Chicago DUI lawyer on criminalizing accidents

I never thought I would start a post this way but, according to the dictionary an accident is "an unfortunate event resulting especially from carelessness or ignorance."  That's it, and yet here we are today on the threshold of criminalizing accidents.

Last week Secretary of State Jesse White wrote a piece that appeared in the local paper:

May 13, Chicago, Il

Distracted driving I am writing in response to your May 6 editorial "Reckless on the Road," in which you outline the need for state's attorneys to aggressively pursue reckless homicide charges in certain serious traffic crashes. Let me first say we must seriously address distracted driving offenses, especially those that lead to grave injury or death. Whether the driver's conduct entails downloading ring-tones or painting one's fingernails, if the state's attorney believes the evidence warrants a charge of reckless homicide, then I would encourage him or her to pursue such a charge. I also support House Bill 73, which would establish negligent vehicular homicide, as this would give state's attorneys a middle ground between either charging the offender with a petty offense -- such as illegal lane usage -- or reckless homicide. 

The gap between a petty offense and reckless homicide is very large. Establishing a charge of negligent vehicular homicide bridges that yawning gap. The Distracted Driving Task Force recommended legislation proposing negligent vehicular homicide, which later became HB 73, for the same reason: the added flexibility it gives state's attorneys on a case-by-case basis. 

 While I believe his letter was written in response to the fatal accident involving a driver who was painting her nails, it could be applied to so many cases going forward, including Sister Marie Marot.

May 19, Geneva, Il

A circuit court jury handed down a not guilty verdict late Tuesday afternoon in the trial of an area nun accused of causing a 2007 fatal crash in Elgin.

Testimony in the trial, which began Monday in 16th Judicial Circuit Court, has offered conflicting versions of what happened in the Oct. 7 accident in which a van driven by Sister Marie Myriam Marot collided with a car at Randall Road and Route 72. Marot, 24, a member of Fraternite de Notre Dame order in Marengo, was charged with disobeying a traffic control signal .
The defendant ran the red light. That's the evidence you've heard from every single witness in this case," Assistant Kane County State's Attorney Jonathon McKey told the jury in his closing arguments today.
Defense attorney Donald Brewer countered in his closing arguments that "there is a presumption of innocence. The state just didn't do their job."
If convicted, Marot could face a maximum fine of $1,000, but that could have impact on the outcome of a pending civil lawsuit filed by the Forbes family, according to Brewer.

As a prosecutor for the City, I handled many cases where someone died.  They were all accidents. One of them involved an older man who thought his car was in reverse and instead it was in drive.  He crashed through the plate glass of a restaurant, and a young man inside died.  It was an accident.  

What will be the standard for negligent homicide?  If we can agree that an accident, at least as defined by Webster, includes carelessness, does that mean we should now charge all accidents with fatalities as negligent homicide? When the defendant is sympathetic, like a nun in her habit, will we let existing laws prevail so that she is charged with an illegal turn instead of negligent homicide? I suspect that the use of negligent homicide will subject the defendant to the whim of the prosecutor and/or public outcry. 
Is that the kind of justice system that you want?

Chicago DUI lawyer agrees with Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez

Recently one of the Assistant State's Attorneys (ASA's) took me to task about a blog post.  She thought I meant that the job of a 1st District, City of Chicago, State's Attorney in  traffic court was a cakewalk. I guess if one read just the title, and not the post itself, that could have been the takeaway .  Those ASA's certainly have one of the highest court call volumes around, even now as the numbers decrease dramatically. We talked about the post and I did not change it.

A few weeks ago, a different ASA advocated on behalf of one of my clients, who had received court supervision on a DUI a long time ago.  My client complied with all of the terms and conditions of court supervision but one; he forgot to come back and pay approximately $200.00 to the court in fines. His oversight caused his license to be revoked; he was subsequently charged, about fifteen years after that court date, with driving while his license was revoked.  He was now facing jail. 

I ordered that old file and placed it back onto the court's docket for my client, now no longer a young man, to pay his fine and ask the judge to terminate his case satisfactorily.  You would think this would be easy but it is not because there is a time limit on these requests and my client's time had probably expired.  The judge said as much and the ASA said she had no objection.  I could not believe this young ASA and I really was touched.  She didn't know my client and didn't have to help him at all.  She did and the judge agreed.  My client paid his long overdue court fees and fines. Subsequently, all of the jailable offenses were dismissed.

