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NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A man who prosecutes criminals for a living has been arrested and charged with DUI.

State troopers said Assistant Coffee County District Attorney Kenneth Shelton was drunk when he crashed on Highway 41A.Shelton is charged with DUI and leaving the scene of an accident.

Officers Say DA Also Left Scene Of Crash.

Governor Sonny Perdue signed into law a tougher punishment for repeat driving under the influence offenders, which takes effect July 1.

Anyone receiving four DUIs over ten years will face felony charges. Bibb County Sheriff Jerry Modena said he hopes the new legislation will prolong good behavior in violators.

“We are seeing a lot of people that are seriously injured, and a lot of deaths from DUI drivers,” Modena said. ” It seems like no matter how hard we crackdown, in others words we go out and send them in for conviction, we see these people come back.”

A person convicted of a felony loses several rights in the state of Georgia–including the right to vote and to own a handgun.
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The Ennis Police Department has started a program that reduces the time for processing cases of driving while intoxicated in Texas. LEADRS (Law Enforcement Advanced DUI/DWI Reporting System) is on on-line system tailored for the needs of law enforcement agencies. The centralized database allows police to file paperwork and retrieve information on Texas DWI arrests.

In addition to time efficiency, LEADRS provides forms for officers to complete, making gathering of pertinent info and subsequent prosecution of drunk driving offenses easier. The forms feature drop down menus with pre-filled fields and check boxes, reducing the need for typing. The system automatically creates official forms needed for booking and prosecution.

LEADRS allows officers to both upload and retrieve statewide data from any computer with internet access, in real-time.

A spokesperson for the Ennis Police Department said the system has halved the time needed for completing Texas DWI paperwork. That allows officers to spend more time on the streets.

The Texas Department of Transportation provides grants allowing law enforcement agencies throughout Texas to use the LEADRS program free of charge.
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If you’re not a convicted drunk driver, should you still be required to have an in-car breathalyzer fitted (at your expense, ‘natch) to your next new vehicle?

Apparently, some automakers — including GM and Toyota — think so. They and a few others are working together under the auspices of something called the Driver Alcohol Detection System for Safety, which is a $10 million federal “research program” that is trying to develop just such technology for mass introduction a few years from now.

At the moment, the only people who have to deal with (and pay for) in-car Breathalyzers are convicted drunks; the devices are basically ignition locks that prevent the vehicle’s engine from being started until the would-be driver blows into the tube and the system determines he’s not liquored up.

But by 2012 or so, in-car breath sniffers could be standard equipment in every new vehicle sold, force-fed to you by the tag team of Washington, Detroit and, of course, the ever-busy Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD).

No conviction necessary…

I dislike drunk drivers as much as Mothers Against Drunk Driving (is anyone actually for drunk driving)? But I certainly do object to policies and regulations that impose cost and hassle and arguably, petit tyranny, on people who have done absolutely nothing to warrant it.

This isn’t about nannyism so much as it is about upending a few basic bedrock Western ideas about criminal justice, rights and responsibilities. Chief among these being that each of us gets treated as a specific individual.

If we do something wrong, we get specifically held accountable for it;  the guy next door who had nothing to do with it isn’t dragged along for the ride. But that’s just what is happening here — indeed, has already happened — from those so-called “sobriety checkpoints” (which mostly “check”  perfectly sober drivers) to the growing kudzu of “primary enforcement” seat belts laws that pester (and ticket) people for not wearing a seat belt, an action that may not be especially smart on an individual level but which has very little to do with the safety or well-being of others…

People used to get that; today, most don’t seem to. It’s the only way to explain the tsunami-like effectiveness of the word, “safety” — which doesn’t have to be specifically defined, quantified, subjected to cost-benefit analysis or throttled back by the once-superior claim of the individual’s “personal bubble of authority” — where he or she formerly reigned supreme, free of the suffocating and endless edicts of others who claim their evaluation of a perceived risk trumps your personal right to choose.

Just say “safety” (and for added emphasis, include “our children”) and no objection can be sustained…
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On-line system streamlines arrests for drunk driving in Ellis County.

