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Prominent S.C. DUI defense attorney Reese Joye was found dead in a Cambridge, Mass., hotel room Sunday morning. He was 70.

Joye was attending an annual trial advocacy summer conference at Harvard University, which he had organized, and was set to return to Charleston on Sunday.

But when he didn’t come down for breakfast or answer his phone, his colleagues were concerned and sent hotel security to check on him.

His death appears to be from natural causes, said Ken Harrell, the family’s spokesman and one of Joye’s law partners.

He said Joye hadn’t shown any signs of illness.

“He had been in high spirits and had gone out to dinner the night before,” Harrell said.

In recent months he had also gone on ski trips and fly fishing trips, Harrell added.

“He really was in the best health he’d been in months.”

Joye’s family today will likely receive the medical examiner’s report naming an official cause of death.

His body will be flown to South Carolina today and Charleston’s Stuhr funeral home will handle the arrangements, Harrell said.

Joye, a lifelong South Carolinian, earned his bachelor’s and law degrees from the University of South Carolina.

He was instrumental in the debate in drafting the state’s DUI law over the past few years. In 2006, he was one of three attorneys asked to help draft legislation to replace S.C.’s DUI laws.

“Reese was a true advocate for what he believed in,” said state Sen. Brad Hutto, D-Orangeburg.

“He definitely made his presence known. Especially in the Legislature over the last decade.”

In 1970, Joye opened his private law practice in North Charleston.

An author of three books on drunken-driving laws and prosecution, Joye was a founding member and past president of the S.C. Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

“Reese was much more than a DUI defense attorney,” said Leland Greeley, the association’s current president.

Joye, he said, was a mentor to young attorneys.

“Basically we now have a void that will always be there,” he said.

“It will not be filled.”

Joye is survived by his wife, Jackie; three adult children and five grandchildren.

Reach Copeland at (803) 771-8485.

Procedures not followed in handling of breath test equipment.

An Escambia County judge ruled that breath test results from 19 Florida DUI cases could not be entered into evidence. The Intoxilyzer 8000 used to determine the defendants’ blood alcohol content had not been properly handled and maintained, which could have altered the test results.

The equipment in question registered problems while testing breath samples in the county jail. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is responsible for maintenance, calibration and records keeping for the breath testing equipment, and the regional alcohol-program director for FDLE took the machine from the jail to her office to see if environmental issues were causing the error messages. The Intoxilyzer 8000 can give false high readings if the air around the machine is heavy with alcohol or the breathing tube contains residual alcohol. Temperature can also affect the test reading. When the equipment worked in her office, she returned it to the jail with instructions to keep the door open to the holding area for air circulation. A fan was also placed in the room.

According to the FDLE’s own rules, whenever breath test equipment is removed for repair or inspection, it must be recertified. Because that did not happen, the judge ruled that the results gathered from the equipment between February 17 and May 17 could be compromised.

The cases of driving under the influence in Florida will still proceed, though prosecutors must make their case without the breath test results.
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A 38-year-old stepfather remains in jail on a $22,500 bond today for a third DUI violation after police said he was spotted drifting across several lanes with his three step-children in a van.
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Fransico Hernandez, no address listed, was charged with DUI after Palm Bay Police officers spotted a van he was driving about 11 p.m. Tuesday drifting and changing multiple lanes along a darkened stretch of Minton Road near the Interstate 95 interchange.

Hernandez was arrested and taken to the Brevard County Jail Complex and will go to court Aug. 26 for a violation of probation on a previous DUI charge, records show.

The oldest child in the van told police that they had just dropped their mother off at her job and were headed home, reports show. Police reported smelling a strong odor of alcohol when Hernandez was asked to step out of the vehicle but blamed a bad knee on his balance problems, reports show.
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Nine people were arrested during a police enforcement operation in Petaluma that began Saturday afternoon and continued into Sunday morning.

One person was arrested for possession of two loaded and concealed firearms in a vehicle; two were arrested for driving under the influence; four were arrested for being unlicensed drivers; and one was arrested for public intoxication after being reported by someone before he got behind the wheel.

Another person was arrested for possession of marijuana in a motor vehicle. Seven vehicles were towed.

The Police Department deployed eight additional officers on the street during the operation, which was made possible by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
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A Sandy Springs police officer is under investigation following a weekend arrest.

Rockdale County officers arrested Sgt. Vernon Sands on charges of driving under the influence and having an open container.

Investigators said Sands was arrested after a crash.

Sands was assigned to the Sandy Springs Police Department Operations Division.

Sands has been placed on administrative leave pending an internal investigation.
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Arizona Appeals Court rejects drunk driving conviction of a man who was not driving.

Tucson, AZ. July 25  -  Recent court decisions across the country have upheld stiff sentences against those convicted of driving under the influence of alcohol (DUI), even when those individuals were either not in an automobile, or not driving at all. A New Jersey appellate court ruled last year, for example, that a man who tried to sleep off a night’s drinking in his truck should pay $4000 in DUI fines. A three-judge panel of the Arizona Court of Appeals turned the other direction on Wednesday. It concluded that drivers should be encouraged, not discouraged, to pull over when impaired.

