Chicago DUI Attorney Is Glad to Know That Business Stood Up to Government

This Chicago DUI attorney posted here about apps alerting drivers to roadblocks.

Now it appears Apple has caved to the government’s request to stop providing this information to citizens, but only in the future, not currently.

From motortrend.com:

**UPDATE**

After the post initially ran, the makers of PhantomALERT responded and said the app had NOT actually been removed from the App store. Sure enough we found an active page for the app, as well as similar apps Trapster, DUI Dodger,Checkpointer, and Buzzed . For clarification, it appears the policy is that Apple will reject future apps per its updated App Store guidelines, according to Apple enthusiast blog Cult of Mac.

Life has become a little bit easier, thanks to the booming Android and iPhone app market that offers an app for just about everything. Chances are if you are ever in need of something, most likely there’s an app to help you out. But are some apps taking it too far when it comes to public safety?

Senators have been fighting for Apple and Google to do away with PhantomALERT and other apps that have DUI checkpoints as part of their service. PhantomALERT an app that is geared toward providing awareness to those on the road by alerting them of red light traffic cams, speed traps, and DUI checkpoints. The app has been quite the controversy, but has since generated a tremendous upward trend in downloads and sales.

The speed trap or the red light camera alerts are not the main concern for Senators, but the information released through the app on DUI checkpoint locations. Senators argue that releasing such information to the public encourages breaking the law by helping drunk drivers evade police. Some other apps, not Phantom ALERT, go as far as providing alternate routes around checkpoints.

Really?  What about the idea that you are probably sober if you are able to use the app to figure out how to avoid the checkpoints in the first place?

Chicago DUI Attorney Comments on Pesky Roadside Checks and No Bail

This Chicago DUI attorney knows how frustrating these roadside safety checks can be.  She’s posted here and here about them.  Still, one shouldn’t let a roadside safety check turn into a criminal charge for attempted murder with no bail being available.

June 14, Chicago, Il:

A South Side man has been charged with attempted murder for allegedly trying to run over a Chicago Police officer with his Jaguar in the popular Weed Street District early Monday morning.

The 51-year-old officer, who was conducting a roadside seatbelt safety check, had to hold onto the hood of Rodney Steele’s luxury British car to keep from being hit, Assistant State’s Attorney Christopher Costello said Tuesday.

After the first officer fell off the car, another officer shot at Steele’s black four-door, striking the vehicle’s driver’s side and puncturing his keys, but Steele kept driving at a high rate of speed from the corner of Kingsbury, Weed and Sheffield, Costello said.

Officers had noticed that Steele was wearing his seatbelt improperly around 2 a.m. Monday morning and had asked him to pull over and produce his driver’s license, Costello said.

Steele told officers that they “knew him” and ignored a second request to pull over, Costello said.

That’s when he allegedly accelerated and drove right into the officer, endangering a nearby cab.

When Steele made a “sudden” left turn, the officer slipped off the Jaguar near the taxi, Costello said.

Steele sped off and eventually drove onto the I-90/94 Expressway and exited at the 31st Street exit with marked squad cars behind him, Costello said.

No bail means just that, NO BAIL.  Unlike DSK, who had bail set at $1M for allegations of raping a woman in New York (yes he did “make bail” by posting the bond and surrendering his passport, and being under house arrest, with actual police jailers posted), this gentleman can’t exit no matter how much money is posted.

Chicago DUI Attorney Comments on the Perils of Youthful Mistakes

This Chicago DUI attorney has posted here and here about the legal consequences of a DUI when you are under the age of 21.  Right now, I’m at the Illinois State Bar Association’s 135^th Annual Meeting and the law is strict in Wisconsin for youthful mistakes that can be tragic as well.

June 16, Milwaukee, WI:

 

As her fellow Homestead High School graduates head off to college dorms in coming weeks, Madeline Kudlata will split her time between Marquette University and a jail cell as punishment for killing her best friend and classmate in a rollover crash last September.

Kudlata, 18, of Mequon was sentenced Thursday to a year in jail, with release privileges to attend Marquette, as a condition of five years probation. If she violates that or other conditions, she could go to prison for two years, and as many as five, under a sentence imposed, and stayed, by Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Kevin Martens after a daylong hearing of emotional testimony from family on both sides.

Sydney Tabakin died Sept. 18 after Kudlata lost control on the ramp to northbound U.S. 41 from eastbound I-94. Kudlata and a front-seat passenger were not seriously injured. Tabakin was riding in the back seat without a seat belt.

In April, Kudlata pleaded no contest to homicide by negligent operation of a motor vehicle. She was initially ticketed for driving too fast for conditions and having an open container of alcohol in her car, but was charged with the felony in January.

Witnesses told investigators that Kudlata was disposing of liquor bottles at the scene. A blood test showed traces of marijuana, but no alcohol. Tabakin had no alcohol or illicit drugs in her system.

