Chicago DUI attorney isn't surprised that more fees are on the way

This Chicago DUI attorney has posted here, here, and here about the legislature’s attempts to balance the budget on the backs of the accused.  Brace yourselves because a new law has been put into place that will distribute the load of the state’s budget to more folks accused.

From suntimes.com:

$$$$$ . . .

Attention "Lead Feet!"

Vroom Doom! The bond for minor traffic offenses in Illinois will be increased from $75 to $120, effective Sept. 15!

• The buckshot: Sneed is told the ruling -- made by the state Supreme Court Thursday -- will generate major revenue for all levels of government.

Upon review of the changes to Illinois Supreme Court Rule 526, as long as one has a current Illinois license, a Recognizance bond is still available with the surrender of a license.  Currently, an accused in most minor traffic offenses, at least in Cook County, the accused is released on a Recognizance Bond.  That means no money is posted.

Chicago DUI attorney comments on the higher standard for truckers with DUI's

This Chicago DUI attorney has posted here, here, and here about truckers.  She can admit that this piece has come as a bit of a surprise to her.

From suntimes.com:

An apparently drunk Chicago trucker lost control and smashed into a 180-foot communication tower early Monday, causing it to topple over two lanes of traffic on a I-65 ramp.

At 1:56 a.m., a 1998 Kenworth semi hauling a rail container was east on I-80 and heading to the the south I-65 ramp when the driver, 52-year-old Jose Herrera, stated another trucker cut him off and he had to take evasive action, according to an Indiana State Police release.

Herrera, who told police he had three beers before picking up his load in Chicago, continued straight instead of following the ramp's curve, going off the road, down an embankment and through a chain link fence, the release said. The truck then hit a 180-foot camera tower belonging to the Indiana Dept. of Transportation, causing it to fall north across both lanes of the I-65 northbound to I-80 westbound ramp.Herrera was coming from Chicago and going to Columbus, Indiana with a load of auto parts weighting 41,912 pounds, the release said. He lost none of the load in the crash.

Troopers found an open can of beer in the truck.

In Illinois, truckers and others with Commercial Driver’s Licenses are held to a higher standard.  A CDL holder charged with a DUI will find her/his license disqualified for over a year.  That is the law even if the CDL holder was not in a commercial vehicle at the time of the charge.  

625 ILCS 5/6-514:

 (a) A person shall be disqualified from driving a commercial motor vehicle for a period of not less than 12 months for the first violation of: 

        (1) Refusing to submit to or failure to complete a

test or tests to determine the driver's blood concentration of alcohol, other drug, or both, while driving a commercial motor vehicle or, if the driver is a CDL holder, while driving a non‑CMV; or

(2) Operating a commercial motor vehicle while the

alcohol concentration of the person's blood, breath or urine is at least 0.04, or any amount of a drug, substance, or compound in the person's blood or urine resulting from the unlawful use or consumption of cannabis listed in the Cannabis Control Act, a controlled substance listed in the Illinois Controlled Substances Act, or methamphetamine as listed in the Methamphetamine Control and Community Protection Act as indicated by a police officer's sworn report or other verified evidence; or operating a non‑commercial motor vehicle while the alcohol concentration of the person's blood, breath, or urine was above the legal limit defined in Section 11‑501.1 or 11‑501.8 or any amount of a drug, substance, or compound in the person's blood or urine resulting from the unlawful use or consumption of cannabis listed in the Cannabis Control Act, a controlled substance listed in the Illinois Controlled Substances Act, or methamphetamine as listed in the Methamphetamine Control and Community Protection Act as indicated by a police officer's sworn report or other verified evidence while holding a commercial driver's license.

Since CDL holders are held to a more stringent standard than operator's license holders it is difficult to conceive of the truck driver actually having a beer in his truck. 

Chicago DUI attorney wonders why AAIM doesn't count DUI arrests in Chicago

This Chicago DUI attorney has posted here, here, and here about AAIM.  Surprisingly, last year’s statistics have been released  by the group and Rockford made more DUI arrest than any other police department in the state (the group does not count Chicago, although it does honor Top Chicago DUI Cops).

From dailyherald.com:

Naperville ranks third among Illinois municipal police departments in the number of DUI arrests for 2009, according to a survey by the Alliance Against Intoxicated Motorists released Wednesday.

Naperville logged 581 arrests last year, followed by Carol Stream with 499, Aurora with 447 and Elgin with 422.

The Rockford Police Department finished first in the state with 743 arrests followed by second-place Decatur with 730. The survey does not include Chicago due to its size.

 

Anyone else wondering why they honor cops from Chicago but won’t include the number of arrests made in Chicago?

Chicago DUI attorney spent the day with a Breath Testing Machine

As a Chicago DUI attorney, I want to remind you to think hard before deciding to submit to any tests offered by the police.  In the past, I've posted here and here about false Breath Alcohol Testing results.

I spent today with a Breath Testing Machine, the EC/IR II to be specific.   I touched it.  I poked it.  I prodded it.  I opened it.  I removed essential parts from it.  I screwed parts in to it.  I unlocked it.  I locked it.  I ripped tickets from its innocuous mouth.  I learned from it.

