through the checkpoint in possession of illegal drugs. Finally, he ends his statement by saying, “just shut-up and sing“.

If you have been arrested for driving under the influence of drugs or driving drunk, contact a skilled Texas DWI attorney for legal assistance.

Jon Jones, UFC Light Heavyweight Champion,Talks About DWI Arrest 

Jon Jones, who is a UFC light heavyweight champion, was headed into Saturday evening’s UFC 152. He is currently one of the most popular athletes talked about by critics for a number of reasons, including his DWI arrest. Before the UFC 152 evening, Jones, who is 205 pounds, sat down with commentator Joe Rogan to talk about his DWI arrest and conviction that occurred earlier this year. Jones was arrested on May 19, 2012 for a DWI charge. Consequently, he was responsible for a fine of $1,000 and had his driver’s license suspended for 6 months. Jones stated that the “DWI was a wake-up call, but mostly served notice that he wasn’t perfect and showed everyone he was capable of making mistakes.”

In addition, Jones said, “I was kind of living miserably trying to be the golden boy for the UFC. So my DWI, it was terrible to get behind the wheel of a car while I was already under the influence, it was a bad decision, but it set me free. Now people know, yeah, I will drink on occasion, and I am a 25-year-old guy who does dumb stuff.” 

The UFC light heavyweight champion ended on a note stating that he was trying to recover from his mistakes and looking forward to fighting his opponent, Vitor Belfortalso. He admitted to reporters that “the end result of driving drunk could have been deadly for others as well as an obvious danger to his own health.”

If you or someone you know has been arrested for drunk driving, contact a skilled attorney for legal assistance.

George Boedecker Pleads Not Guilty In DUI Case

George Boedecker, the founder of the famous Crocs shoe line has plead not-guilty after his DUI arrest earlier this year. On August 12, 2012, Boedecker was arrested in Boulder, Colorado and went on a rather unusual drunken rant that included him claiming his girlfriend had been driving and left him at the scene. That girlfriend, he later told police, was famous pop-country singer Taylor Swift, who was 2,000 miles away with her actual boyfriend at the time. George Boedecker is sober now and still claiming that he was not driving drunk at the time of his arrest.

Police claim that the wealthy Croc’s founder was heavily intoxicated, saying things like, “go f*ck yourselves in the a**” and is due back in court next month. Boedecker apparently has a long history of alcohol abuse, including starting fights in local area bars, which makes his strange rant all the less shocking.

If you or someone you know has been arrested for driving drunk, contact a skilled Colorado DUI attorney for legal assistance.