Assistant District Attorney Mark Williams told Martens that the case could have been charged as homicide by drug-impaired driving, a 25-year felony, but that his office negotiated the lesser charge, and plea, in the interest of justice and the facts.

"I believe it's a reasonable resolution of a very difficult matter," Williams said. He recommended the year of jail as condition to probation.

Kudlata will suffer the consequences for the rest of her life while her best friend had her life cut short.  It could have been just a tragic accident, had alcohol and drugs not be involved, no matter how attenuated.

Chicago DUI Attorney Chuckles, but It Wasn't Funny

This Chicago DUI Attorney chuckled today.  She read this headline and shook her head in disbelief.

June 15, Springfield, Il:

The Illinois State Police on Tuesday denied any racial bias in deciding when to ask permission to search cars during traffic stops and defended the searches as an effective law-enforcement tool.

 But the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois said state police ducked the basic question of why troopers are more likely to seek permission to search the cars of black and Hispanic drivers than of white drivers, even though searches of white drivers more often reveal contraband.

If police have reasonable grounds to suspect a crime, they do not need a driver's permission to search a car. Consent searches are used when police have no reason to suspect a crime but still want to conduct a search for some reason. Drivers don't have to allow the search but they do about nine times out of 10.

In defending consent searches, the state police said they seized 2,069 firearms, over 14,472 pounds of illegal drugs, and arrested thousands of motorists for serious crimes in 2009. They did not, however, say how many of those successes were a result of consent searches.

The ACLU's figures show only 177 state police consent searches produced any contraband, and more than half of it came from white drivers. Mostly what troopers found was alcohol and drug paraphernalia. They found weapons only 14 times and more than 50 grams of drugs only eight times.

Well, what do you think?  Do the police stop people of color more frequently, than others or is that just a myth right up there with the Tooth Fairy?

Chicago DUI Attorney Comments on Corporate Logos on License Plates

This Chicago DUI attorney understands that the State’s financial obligations are larger than its coffers.  She’s posted here, here, and here about an increase in court fines in an attempt to fatten up the coffers, even some of the prosecutors have been shaking their heads with disgust over it.  Still a new low bar has been reached when a corporate entity is able to run an ad on the license plates we are required to have in order to drive.

June 14, Springfield, Il:

 Illinois is looking at allowing corporations to put their logos or advertisements on state license plates, something that has proven successful in raising revenue in Texas.

Sen. John Mulroe, D-Chicago, this spring passed a measure to have the secretary of state’s office study whether the state could make money by allowing corporations to sponsor license plates.

The special plates would be offered to Illinois motorists at a discount, and the companies would pay the state to put their logos or ads on the plates.

The study is to be concluded by Jan. 1.

This is different than the vanity plates currently permitted to highlight being a vet or an alumnus, just picture your local burger chain’s logo on your license plate.

Chicago DUI Attorney Comments on Click It or Ticket Becoming the Law for the Whole Car

This Chicago DUI attorney has posted here and here about legislation.  Well here’s one I didn’t highlight because truthfully, I just didn’t think this was going to be an issue.

HB219:

 Synopsis As Introduced

Amends the Illinois Vehicle Code. Provides that every driver and passenger (rather than every driver, front seat passengers, and certain passengers under the age of 19) of a motor vehicle operated on a street or highway of this State must wear a properly adjusted safety belt, with specified exceptions.

House Committee Amendment No. 1

Adds the driver or passenger of an authorized emergency vehicle and a back seat passenger of a taxicab to the list of persons exempted from the requirement to wear a safety belt.

 

It looks like a gateway to a traffic stop to me.  I can’t imagine Governor Quinn won’t sign this one into law and when it becomes effective drivers need to turn around and make sure all passengers are fastened, not just the ones in special kid seats.

Chicago DUI Attorney Comments on the Trooper Who Is Out to Get You

This Chicago DUI attorney has posted here and here about speeding.  Today’s Chicago Sun Times profiles the trooper you don’t want to meet.  He’s written over 5,000 tickets.

June 12, Chicago, IL:

Trooper Jason Heinzl squinted through the sight of his speed gun, fixed the red laser target on the license plate ‘PQQDLE’ and pulled the trigger.

For a split-second as it flashed past Heinzl’s hidden squad car in the passenger seat of a speeding Chevrolet Tahoe SUV, the unmistakable profile of a well-groomed poodle was silhouetted in black against the sun-bleached windshield.

“Seventy-eight miles an hour,” Heinzl said, stomping on the gas and turning on his lights. “That’ll do.”

The 5,005 speeding tickets the 36-year-old veteran of 12 years has written since January 2000 is 603 more than his closest colleague, a Sun-Times analysis of more than 700,000 tickets shows. Or as he puts it, “If I have to get out of my car, you’re usually getting a ticket.”

Seriously, is it worth the risk of getting stopped by this guy or one of his colleagues?