From Twitter.com:

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Whoa! I watched a gent swish & swallow a shot of #Crystal Head vodka. BAC came back .386. No he's not drunk. We need videos of DUI stops.about 12 hours ago via TweetCaster

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chicagoduilaw

Ava George Stewart

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I tested folks on it.  I watched folks with no alcohol in their systems swish & swallow one shot of vodka poured from a cool looking glass skull of a vessel (it definitely smacks of Macbeth).  I watched them immediately blow into the machine and register .386, .112, or .156 BAC.  They weren’t drunk.  It was mouth alcohol.  About fifteen minutes later they blew again and then the machine was accurate.  They registered about .002 BAC.

Do you think the police will give you a second chance to take the breath test if they arrest you for a DUI?

Chicago DUI attorney comments on the final chapter of a Chicago cop's DUI

This Chicago DUI attorney has posted here, here, and here about cops being charged with DUI.  It is finally over, at least the criminal prosecution, former Chicago Police officer John Ardelean saw charges against him dismissed earlier today.

June 4, Chicago, Il

 A Chicago Police Officer involved in a fatal car crash that killed two people will not face any charges, according to the Cook County prosecutors office.

36-year-old John Ardelean was off-duty Thanksgiving Day 2007, when video cameras captured him drinking three beers and at least four shots at a River North bar.

A short time later, his SUV broadsided a car at Damen and Oakdale Avenue and killed 21-year-old Erick Lagunas, and 22-year-old Miguel Flores.

None of the four officers at the scene reported any sign that Ardelean was drunk, and he was not given a breathalyzer test until eight hours after the crash.

Judge Thomas Gainer Jr., who ruled that Ardelean had been arrested and detained without probable cause, disputed claims that there was a possibility of conspiracy among police officers to protect one of their own.

"We are very disappointed," Mayra Lagunas, a cousin of Lagunas said, her voice shaking. "I can't say that we didn't expect it after what happened last time. It hurts that they've taken something from us and we don't matter.

She said that while the family believes prosecutors did everything they could, it was not enough to overcome what they believe was a case of Ardelean's fellow officers covering up for him.

"(We're) angry with the government, the police department who covered for each other," she said, stuffing her shaking hands into her pants pockets. "We all sat in that room and saw them lie through their teeth."

She said that prosecutors spoke to family members before court to let them know of the decision to drop the case, saying they had pursued every legal option.

 One case against a cop with a DUI is now over.  This one must feel like for the family of the victims the scene of an accident where folks are told to just move along.  There’s no question that some folks believe a professional courtesy was offered to this DUI defendant.

Chicago DUI attorney comments on the limits of a "Terry Stop"

This Chicago DUI attorney has posted here about suspended/revoked licenses and just how easy it is to be found guilty of this offense.  It looks like some Illinois courts are beginning to push back on the notion of many of my prosecuting friends and others who believe if you haven’t done anything wrong then there’s nothing wrong with letting an officer stop you.

In People of the State of Illinois v. Mario Galvez, No. 2-09-0216 the defendant was one of two registered owners of a vehicle.  In this instance the defendant’s license was revoked however the license of the co-owner (a woman, no less) was valid.  The officer didn’t see any bad driving and ascertained that one of the two owners of the vehicle had a revoked license based on conducting a random registration check.  The officer then decided that was enough to stop the vehicle.  The trial court’s ruling to the contrary was affirmed by the 2^nd District Court of Appeals:

The presence of a vehicle on the road is not suspicious merely because one of two co-owners is prohibited from driving; it is to be expected that the co-owner whose license is in force would continue to operate the vehicle. Thus, the State's argument essentially turns the "reasonable suspicion" standard on its head by starting with the assumption that defendant is likely to have committed a criminal act and working backward from that assumption to glean suspicion from otherwise innocuous circumstances. Perhaps the starting assumption would be permissible if there were empirical evidence to support it--evidence that, on the whole, drivers with revoked or suspended licenses routinely ignore the restrictions on their driving privileges. Here, however, the officer did not claim that he acted on the basis of such evidence or that he was familiar with defendant's individual driving habits. Simply put, the stop was based on nothing more than a guess that defendant was a scofflaw and that there was a good chance that he was behind the wheel.

 Of course you don’t want to be Mr. Galvez and have to go through an appeal in the first place.  There should be limits to a “Terry stop” and looks like the court is finally asking law enforcement to use a bit of commonsense to fortify their hunches.

Chicago DUI attorney provides an update on a DUI with beltway connections

This Chicago DUI attorney has posted here and here about DUI's with beltway connections.  An Indiana Senator’s wife is guilty of a DUI.

June 2, Indianapolis, IN

Indiana Sen. Richard Lugar’s wife got a 30-day suspended sentence, was fined $250 and faces driving restrictions for a year after pleading guilty to a November drunken-driving incident.

A charge of hitting a parked car and leaving the scene was dropped Friday, according to Fairfax County court records.

A breath test taken about three hours after she was stopped registered a score of 0.11 percent alcohol content. The legal limit is 0.08 percent.

Fairfax County police spokesman Bud Walker said three hours is not an unusual amount of time between a stop and when a breath test is administered. Walker said a person’s score could go up or down in three hours, depending on various factors including how recently alcohol had been ingested before the arrest.

Lugar would have faced automatic jail time if her reading had been 0.15 percent or higher.

Instead, she received a suspended sentence and a $250 fine.

Some are definitely going to believe she was shown a little professional courtesy.