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New Ohio law that took effect Tuesday allows authorities to force drivers who have two or more drunken driving convictions to submit to blood or urine tests without their consent.

I really don’t see how you can forceable submit a person to a blood or urine test. Beside the fact that it is unconstitutional to force anything of the sort without a warrant.

A preliminary hearing on a drunken-driving charge for star NFL defensive end Jevon Kearse has been continued until January 6th. Kearse was arrested by Vanderbilt University police and charged with driving under the influence and refusing a breath test.

The hearing had been scheduled for Tuesday, but Kearse’s attorney Roger May said neither he nor the district attorney general’s office had seen video of the June 22 arrest.

Kearse was stopped around 4:42 a.m. that day by police who noticed a sport-utility vehicle weave across a road.

18-day effort that ended Labor Day weekend was part of national drunk driving campaign.

Law enforcement agencies across the state made a total of 1,414 arrests for driving under the influence in Colorado during an 18-day crackdown. Dubbed ‘The Heat is On’, the anti-drunk driving campaign was part of the national effort titled ‘Drunk Driving. Over the Limit. Under Arrest.’

Between August 15th and September 2nd, 48 local police and county sheriff’s departments, along with the Colorado State Patrol, conducted increased patrols focusing on motorists suspected of drunk driving. Nine people were reportedly killed in alcohol related accidents, which is down from 16 during the same period last year. The Colorado State Patrol made 294 arrests for CO DUI. Denver recorded 186 arrests and Colorado Springs 163.

More than 30,000 motorists are arrested for Colorado DUI each year. A conviction for a first offense drunk driving in Colorado can lead to loss of driver’s license, increased auto insurance premiums and costs in excess of $10,000. A spokesperson with the Colorado Department of Transportation said drunk driving is not worth risking life, freedom and money, and advocated use of designated drivers or public transportation.
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Off-duty deputy was allowed to go home despite suspicion of drunk driving. Real fair.

John Daniels, a Pinellas County Florida deputy, was on patrol around 1:00 am when he witnessed a car pass him at a high rate of speed.

His radar indicated the vehicle was going 98 in a 45 mph zone. After turning around and giving pursuit, the deputy found the vehicle stopped 20 yards from an intersection with the front passenger outside the vehicle urinating.

Daniels approached the driver, Jose Berrios, and requested driver’s license, proof of insurance and registration. Berrios then identified himself and his passenger as Pasco County deputies. Daniels noted the presence of alcohol and the Pasco County deputies admitted to having consumed “approximately one or two drinks”. Daniels asked Berrios to submit to a breath test to check blood alcohol content, saying if he passed he could drive home and if he failed he could call someone to pick him up. Berrios countered with a request to just call someone for a ride and not submit to the test, which Daniels agreed to.

Heather Locklear was charged with DUI in Santa Barbara County Saturday afternoon.

Locklear was reportedly arrested by the California Highway Patrol in Montecito after someone witnessed the actress driving erratically.

A Highway Patrol officer found Locklear’s car stopped on a state highway, blocking one lane. In talking with her, the officer determined that she was operating a vehicle while impaired. Locklear was taken to a nearby police station where she was tested for alcohol and drugs.

Locklear, 47, checked into a medical clinic last June for treatment of anxiety and depression.

Locklear has had roles in a number television series, including ‘Dynasty’, ‘Melrose Place’, ‘T.J. Hooker’ and ‘Spin City’, She has also appeared in movies, including ‘Uptown Girls’.

Roy Lee Everett, the man who killed a teenage honor student in a drunken-driving wreck five years ago, must serve additional prison time, a judge ruled Friday.

In 2003, Everett, 35, pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter, driving under the influence and related charges in the death of 16-year-old  . Everett ran a red light at Military Highway and Azalea Garden Road, plowing his pickup into a car in which Chambers was riding. The driver, Chambers’ older brother, Barney, was injured.

Everett crawled from his truck and ran, b ut residents cornered him behind a carpet store until police arrived.

The case gained notoriety when Everett’s extensive record of drunken-driving convictions came to light. He faced charges in Virginia Beach as well as in Norfolk.

Norfolk Circuit Judge Joseph Leafe sentenced Everett to 14 years in prison for the manslaughter and DUI charges, imposing an additional 16 years but suspending the time. A Virginia Beach judge then sentenced Everett to 10 years on a drunken-driving conviction.

Everett later piled up more charges in Virginia Beach when deputies caught his mother sneaking drugs to him in jail.

