Stephen Gross, a former principal with Robinson Middle School in Lowell, Massachusetts, was found guilty of a third drunken driving offense and sentenced to serve 18 months in prison. Gross was convicted Wednesday February 20, 2013 and found guilty of Operating Under the Influence, which is a similar offense to DUI in Massachusetts, as well an open-container violation. Gross will also lose his driver’s license for 8 years and was originally sentenced to serve 2 1/2 years in jail, but the balance was suspended for 3 years while he is on probation. Gross has been replaced since being placed on administrative leave after being arrested in September 2011 by Mirrimac police and according to Superintendent Jean Franco, his contract was not renewed. Gross was arrested after police responded to a call from someone at a local barbershop claiming to have seen a man getting out of his vehicle and dropping a bottle of whiskey.

When police arrived at the scene, Gross was just returning to his Camry with some items he purchased at Francesca’s variety store. When they approached Gross, officers noticed several symptoms of alcohol intoxication such as red, glassy eyes and an odor of alcohol on Gross’s breath. Gross agreed to let an officer retrieve his wallet from the center console of the Camry and that is when the officer found a half full plastic cup of whiskey, a half full bottle of whiskey as well as a bottle of ginger ale on the passenger side floor. Officers then placed Stephen Gross under arrest and asked him to submit a breathalyzer test, which showed his blood alcohol content (BAC) level to be .13%, almost double the .08% legal limit. Police continued to search Gross’s vehicle and found a duffel bag with four more bottles of Jim Beam whiskey. Gross’s defense attorney argued that there was no probable cause to arrest his client since he didn’t appear intoxicated and was not behind the wheel or driving erratically. Gross has been convicted of drunken driving before, once in 1991 and again in 2000.

If you have been arrested for driving drunk, contact an experienced and skilled Massachusetts DUI attorney for legal assistance.

ABC News reported that a Utah state trooper, Lisa Steed, has been fired from the Utah Highway Patrol and is facing a lawsuit for filing false DUI charges and arrests. Steed was at one point the most celebrated Utah state trooper for her ability to garner hundreds of arrests, setting records, earning praise as a rising star and becoming the first woman to become trooper of the year. It was noted that in 2009, she broke the state record for DUI arrests by filing about 400 DUI arrests, which was more than twice the average amount that other state troopers declared.

However, in 2012, Steed was on the stand in a DUI court case and admitted to purposely leaving her microphone in her patrol car so that superiors wouldn’t know she was violating agency policy. Then, in April 2012, a prosecutor refused to continue prosecuting DUI cases if Steed’s testimony was the only evidence available. One of Steed’s victims, Michael Choate, told ABC News that she stopped him for wearing a Halloween costume and booked him even though three breathalyzers tests showed no alcohol in his system. Choate stated that because of this he spent $3,800, had to take four days off of work to get his DUI charged dismissed, and nearly lost his security clearance and job as an aircraft logistics specialist at Hill Air Force Base.

Attorney Michael Studebaker said that although the lawsuit against Steed only involves two defendants, dozens of others are lined up and willing to tell their stories and requesting the lawsuit be broadened into a class action lawsuit. They claim that Steed’s behavior has negatively and severely impacted their personal lives and caused them a lot of expense to get them fixed. In addition, the lawsuit extended towards the Utah Highway Patrol for ignoring Steed’s patterns of higher-than-normal DUI bookings and waited too long to take her off patrol.

If you have been arrested for driving drunk, contact an experienced and skilled Utah DUI attorney for legal assistance.

TV Guide reported that the mother of Phillip Phillips, who is a famous singer and winner of American Idol’s eleventh season, was arrested and charged with a DUI this past Wednesday. According to Seattle Post Intelligencer, Mrs. Phillips was stopped by an “undercover unit” that spotted her swerving across lanes of traffic in Albany, Georgia.  It was stated that police officers administered her several field sobriety tests, all of which she failed. In addition, officers suspected that she might have been under the influence of drugs as well. Mrs. Phillips was sent to the hospital, where she was diagnosed as healthy enough to go to jail. It was noted that Phillips has had a lot of trouble and personal public issues with his family, such as refusing to help his parents out financially and they were forced to sell their family-owned pawn shop.

If you have been arrested for driving drunk, contact an experienced and skilled Georgia DUI attorney for legal assistance.

KARE reported that a former Minnesota senate staff member, Michael Brodkorb,  was charged with DWI after a single vehicle crash in the east metro that left him hospitalized. Police officials determined that Brodkorb’s blood alcohol level had been .10 the night of the accident. Investigators said Brodkorb ran off I-35E in Mendota Heights and struck the wall of a bridge before careening across the northbound lanes and into the median wall.

Brodkorb received serious injuries and was sent to Regions Hospital. He received charges for DWI, negligent driving, and driving without a seatbelt. The first three counts are misdemeanors punishable by $1,000 fine and/or 90 days in the county jail. The no seat belt charge is a petty misdemeanor subject to a $300.00 fine. It was noted that this was not Brodkorb’s first time in dealing with media attention. He had made headlines after he sued the Minnesota State Senate for dismissing him in the wake of a highly publicized affair with then-Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch. 

If you have been arrested for driving drunk, contact an experienced and skilled Minnesota DWI attorney for legal assistance.

Dallas Morning News reported that this morning Fort Worth police officials were involved in a very dramatic chase on Fort Worth’s I-35W Highway. They chased drunk driver, Jessica Roseman, with emergency lights flashing and public address system blaring, “all to no avail.” The news source stated that police officials were able to finally stop her with a stop stick, which flattened one of her front tires, causing her to crash into an abandoned police car stationed on the highway as a roadblock.

Police officials started the chase approximately around 3 a.m. after receiving various calls that a driver in a brown Ford Taurus was southbound in a northbound lane of the South Freeway. Roseman, who was speeding the wrong-way at 90 mph with her lights off, caused two car accidents. In the first crash, a white passenger car veered out of the Taurus’ way to avoid a head-on collision and hit a retaining wall. It was determined that one of the victims received minor injuries and another had a bloody nose and  chest pains, both were sent to the hospital. Next, the Taurus side-swiped a blue Chevy Suburban near East Berry Street. Luckily, nobody received any injuries in this crash.

The chase ended after police officials, who were patrolling from a helicopter and contacted Burleson police, put down spikes on the freeway to flatten the vehicle’s tires. It was reported that Roseman did not receive any injuries, but was still taken to the hospital for several blood alcohol content tests.

If you have been arrested for driving drunk, contact an experienced and skilled Texas DWI attorney for legal assistance.