Thursday, April 19, 2012

Chicago DUI Attorney Comments on The Criminalization of Speeding

This Chicago DUI attorney has posted here, here, and here on speeding still she wonders how fast is too fast?

From the Chicago Tribune (and yes, yours truly is quoted in the article):
 Julie Gorczynski was getting a ride after her shift at a suburban movie theater when a Mazda smashed into the passenger's side of her friend's Jeep, rolling the vehicle and killing the 17-year-old.
Orland Park police determined the Mazda was going at least 76 mph in a 40 mph zone, officials said. Behind the wheel was Lukasz Marszalek, a 21-year-old who still had his driving privileges despite a string of speeding violations. Courts repeatedly, and in some cases improperly, granted him a special probation, called court supervision, that kept his driving record clean enough to keep his license, a Tribune analysis shows.
 The June 2011 crash has sparked new legislation intended to curb who can get court supervision, barring anyone who is caught speeding by more than 25 mph on a nonrural road, or 30 mph on a highway, from getting the special probation.
If passed, it will be the third law in six years to restrict who is allowed to get court supervision. A Tribune investigation shows those previous laws have had limited success, however. While judges in Cook and the collar counties have reduced by half the number of improper supervisions issued each year, they are still incorrectly granting thousands, at an average of eight a day.
The most popular sentence for traffic offenders, supervisions allow governments to collect fees for traffic violations and drivers to avoid traffic convictions that can lead to increased insurance rates and, in the extreme, license suspensions.
 Do you think 25 miles over the speed limit is too fast?

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Chicago DUI Attorney Wonders What Happens When the Chief of Police Gets Charged With a DUI

What happens when the Chief of Police gets charged with a DUI?  This Chicago DUI attorney has posted here when prosecutors get charged and here and here when judges get charged, as well as here when rank-and-file police officers get charged.  No, I’m not kidding it really happened.

 The Grayslake police chief was charged with drunk driving after he and his wife were involved in a crash while returning from a restaurant just over the state line in Wisconsin, authorities say.
Matt McCutcheon was turning onto Route 45 in Silver Lake when he struck a car on the highway around 10 p.m. Friday, according to the police report. No one was injured in either car.
Responding officers said they found McCutcheon, 46, standing outside his black Honda when they arrived. He was swaying and almost lost his balance as he pulled out his wallet and showed his police badge, according to the police report.

McCutcheon refused treatment and said he was not going to the hospital. The officer told McCutcheon he needed to conduct a sobriety test but McCutcheon said he was refusing everything, according to the report.

Why do you think the Chief of Police refused everything?  He’s been on the Grayslake force for almost 20 years.  I suspect he knows a thing or two about how to help the government prosecute a DUI.