The Ennis Police Department has started a program that reduces the time for processing cases of driving while intoxicated in Texas. LEADRS (Law Enforcement Advanced DUI/DWI Reporting System) is on on-line system tailored for the needs of law enforcement agencies. The centralized database allows police to file paperwork and retrieve information on Texas DWI arrests.

In addition to time efficiency, LEADRS provides forms for officers to complete, making gathering of pertinent info and subsequent prosecution of drunk driving offenses easier. The forms feature drop down menus with pre-filled fields and check boxes, reducing the need for typing. The system automatically creates official forms needed for booking and prosecution.

LEADRS allows officers to both upload and retrieve statewide data from any computer with internet access, in real-time.

A spokesperson for the Ennis Police Department said the system has halved the time needed for completing Texas DWI paperwork. That allows officers to spend more time on the streets.

The Texas Department of Transportation provides grants allowing law enforcement agencies throughout Texas to use the LEADRS program free of charge.
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Former Chicago Bears and Texas Longhorn running back Cedric Benson has been ordered to install an ignition interlock device on his vehicle as a condition for bail. Benson was charged with boating while intoxication on an Austin area lake in May, which under Texas DWI laws is treated the same as a drunk driving offense. In June he was charged with driving while intoxicated in Austin, Texas.

The ignition interlock device is similar to a breathalyzer and it tests a driver’s blood alcohol content. If the device detects the presence of alcohol above a certain BAC, it disables the vehicle ignition. A representative for SmartStart, a business specializing in interlock devices, said the equipment is typically set to disable a vehicle when a BAC of .03% or higher is detected. The legal limit for intoxication in Texas is .08%. The results of the breath test are electronically downloaded to a court computer system.

Travis County Judge Elisabeth Earle ordered the installation of the device within 72 hours. The judge indicated that ignition interlock devices are commonly required for defendants charged with multiple Texas DWI offenses, and the order does not reflect Benson’s guilt or innocence.
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Car in swimming pool leads to Florida DUI – A Port Richey couple heard a loud crash outside the house they rent and when they went to investigate they were surprised to find a Dodge Durango in the swimming pool. The driver, 36-year old Nicole Renee Carlin, was not injured though she was very disoriented and sank to the bottom of the pool as she got out of the vehicle.

The occupants of the home fished her out and when told her truck was in the water, Carlin said “I can get it out”. Carlin slipped into the couple’s house and then left without providing any information. She was stopped nearby as she entered another residence. The Florida Highway Patrol charged Carlin with driving under the influence in Florida, DUI with property damage, trespassing and leaving the scene of an accident.

New York DWI for man on motorized cooler – Leslie J. “Bomber” Marr was stopped for swerving on the street and driving on the sidewalk while on his ‘Cruzin Cooler’. The electric powered cooler has room for a case of beer and ice and can travel at speeds as high as 13 miles per hour. New York DWI laws prohibit use of any motorized vehicle while under the influence of alcohol. Marr was charged with driving while intoxicated in New York and aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle.

Man walks 25 miles for Pennsylvania DUI sentencing – After his brother failed to arrive to give him a ride and despite temperatures in the 90s, Stephen Shoemaker decided to walk 25 miles to the Cumberland County Courthouse for a hearing on his Pennsylvania drunk driving conviction. He arrived about 3:30 pm, with a brief stop at a regional medical center for treatment for dehydration, and he faced a warrant for his arrest for failing to make his 9:30 appointment. Upon hearing Shoemaker’s story though, the judge rescinded the warrant and rescheduled sentencing for July. A Deputy Public Defender gave Shoemaker a ride home.
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The Tennessean, June 22 – Drunken-driving stories, like last week’s op-ed by Mothers Against Drunk Driving representative Alexanderia Honeycutt, make headlines every day.

Groups like MADD relentlessly remind Americans that the abuse of alcohol continues to be a huge problem on our roadways and, as a result, the most drastic measures are needed. Though truly “drunken” driving is a serious issue, much of the reported problem is little more than PR.

 Consider fatality statistics. The number of deaths that activist groups attribute to drunken driving is grossly exaggerated.

