Phoenix DUI Abogados

The Austin Statesman has a remarkable story (“Crime lab backlogs weighing down court system,” Feb. 3) lamenting growing backlogs at the Austin PD crime lab, which are “causing unprecedented delays in the resolution of criminal cases, preventing some from going forward for at least six months and stressing an already bustling county judicial system.” Reported Tony Plohetski:

The number of cases awaiting testing has doubled in five years, and more than 1,100 samples in both felony and misdemeanor cases remain unanalyzed – a backlog that every judge in the county’s criminal courts deems unacceptable.

Some cases involve relatively minor crimes from mid-2012 that now languish on court dockets. The problem is particularly acute for blood evidence in drunken driving cases, which is sitting on shelves an average of 200 days before it is assigned to an analyst, more than six times longer than three years ago.

The backlog is partly the result of repeated decisions by the city of Austin not to add new scientists to the crime lab in its nine years of operation, despite requests from the police department and a growing reliance on forensic evidence to solve and prosecute crimes.

Ironically, Hays County recently announced it would begin to use Austin’s crime lab on a contract basis because of backlogs at DPS!

Austin’s failure to invest in its crime lab stems from the same illogic as their failure to invest in crime-scene investigators (the city fails to investigate 55-65% of home burglaries because they don’t employ enough property-crime techs). Nearly every extra dollar available to the agency over the last decade has gone to hiring ever-more patrol officers and paying for extravagant raises agreed to in off-budget negotiations with the police union, which is the main source of recent city property tax increases.

That said, this is also in part a self-inflicted wound: The biggest source of crime-lab backlogs turns out to be  police department management decisions to ramp up their “no refusal” DWI blood-draw policies.

Since 2008, the number of samples submitted to the lab has risen modestly overall — about 25 percent. But the request for certain types of testing, including blood in drunken driving cases, has gone from 440 in 2008 to 2,002 last year as the department has increasingly sought blood samples from suspects who refuse a breath test.

Those cases are handled in the lab’s chemistry section, which also analyzes narcotic samples, but blood cases “are the most complicated, and the processing time is much longer,” said Ed Harris, the department’s chief of field support services, who oversees the lab. …

The longest wait time is the average of 200 days for blood samples, which have flooded into the lab in recent years, according to department statistics. The wait time for narcotic and DNA samples is 75 days, while fingerprint wait times are about 90 days.

Luckily, Travis County is pretty good about issuing personal bonds in such situations; elsewhere those sorts of backlogs could leave a county jail bursting at the seams. Still, the story shows how, in the 21st century, state and local officials must invest in forensic labs as diligently as they do front-line police officers, the judiciary, and county jails, and a nascent storyline every budget season – at the state and local levels – will be the growing competition between these various law enforcement functions for increasingly scarce resources.

See prior, related Grits posts:

• Hays County would save money eschewing ‘free’ DPS crime lab services, paying Austin 
• 500% increase in DWI blood tests worsened DPS crime lab staffing shortages
• Will new, ‘anti-government’ Lege invest in criminal justice system: Crime lab edition
• Texas crime lab capacity expanding slower than demand
• Law enforcement coming to grips with new limits on DPS crime lab services
• DPS reaching limits of unsustainable crime lab model: Tells agencies to reduce DNA, drug testing requests
• DNA testing dominates crime lab backlogs
• Texas crime labs ill-equipped to handle coming volume of ‘touch DNA’ cases
• Upward budget pressure at crime labs
• Large backlogs for DPS forensics testing
• Using DNA in nonviolent offenses would swamp crime labs 
• Backlog of DNA cases complicates Houston crime lab’s bias problems 
• Houston fingerprint lab plagued with errors, two-year backlog
• Forensic backlogs force tough choices

Super Bowl Sunday is a picnic for cops. Whether your team is winning (and you’re cheering), or whether you team is losing (and you’re crying) chances are there’s alcohol involved. Your best bet is to host a party at home. If not, make sure you are the designated driver, or have one. Catching drunk drivers for cops on Super Bowl Sunday is like shooting fish in a barrel.

GO RAVENS!!!!

Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way……

If you want up to date information on DUI checkpoints in Southern California, make sure you check with MrCheckPoint at https://twitter.com/MrCheckpoint

Stay safe. GO RAVENS!

SAN DIEGO DUI DEFENSE: BEWARE OF DUI CHECKPOINT THIS SUPERBOWL

Okay, think about it… it’s Super Bowl weekend. And chances are you’re not in New Orleans with my cousin Chris. He can afford to walk around the Latin Corner three sheets to the wind. But if you are planning to go to a Super Bowl party – and cheer my BALTIMORE RAVENS ON TO VICTORY – you’d better plan to be the designated driver, or have the party at your own home.

Cops will be setting up DUI Checkpoints and roving patrols all over San Diego, Orange County, Riverside, San Bernardino, and Los Angeles.

How smart is it to drive a two-ton killing machine through the streets with, say, a .16 blood alcohol level? Not very. In fact, it is inherently dangerous for you and everyone in your vicinity. How about…. How smart is it to take a cab instead of driving? How about, since it’sSuper Bowl Sunday (or in this casepre-SUper Bowl Sunday!) and we all know we are going to imbibe, just plan to take a cab from the start? Yes, now we are getting smarter.