When I asked the ASA why she did what she did, she told me truthfully, that she thought she could explain herself to her boss, Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez, if it ever became necessary.  Then I saw the following story in the Chicago Sun Times:

May 5, Chicago, Il

When Thaddeus "T.J." Jimenez walked out of prison a free man last week, the 30-year-old held a cell phone for the first time.

"He was talking into a BlackBerry and someone said, 'Why don't you just send a text?' He had no clue what a text was," said Steve Drizin, Jimenez's attorney. "Slowly but surely, he's trying to stick his toe into the real world."

Jimenez, described by his lawyers as the youngest person in U.S. history to be wrongly convicted and exonerated, was cleared of the gang-related shooting of Eric Morro, 19.

His release came after witnesses to the 1993 slaying recanted their statements and investigators analyzed a recording of a man admitting to the shooting.

Jimenez was only 13 when he was arrested. He spent more than 16 years in prison.

Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez said at a news conference Monday. "Our job is not just about racking up convictions," she said. "It is ultimately about seeking and obtaining justice."

The young ASA was right, so is her boss.

Chicago DUI lawyer surveys the 2008 Top DUI Cop list from Alliance Against Intoxicated Motorists (AAIM)

The 2008 AAIM Top Cop list is out, and look who's missing...both Officer Richard Fiorito and Officer Joe Parker. Doesn't that seem more than just a little odd? 

Previously, I wrote about Officer Fiorito making a DUI arrest on virtually every day of the work year in 2007.  Now we're expected to believe that his arrest rate dropped by over 2/3 in 2008. An independently-minded skeptic might wonder if AAIM is worried about having their name associated with Police Officers who are facing investigation into the very arrests AAIM honored them for.

This year's list gives a rank for the Top 25 Cops throughout Illinois.  The number one cop made just under 250 arrests.  The number 25 cop made 99 arrests.  Anyone from AAIM care to comment?

Chicago DUI lawyer provides an update on Angel Arce Torres' suspect now in custody

On Friday, I posted about Angel Arce Torres death and what it meant for us as a society that no one rushed to his aid after he was hit by two cars. 

 I had a very interesting conversation later that day about the obligations we have as human beings to care for each other in such times. Surprisingly, that conversation started with a focus on the heinous behavior of David Cash, who was dubbed the "Bad Samaritan" for his failure to prevent the molestation and subsequent murder of a little girl in the "Casino Child Murder" trial.

Now the police in Hartford, Connecticut have charged a man with the death of Angel Arce Torres:

May 16, Hartford, Connecticut

Nearly a year after Angel Arce Torres was hit by a car on Park Street, a 33-year-old Hartford man was charged Friday with driving the car that hit him, leaving him lying helpless in the middle of the street while bystanders looked on.

Luis Negron, 33, of 461 New Britain Ave., was charged with first-degree manslaughter, reckless driving, evading and several other motor vehicle charges.

Citing Negron's history of driving with a suspended license and convictions for skipping court dates, Judge Carl Taylor set his bail at more than $700,000.

Torres, 79, died Monday at Hartford Hospital after his family removed him from life support. The medical examiner ruled that he died of bronchial pneumonia due to a spinal injury.

Negron's attorney, Carmine Giuliano, said that the state's case was weak. There is no witness and no forensic evidence.

"There is no real evidence, there is no circumstantial evidence — there is only a hearsay statement" that Negron's girlfriend made to police, Giuliano said.

Negron had been in custody all day and night Thursday, wasn't fed and was told that if he "signed some papers he could leave," Giuliano said outside court Friday.

Negron was interviewed by police early in the investigation, but there was not enough evidence to charge him with the crime, according to an arrest warrant released after the arraignment. His name came up again on Tuesday, a day after Torres died, when police received a tip naming Negron as the driver who hit Torres, the warrant says.

Perhaps, Mr. Torres would still be alive if the people who hit him and the people who say him laying in the street had rushed to give him some help.  As I have said before, good men don't need laws and bad men will always find a way around them

Chicago DUI lawyer: No Way to a Norway DUI

I posted here on the high economic price of a DUI arrest, but here in the U.S.A. we have nothing on Norway.