Last year, federal statisticians classified almost 18,000 deaths as “alcohol-related.” However, alcohol-related does not mean alcohol-caused. In fact, that figure includes anyone killed in a crash in which at least one person (driver, pedestrian, cyclist, etc.) was estimated to have any alcohol. (If a sober driver recklessly crashes into and kills a family whose driver had enjoyed a glass of wine, statistics reflect all their deaths as “alcohol-related.”)

In reality, the figure reflects a much broader spectrum of casualties: people under the legal limit, drunken pedestrians, impaired cyclists and others. After accounting for those people, actual innocent victims only make up 12 percent of the widely reported statistic — a considerably smaller amount than activists have led us to believe.

The anti-alcohol lobby has also invented fantastical talking points to bolster their bunk traffic stats. Honeycutt uses one of its favorites (“first offenders drive drunk on average 87 times before they are caught”), going so far as to accuse individuals of criminal acts with absolutely no proof to back up the claim.

The truth is that this widely publicized figure comes from rough estimates of self-reported data — commonly criticized as unreliable. Collected from a small sample almost 13 years ago, even the study’s own authors admit the estimates are “crude.”
As I posted a couple of years ago, an independent study by the Los Angeles Times  found that despite federal figures claiming nearly 18,000 deaths caused by drunk driving in 2002, only about 5,000 of these actually involved a drunk driver causing the death of a sober driver, passenger or pedestrian.

MADD has used the same altered statistics to get all 50 states – with some federal coercion – to lower the legal limit to .08% and to expand the use of roadblocks:
In the 1990s, these groups used another “crude” statistic to convince the public that reducing the legal blood-alcohol content limit from 0.10 to 0.08 percent would save 600-800 lives annually. Today, research proves it didn’t work.

Their 0.08 push failed to have any measurable effects on traffic fatality rates. It only lowered the threshold for qualifying as a “drunken” driver, ignoring the fact that the majority of “drunks” wreaking havoc on our roads drive while more than double the 0.08 limit. One study in Contemporary Economic Policy concluded that 0.08 efforts would have been better spent encouraging effective measures against chronic drunken drivers.

Tennessee’s anti-alcohol groups aren’t heeding that warning. Instead, they’re demanding more funding, more legislation and more manpower for other misguided measures, like sobriety checkpoints.

These roadblocks are based on the idea that it’s more important to look “tough on drunken driving” than to actually go after the drunks. Checkpoints don’t catch many (if any) drunken drivers. In the largest program ever studied, Tennessee ran almost 900 checkpoints over the course of a year, stopping almost 150,000 of the state’s drivers. The result: a mere 773 DUI arrests — less than one arrest per checkpoint. Compare that to the impact of roving police patrols — a tactic that catches 10 times more drunken drivers than roadblocks.

But you won’t hear anti-alcohol activists like Honeycutt repeat that stat. Their groups no longer target “drunken” drivers, aiming instead to eliminate any drinking before driving.

Right now, the 176 million responsible Americans who drink in moderation can still safely (and legally) drive home after enjoying a drink. Furthermore, research shows that drivers who talk on cell phones, drive drowsy, or travel 7 mph above the speed limit pose a larger threat than those who enjoy a few drinks (and stay below 0.08) before driving home.

Disregarding the evidence, the anti-alcohol movement’s invented, inflated and distorted “facts” would have the public believe that there should be no legal limit except zero. This is the reason we all think one thing when the reality is another.

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee Titans defensive end Jevon Kearse has been arrested and charged with driving under the influence following a traffic stop near the Vanderbilt University campus.

Vanderbilt spokesman Jim Patterson said Kearse was stopped early Sunday morning after campus police reported seeing the SUV that Kearse was driving weaving across the road.

Patterson says Kearse took a field sobriety test, but refused a breathalyzer. He was arrested and charged with DUI and violation of Tennessee’s implied consent law for failing to take the breathalyzer test. Officials said Kearse was released later in the morning.

A call to the Titans was not immediately returned. A spokesman for Kearse’s agent, Drew Rosenhaus, said Kearse had no comment.

Kearse, the NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year in 1999 with the Titans, re-signed with the club in the offseason after spending the last four years with the Philadelphia Eagles.
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