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After a Reno Gazette-Journal investigation, judges, prosecutors and parole officials across Nevada said they now are enforcing a law that requires courts to order the use of ignition interlock devices in felony DUI convictions.

The newspaper’s investigation found that Washoe District Court judges had not ordered the installation of the devices that prevent a car from being started if the driver has ingested alcohol in any driving-under-the-influence case with death or severe injury since 2000.

The Nov. 22 Gazette-

Journal story prompted statewide changes.

“My district is aware of it and is moving forward to see that there is not an oversight again,” said Second Judicial District Chief Judge Connie Steinheimer in Reno.

Additional Gazette-Journal investigating this week found judges in Clark County also have not ordered the devices, nor have prosecutors in Las Vegas asked for the requirement at sentencing.

Clark County District Judge Jennifer Togliatti, the presiding criminal judge, said judges in Las Vegas became aware of the law only after the Gazette-Journal story.

“We have not done a survey, but anecdotally, it has not been done in Clark County,” she said, adding the department of parole and probation should have included the requirement in the reports they submit when a defendant is sentenced.
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Judges, prosecutors and parole officials across Nevada have changed their policies in response to a Reno Gazette-Journal investigation, and are now following a law that requires courts to order the use of an ignition interlock device for all felony DUI convictions.

The newspaper’s investigation found that Washoe District judges had not ordered the installation of the devices — which keeps a car from starting if the driver has ingested alcohol — on any of the DUI causing death or substantial bodily harm cases since 2000, despite a state law requiring them to do so.

Additional RGJ questioning this week found that judges in Clark County also have not been ordering the devices, and prosecutors in Las Vegas have not been asking for the requirement at sentencing.

But a Nov. 22 RGJ article detailing the problem prompted statewide changes.

“My district is aware of it and is moving forward to see that there is not an oversight again,” said Washoe District Chief Judge Connie Steinheimer.

Clark County District Judge Jennifer Togliatti, the presiding criminal judge, said judges in Las Vegas became aware of the law only after the RGJ investigation.

“We have not done a survey, but anecdotally, it has not been done in Clark County,” she said, adding that the department of parole and probation should have included the requirement the reports they submit when a defendant is sentenced.

“Every judge I know will be doing it immediately,” Togliatti said.

Washoe County Assistant District Attorney John Helzer said he is in the process of rewriting his office’s plea memorandums to include the installation of an interlock device for felony DUI cases.

And in Las Vegas, Chief Deputy District Attorney L.J. O’Neale, supervisor of the vehicular crimes unit, said the law requiring the devices has not been followed, but will it be now.

“The plea agreements had not kept up with the change in the law, and only said a judge ‘may’ order the device,” he said. “We’re changing the language from permissive to mandatory.”
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The Nevada Senate has approved a bill lowering the blood alcohol level for first time DUI offenders who are eligible to seek treatment over jail time.

SB91 was approved unanimously Monday. The bill lowers the alcohol concentration that would be required for an individual to be allowed to swap a jail term for time in a drug or alcohol treatment program. Under current law the concentration is 0.18.

The bill would lower it to 0.15.

SB91 applies the modified concentration level to other existing law governing punishment for driving under the influence of alcohol. The bill will now move to the Assembly.

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More of Nevada’s drunken driving offenders would have ignition interlock devices on their cars if a new bill passes, but some say the alcohol-detection technology is a cookie-cutter fix that’s not appropriate in many drunken driving cases.

SB 66, sponsored by Sen. Sheila Leslie, D-Reno, and Sen. Mark Manendo, D-Las Vegas, would require people convicted of DUI with a 0.15 percent blood alcohol level to install an ignition interlock device on their cars that requires them to test the amount of alcohol on their breath before starting their car. Current law sets the threshold at 0.18 percent.

The bill would also remove an exception that allows people to skip installing the device if they can’t afford it.

“After observing behavior of people with chronic DUIs, I’ve observed that interlock devices really do change behavior and save lives,” Leslie told the Senate Transportation Committee on Thursday.