That landed Everett back in Norfolk’s Circuit Court. Prosecutor Jim Entas said that since the drug charges came after Everett’s sentencing in Norfolk, they amounted to a violation of his probation. That meant a judge could order that Everett serve some or all of the suspended sentence.

Entas urged Leafe to reimpose a significant term.

“The court has a rare opportunity to express the community’s outrage,” Entas told him. “He won’t be deterred by anything but incarceration.”

Stephen Swain, Everett’s lawyer, argued that his client already will be in his 50s when he finishes serving the more than 25 years of his sentences on the manslaughter, drunken-driving and drug charges. Adding more time would be penalizing Everett twice, Swain said.

Leafe said Everett deserved more time. He imposed eighteen months of the 16 years of his suspended sentence.
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A man is being held in the Skagit County Jail in Mount Vernon, Wash., in lieu of $150,000 bail after being arrested for the 14th time for suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol.

Superior Court documents say 46-year-old Aaron Bridge of Mount Vernon was arrested in Sedro-Woolley when a sheriff’s deputy smelled alcohol during a traffic stop. The documents say Bridge was also driving with a suspended license.

The documents say Tuesday’s arrest was Bridge’s 14th for suspicion of DUI in 16 years. They say Bridge has been convicted at least four times in the past 10 years.

Bridge was charged with a felony DUI on Thursday. The felony DUI law went into effect in July 2007 and allows prosecutors to charge anyone with four prior DUI offenses within the past 10 years with a felony.

I guess some people never learn.

About 15 percent of U.S. adults have driven under the influence of alcohol in the past year and in some states as many as 25 percent did, according to a government study released on Wednesday.

Another 4.7 percent drove under the influence of illegal drugs, the survey by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration found.

Utah had the fewest drunk drivers, with 9.5 percent of drivers 18 and older admitting to it. Wisconsin had the most, with 26.4 percent, followed by 24.9 percent in North Dakota and 23.5 percent in Minnesota.

“Combined data from 2004 to 2006 indicate that 15.1 percent of current drivers aged 18 or older drove under the influence of alcohol in the past year,” reads the report, complied from national surveys.

It cites National Highway Traffic Safety Administration findings that show 16,700 people died in accidents related to driving under the influence of alcohol in 2004.

“This report highlights the enormous public health risk posed by this problem — one threatening the lives of many Americans every day,” SAMHSA Administrator Terry Cline said in a statement.

“In 2006, an estimated 30.5 million persons aged 12 or older drove under the influence of alcohol at least once in the past 12 months, and 10.2 million persons aged 12 or older reported driving under the influence of illicit drugs during the past year,” reads the report.
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A St. Petersburg lawyer was arrested late Thursday on charges of drunken driving and possession of cocaine, Pinellas County Jail records show.

David Sockol, 50, of 1400 74th Circle N.E., was booked into the Pinellas County Jail at 2:13 a.m. today, the records show.

Sockol’s attorney, John Trevena, said his client was arrested at a DUI checkpoint in St. Pete Beach. A variety of agencies participated in the effort, and Sockol was arrested by a Pinellas Park police officer, Trevena said.

Trevena questioned whether a Pinellas Park police officer has jurisdiction in St. Pete Beach.

He also said Pinellas Park police seized his client’s BMW and made him pay $5,000 to get it back.
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A Millcreek Township woman pleaded guilty this morning in Erie County Court to driving drunk and causing another woman’s death in a two-car crash on Powell Avenue in November.

Lori L. Cochran, 41, pleaded guilty to one third-degree felony count of homicide by vehicle, two misdemeanor counts of driving under the influence and one summary traffic violation.

In exchange for her plea, the prosecution reduced the homicide by vehicle charge from homicide by vehicle while DUI, a second-degree felony, to homicide by vehicle as a third-degree felony.

A second-degree felony is punishable by up to 10 years in prison, and a third-degree felony by up to seven years.

Cochran, of the 2700 block of West Park Lane, had been scheduled to face a nonjury trial Monday before Judge Shad Connelly.

She will be sentenced on Nov. 5. She remains free on an unsecured bond of $10,000.

The charges stem from a collision that claimed the life of 59-year-old Coleen E. DiFilippo on Nov. 27.

Millcreek police said DiFilippo had parked her Nissan pickup along the curb facing traffic on the west side of Powell Avenue, just south of West 12th Street. DiFilippo had stopped to mail bills at a roadside mailbox.

Cochran’s Chevrolet Lumina, traveling south on Powell Avenue, struck DiFilippo’s truck nearly head-on, police said.
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