The court’s ruling came in the case of Vincent Zaragoza who on April 29, 2006 went and sat in his car with the key in the ignition while drunk. Tuscon Police Officer Daniel Barry happened to be watching as Zaragoza stumbled into the vehicle. Barry did not wait to see if Zaragoza might make an attempt to start the car. Instead, he immediately put the man — whose blood alcohol reading was an estimated .357 — under arrest.

Zaragoza explained his actions that night in court testimony. He said that he had just been thrown out of an apartment after an argument with his girlfriend. He went to his car to sleep and only put the key in the ignition to turn on the radio and lower the window. A Pima County judge instructed a jury to convict Zaragoza if they believed he had “physical control” of the vehicle and his “potential use” of it could have been dangerous. Zaragoza was then found guilty of driving under the influence and jailed for four months and was sentenced to an additional five years of probation. The appeals court reversed this lower court decision on the grounds that the judge’s instructions used a flawed understanding of Arizona law to mislead the jury.

As We’ve posted before apparently you don’t have to be driving to get a DUI, DWI or DOI, but as we see now occasionally there is a ray of light in some states supreme court that uses common sense in the fact that driving under the influence requires driving.

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Officers in Los Angeles say “Indiana Jones” co-star Shia LaBeouf has been arrested for drunk driving following an early morning car accident in Hollywood.

Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Sgt. S. Wolf says LaBeouf was the driver of a vehicle that was involved in a 3 a.m. collision.

LeBeouf and his passenger were injured, as was the other driver. Wolf said he didn’t know the extent of their injuries.

Wolf says officers at the scene Sunday morning reported it was clear to them that LaBeouf was intoxicated.

Wolf says it is unknown whether LaBeouf will face felony or misdemeanor charges.
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Prosecutors are using a new tool when seeking penalties in drunk driving cases. Increasingly prosecutors are reviewing images posted on Facebook and MySpace to determine degree of remorse of DUI defendants.

Lara Buys, 22, was driving under the influence in California when she was involved in an accident that killed her passenger. The prosecutor was willing to recommend probation in the case until he checked Buys’ MySpace page and saw images posted after the accident featuring the defendant with a glass of wine. In addition, there were comments joking about drinking. The images depicted Buys as having a good time rather than trying to deal with issues of drinking and driving and, instead of probation, she received a two-year jail sentence.

Another southern California DUI defense attorney instructed his client, Jessica Binkerd, to take down her personal pages following an alcohol related accident. She did not and the attorney was reportedly “blindsided” immediately before pre-sentencing by photos taken after the wreck of Binkerd drinking and offering tequila shots. Binkerd was sentenced to 5 years in jail.

Prosecutors do not appear to be intensively scouring the internet for personal web pages though relatively quick searches as well as tips can reveal sites with damaging character evidence. In a sign of the times, the photos and notations found are being increasingly used by prosecutors to influence judge or jury during cases of driving while intoxicated.

If you have been arrested for drunk driving it is important that you hire a DUI attorney to represent you on your drunk driving charge and to advise you of the consequences of your actions after your DUI/DWI arrest.
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Navassa police chief arrested for driving while intoxicated in Brunswick County, North Carolina.

Unmarked Police CardNavassa Police Chief Ricky Junior Thorpe was arrested for drunk driving in North Carolina after a single car accident in rural Brunswick County. Thorpe crossed the center line, struck a speed limit sign and ended up in a ditch while driving an unmarked patrol car.

A county sheriff’s office trooper drove past the accident and radioed for a tow truck. Emergency Services then contacted the North Carolina Highway Patrol. Thorpe had left the scene before troopers arrived, though Thorpe was contacted and arrested at his nearby home. He was charged with driving while intoxicated around 4:45 am. A breath test showed a blood alcohol content of 0.27%, more than three times the legal limit for intoxication in North Carolina.

It is not known if Thorpe, 44, was on-duty at the time of the accident. The Navassa Town Council suspended him without pay, pending an investigation by town officials. In 2004, Thorpe was implicated in an embezzlement operation for diverting hundreds of dollars from a drug bust. He was prosecuted though he was required to enroll in additional law enforcement training for ethics and administrative issues.
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Drunk driver was in city owned vehicle at the time of his arrest.

The Director of Community Development for the city of Natchitoches, Louisiana was arrested for driving while intoxicated last weekend. Randall S. LaCaza was driving a city owned Chevrolet Impala when he was stopped by the Louisiana State Police for a traffic violation.

LaCaze, 57, was taken to the Natchitoches Parish Jail and booked on charges of Louisiana DWI, improper lane usage and having an open container in the vehicle.

A city spokesperson has indicated that the city will wait for the legal system to reach a decision before possibly disciplining LaCaze. In the mean time, his ‘take home privileges’ have been revoked, and he is not allowed to drive a city vehicle after normal business hours.
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