About 20,000 DUI arrests are made in Nevada each year, while 761 interlock devices are in use in the state, according to the Nevada Department of Public Safety

Sandy Haverly of the organization Stop DUI said she wished the technology was around in the 1980s, when she and her four children were involved in a ghastly collision with a repeat DUI offender.
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Mötley Crüe frontman Vince Neil was released from the Clark County Detention Center on Friday after serving 10 days of a 15-day DUI sentence.

Neil, who lives in Las Vegas, was pulled over by a Metro Police officer about 11 p.m. June 27, 2010, for speeding and weaving between lanes on Desert Inn Road west of Paradise Road, near the Las Vegas Strip, authorities said.

Neil told the officer that he had three glasses of champagne, but he didn’t know when his last drink was, police said.

The officer said Neil failed three standard drunken driving physical tests, which measure horizontal eye movement, the ability to walk and turn heel to toe, and the ability to stand on one leg for 30 seconds.

He also was given a breath test. Neil’s readings from the test were 0.215 and 0.216, compared to the legal limit of 0.08, police said. Neil was booked into jail and was released the next day on $2,000 bail.

Neil was sentenced to 15 days in the Clark County Detention Center beginning Feb. 15 and was ordered to then serve 15 days of house arrest, pay a $585 fine, attend DUI school and attend a victim-impact panel online.

In 1984, Neil crashed a sports car head-on into another car in Redondo Beach, Calif., killing his passenger, Nicholas Dingley, a 24-year-old drummer with the group Hanoi Rocks.

Neil, then 25, wasn’t injured. As part of a plea deal, he agreed to pay two victims in the other car $2.5 million in restitution. He was also sentenced to 30 days in jail, five years of probation and 200 hours of community service in that case.

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Emotions were raw as a panel of Nevada lawmakers began discussion on a bill to clarify language to ensure all drunken drivers who kill or injure someone spend at least two years in prison.

SB72 follows an investigation by the Reno Gazette-Journal that found at least 40 of the 113 of drivers convicted of killing or injuring someone since 2000 spent only months behind bars before being released under house arrest.

After the newspaper’s investigation, eight offenders were sent back to prison.

One of them was a 21-year-old woman. Her father told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday that his daughter is not a demon, but a young girl who made a mistake.

But others argued drinking and driving is not a mistake but a crime.

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LAS VEGAS — Lawmakers are currently looking at toughening up on DUI laws. State officials and lawmakers are planning to file bill drafts for the 2011 state legislative session that would put tougher restrictions on drunk drivers.

For Joan Eddowes, DUI is personal. She lost her 17-year-old son, Mark, to a drunk driver back in 1991.

“Just slammed into my son, who was on a bicycle coming home from work, and literally just tore his body to pieces,” she said.

The accident happened only two weeks before his high school graduation.

“You never think its going to happen to you. You never think you are going to be put in that position,” she said.

For nearly two decades, Eddowes has been a DUI advocate and supports tougher laws against DUI. That’s something lawmakers are currently looking at drafting bills for upcoming legislation.

“Whatever they come up with, it can only help. It can’t hurt,” she said.

Among some of the changes being looked at are requiring impaired drivers to use a breathe ignition device. That device stops convicted impaired drivers from starting their car if the driver has been drinking.

Other things being looked at are making all drivers involved in fatal crashes be tested for alcohol and a psychiatric evaluation for drunk drivers over a .18 blood alcohol level.

“Had there been some of that stuff in place back in 1991, maybe my son would still be here today,” said Eddowes.

Eddowes admits while no piece of legislation will ever bring her son back, it could help prevent others from living through the same pain.

“Let’s get on it and save more lives. Every day that goes by there are other lives that are taken,” she said.

Because the wording is still being worked on, there won’t likely be anything in a bill form until sometime in December.

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The Nevada Supreme Court determined a driver need only fail one of two breath tests in order to lose his or her license for a DUI charge in the state.

The ruling reverses an earlier decision by Clark County Judge Michelle Leavitt. Leavitt decided the driver must fail both tests in order to lose a license. This ruling only applied to whether the driver’s license could be suspended, not whether criminal charges could be made. In Nevada, a driver can be charged with DUI despite passing a breath test if signs of impairment are evident.