Yes, think about it. A GOOD DUI attorney will charge you about $5,000 or upwards pre-trial to work up your DUI case. Yes, people, there are defenses to high blood alcohol DUI’s. I just got an offer of a wet reckless misdemeanor on a felony DUI with injury case that was originally charged as a felony. I also just got an offer of a straight misdemeanor to another DUI with injury case. Both clients were in the Navy, and could not have the felony without it ruining their careers. I recently sued San Diego’s top DUI cop in federal court and won a settlement from the City because the cop falsified the basis for his stop. Yes, there are cheap attorneys out there and they will always claim to do cheaply what the best of us do for the cost of our experience. But you get what you pay for. I personally don’t hire doctors that hawk themselves as “cheaper than the other guy.” Nor would I ever hire an attorney that hawks himself for cheap.

Some cases California DUI can be won. Some California DUI cases cases can’t be won. It depends on how competent your lawyer is, how the cop did the investigation, if the machines used were properly calibrated, and what you said at the time of the investigation, amongst other things.

Remember, anyone with a law license from the State of California can take your money and represent you on a DUI. That doesn’t mean that they know what they are doing. Would you request advice from a novice if you had cancer? Of course not.

Now, if you haven’t read it before, read it now. And if you have read it before, read it again. This article is chock full of info on what to do if you get stopped for a DUI and arrested.

It’s starting now. Police agencies all over California are setting up roadblocks, and putting officers on overtime, to make as many DUI arrests as possible. It will be like shooting fish in a barrel. Hopefully, the tips below will come in handy for you over this Super Bowl weekend.

1. Make make sure you know where your license, registration and proof of insurance are. DUI officers historically write in their California DUI reports (putting only facts that harm you in them) that the suspect “fumbled for his wallet” and couldn’t find his registration. They use this to try to show you were impaired. Be prepared.

2. When you get signaled by the DUI officer to pull over for a DUI assessment, do so immediately and safely. Roll down your window and put your hands on the steering wheel.

3. If a DUI officer asks you if you know why you are being pulled over, remember you don’t have to answer. What a dumb question! He knows why he is pulling you over. He is pulling you over to assess you for drunk driving, and he’s using the fact that you might have committed some minor vehicle code violations as an excuse. Don’t make any admissions to him. So, you can just ask him, “why?”

4. The next question the DUI officer is likely to ask is, “Have you had anything to drink tonight.” Remember your rights? You are not required to speak to officers. I know, I know, you think, “But if I don’t talk to the officer, he will be mad.” Let him be. You are not at a social gathering; he is not invited to your next birthday party. So don’t worry about how he feels. He is collecting evidence against you. Don’t give him any. It is best to say, “Officer, I appreciate what you do for a living, but I don’t wish to answer any of your questions.” You do NOT have to answer. The less from you he gets, the better for you in the long run. He is gathering evidence. But, you say, maybe he will let me go if he knows I’m being honest with him. NO. Most people who are pulled over and have alcohol on their breath get arrested. It’s just a fact of life. Don’t give him anything to put in that report that he can use against you later.

5. He may then say, “I’d like you to complete a series of tests for me.” Again, let him know that you do not wish to participate in any tests. You are not required to comply. DUI officers try to give a series of field tests to determine if you are impaired. I have NEVER known any officer to do these as per the standardized protocol. I hold a certification authorized by the United Stated Department of Transportation to administer these tests, and was required to pass a practical and written test to get that certification given by a nationally re-known sergeant with the Idaho State Police. Cops learn how to do these, and then promptly forget them, making up their own “tests.” Do not do them. Do NOT let the officer collect more false “evidence” against you. Just reiterate that you do not wish to perform and tests. It’s your right.

6. The DUI investigation officer may then tell you he wants you to take an in field breath, hand held, breath test. Do not take this “test.” It is unreliable, and regularly exhibits blood alcohol numbers higher than what you really are. The cop really, really wants you to do this now, because you have made no statements, and you have refused his field “tests.” He wants this badly. He NEEDS some evidence. Do not do it. You are NOT required to blow into the little hand held machine.

7. The officer will most likely arrest you, cuff and take you downtown. You will be required to take a breath or blood test. You must choose to take one of these tests, or he will take what is called a “forced blood test” and your driver’s license will be suspended for a full year.

A few pointers: If you are still absorbing alcohol, the breath test will read high. It is also an INDIRECT measurement of blood alcohol level. If you take blood, you won’t get a result for at least a week. Also, law enforcement labs don’t use the proper amount of sodium fluoride and potassium oxalate in the blood tubes, so you can attack those results later. Personally, I wouldn’t let anyone hired by the city or county to draw my blood, after learning all I know about the incompetence of the people drawing the blood, and the lack of sanitation protocol in place. Why risk infection? (See, article on frightening practices in the San Diego crime lab).

If you are arrested, you will be released within 12 hours on your promise to appear. You will received a pink piece of paper called a “DS-367.” This document tells you that you, or your lawyer, must call the Department of Motor Vehicle within ten days of the arrest to secure a hearing to determine whether or not the DMV will take your license. Do not miss this deadline or you will be suspended automatically.

So, be careful. Don’t drink and drive if you can help it. Drive safely. Don’t talk to cops. Be polite, but do not let them gather damaging evidence against you. And when you get home call this Southern California DUI Defense lawyer. DUI Defense is hard. But it’s not impossible.