May 12, Oslo, Norway

A rich Norwegian has been ordered to pay a 700,000 kroner ($109,000) fine after driving his car 400 yards (meters) while drunk.

Police stopped the 49-year-old man in October near the airport for southern Norway’s Kristiansand.

Tests showed he had a blood alcohol content of .188 percent. Norway’s maximum is .02 percent.

Yes, you did read that correctly, 700,000 kroner is the equivalent of $109,000 USD.  Additionally, did you noice how low Norway's maximum B.A.C. is?  Unfortunately, there is research that suggests even with these high fines and very low B.A.C.'s, there is a very high rate of recidivism for DUI arrests in Sweden (they have a similar very low B.A.C. as does Norway).

Now about that Zero tolerance to alcohol and driving policy, did you think I was kidding?

Angel Arce Torres, the man who made us ask ourselves what would we have done, has died

Yesterday, Angel Arce Torres died.  His family removed him from life support.  He was seventy-eight years old.  You think you don't know who Mr. Torres is?  You likely do know him, it's just his name that's unfamiliar.  Do you remember that video footage you watched a while back of a man struck down in the middle of the street, where both passing cars didn't stop and onlookers made no attempt to help him? It's all coming back to you now, isn't it?  

Mr. Torres made all of us question ourselves.  "Would I have stopped if I hit him?  Would I have run after the driver and gotten his license plate number?  Oh my goodness, there were two separate cars that hit Mr. Torres and neither stopped!  What about the people in the video watching it happen?  Why isn't anyone slowing down? Where are the police? Where is the ambulance? What should I do?"

Today, Mr. Torres is no longer here. His last thought on that fateful day may well have been "Please God, will someone help me? 

The authorities still don't know who hit Mr. Torres, neither the first nor the second time. Please drive safely, have a valid drivers license, and keep your insurance current. If you cause or see an accident where aid to another human should be rendered, make your mother proud and be the good Samaritan. 

Chicago DUI Lawyer comments on MADD CEO getting one for the road: Cheers!

It's official; National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) White House nominee Chuck Hurley has withdrawn.  You may recall that Chuck Hurley was the CEO of MADD.

May 12, Washington, D.C.

The White House says a top official with Mothers Against Drunk Driving who was selected to oversee a highway safety agency has withdrawn.

The Obama administration said in April it intended to nominate Chuck Hurley to become the administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Three weeks ago I was wondering about Hurley's nomination after I read this piece from the Washington Times:

April 24, Washington, D.C.

Mr. Hurley has promoted a mania of overregulation at MADD. Absent from his advocacies is the principle that a punishment should fit the crime, or that a crime even needs to be committed to incur a penalty. Under this influence, MADD has been lobbying to lower the allowable blood-alcohol content (BAC) for drivers to .04 – which means one glass of Pinot can land anyone behind bars. We do not condone drinking and driving, but the constant lowering of BAC limits has separated what is punishable from what is actually dangerous.

As a result of MADD-fueled binges for tougher laws, extreme drunken driving punishments – such as loss of driving privileges, jail time, fines and legal fees beyond $10,000 – often apply to individuals who were not drunk and in some cases were not even driving. Last month, the Connecticut Supreme Court unanimously upheld a driving-under-the-influence conviction against a man who was sleeping off his bender in his car even though the keys were not in the ignition. In 2005, the North Carolina Court of Appeals upheld a DUI sentence for a tipsy man riding a motorized skateboard. The Georgia State Police charged a woman with drunken driving for riding a horse.

Such absurd cases will continue to proliferate as long as the breathalyzer machine is the sole determinant of guilt rather than evidence of unsafe conduct. Machines are prone to error, and basing guilt on a digital reading leaves little room for the specific facts of an individual situation…

The position of NHTSA chief requires an administrator of sound judgment, not a zealot beholden to special interests. Mr. Hurley’s associations and background raise the specter that he could use NHTSA regulations and safety grants to benefit his friends and coerce states into adopting his overbearing pet policies. Mr. Hurley should be offered one (but only one) for the road and sent on his way.

Onward and upward, Mr. Hurley has definitely had his one for the road. Send me your thoughts about the qualities you'd like to see in the next NHTSA administrator, and any names you think should be up for consideration.