The Nevada law, like laws in most states, requires two separate breath samples be taken at the scene. This helps prevent errors in the machine’s usage or calibration. If the tests show the driver has .08 percent BAC or higher, regardless of any sign of impairment, the driver may lose his or her license. The question before the Supreme Court was whether both tests must be positive for .08 percent or higher.

In an opinion by Justice Michael Douglas, the court argued that the law requiring two samples must be upheld. However, the court reversed the lower court’s decision, saying only one test must be positive in order for a license suspension to take place. The only stipulation is the tests are within .02 percent of each other.

In this case, an individual who tests .06 percent on one BAC test, as little as one drink for many individuals, then .08 percent on another, that person would lose the privilege to drive. While this was not exactly the situation with Audrea Taylor-Caldwell, a similar incident did occur. Taylor-Caldwell provided samples of .073 percent and .083 percent. Taylor-Caldwell, under the lower court’s ruling, would not lose her license.

Taylor-Caldwell did lose her license in an administrative hearing. Then, she regained the privilege to drive with Judge Leavitt’s decision. Now, since the case has finally flowed through the Supreme Court, Taylor-Caldwell must surrender her license. Her case will serve as precedent for future arrests with similar circumstances.

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On March 31, law enforcement officers from throughout Northern Nevada were recognized by the Northern Nevada DUI Task Force for their efforts in Driving Under The Influence Enforcement and Underage Drinking Prevention in the 6th Annual Law Enforcement Recognition Awards Ceremony, held at the National Automobile Museum in Reno.

Five deputies from the Lyon County Sheriff’s Office were among those recognized by the Task Force, and the ceremonies were also attended by families of the deputies, along with Lyon Sheriff Allen Veil, Undersheriff Joe Sanford and Dayton Substation Lieutenant Rob Hall.

Deputies Alfonso Lopez and Wayne Hawley were presented plaques recognizing their efforts in DUI enforcement and prevention in the Fernley patrol area during 2009; and Sergeant Bryan Parsons and Deputies Tony Burton and Julie Redmond were awarded plaques recognizing their efforts in the Enforcing Underage Drinking Laws (EUDL) Project throughout Lyon County.

Sergeant Parsons has been involved with the EUDL Program since 2006 and has been the Lyon County Sheriff’s Office EUDL coordinator since 2008. He oversees the alcohol compliance checks and third party sales, and assists the Healthy Communities Coalition of Lyon and Storey Counties in presenting Responsible Alcohol Server Training to employees of retail outlets and drinking establishments.

Deputy Burton and Deputy Redmond have been involved with the EUDL Program since 2007 and 2009, respectively, and actively assist Sergeant Parsons with alcohol compliance checks and third party sales.

During 2009, Sergeant Parsons, Deputy Burton and Deputy Redmond conducted 155 compliance checks at retail outlets and drinking establishments and witnessed 105 attempted third party sales. As a result of the compliance checks, two businesses were made to appear in front of the Lyon County Liquor Board for repeated sales to minors.

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Nevada Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto on Friday called for the resurrection of her agency’s Advisory Coalition on Impaired Driving after a series of investigative reports in the Reno Gazette-Journal revealed communication breakdowns and problems in the handling of drunken-driving cases.

“The attorney general wants to hear from advocates so our state can work through these important issues,” said Masto spokeswoman Edie Cartwright. “The Advisory Coalition on Impaired Driving is a mechanism to do that.”

Brett Kandt, a special deputy attorney general and executive director of the Nevada Prosecution Advisory Council, told coalition members in an e-mail that the DUI series in the RGJ has highlighted the “potential value” of the coalition.

Kandt said it should be used “as a forum for bringing issues to the attention of the agencies responsible for enforcing the DUI laws, to allow us to resolve them and work toward system improvement.”

The statewide coalition, which includes people from law enforcement, prosecutors, Stop DUI, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, crime labs, treatment providers and the Nevada office of traffic safety, was formed in 2006.

Laurel Stadler of MADD said geographic challenges have kept it from operating effectively. But the issues identified by the RGJ can help it focus its energy.

“The coalition can definitely do more — it has met so sporadically because it’s a statewide group and it’s hard to get members together,” Stadler said. “But it’s a good multidisciplinary cross-section of organizations and has a potential to set policy, recommend legislation and encourage everyone in the system to do the right thing.

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