DUI DWI News: Why You Don’t Want a Conviction.

Follow UP to Officer’s getting their own Utah DUIs!

So here is a follow up on the story from yesterday.  The interesting thing about this case is that the officer was never found guilty of DUI.  However, his department presumed him guilty and fired him anyway.  It’s interesting that the police don’t even respect the sacred presumption of innocence even when dealing with their own.  The story reads that the office was fired for DUI, yet no DUI was ever prosecuted.  Got to love that.

U officer fired for DUI
By: Ana Breton
Posted: 3/26/08
A former officer at the U Police Department had his peace officer certification suspended for the next three years after he was arrested for drunken driving.

Officer Tory Park’s certification was suspended by the Utah Peace Officer Standards and Training Council, which establishes and upholds rules of conduct for the state’s certified peace officers. Officers are given the certification after they graduate from a police academy and keep their accreditation by completing 40 hours of training in their department and follow POST council standards.

The council suspended Park’s certification during its quarterly conference during the weekend. There, the council suspended the certifications of 29 other officers in Utah. Park was the only officer punished from a university police department in the state.

Lt. Steve Winward, POST bureau chief of investigations said Park’s certification was suspended after the council found that he had been arrested for driving under the influence last year. Winward said Park was arrested on May 26 after he crashed his personal vehicle into a road sign when he was off duty. Winward said there was not enough evidence to convict him in court for DUI, but that Park plead guilty to leaving the scene of an accident and reckless driving.

"They took the alcohol charges out, because it would have been hard to prove the case to determine if he drank before or during the accident," Winward said.

Capt. Lynn Mitchell at the U Police Department said that Park was terminated and quickly replaced after he was arrested.

"It’s disheartening. We arrest people who violate laws, so we don’t want our people to be doing those kinds of things, for crying out loud," Mitchell said. "We arrest people for DUI, but that doesn’t give us permission to do it ourselves."

Although Mitchell declined to comment about the specific POST case because it involved disciplinary action, he said that Park is not the first officer to have a peace officer certification suspended at the police department.

"It’s not a first," Mitchell said. "But then again we’ve been here since 1958, so we’ve gone through a lot of officers."

Mitchell said the last time a U officer’s certification was suspended was about four years ago. Park’s termination "almost went unnoticed," Mitchell said.

Without certification, an officer is unable to take a position at a police department in the state of Utah. Additionally, Mitchell said that Park will not have a chance to train every year, so if he wants to come back into the field, he will have to pass the entire certification process again.

"Tory was a nice guy. I feel bad for him," Mitchell said. "But I can’t respect that."

The 30 Utah officers who were accused of breaking POST ethical rules might be the highest number of officers disciplined in recent history.

Winward said the POST council has been understaffed because several officers have been absent because of personal reasons, such as surgery, and that "cases kept getting backlogged." The council’s next meeting is in June.

article in the Tribune that talks about how the officers actually went into Bogey’s and harassed the patrons to try to get them to commit crimes by offering money for sexual acts and lewd behavior.  The officers then purchased alcohol for an intoxicated person, and then cited the bar owner for serving an intoxicated person.  Is this really what we pay our officers to do?  Here’s the highlights.

• Three state undercover cops walked into Bogey’s Night Club one September night and then over the course of two hours repeatedly made lewd comments to a waitress, waved a $5 bill at a rowdy customer enticing her to expose her breasts and, when she refused, bought her a drink.
• After ordering themselves dinner and drinks, the officers cited the club for serving alcohol to an intoxicated patron - the same woman they had treated to a shot of Jagermeister liqueur.
• Lt. Ed Michaud, head of the state’s alcohol enforcement team, said he was unaware of the officers’ actions until questioned by a reporter. He said the agents’ conduct was "over the top and an embarrassment to the department" that will be addressed at future training sessions.

Bogey’s Night Club: State cops crossed the line in 2006 booze sting
By Dawn House
The Salt Lake Tribune
Article Last Updated: 01/11/2008 06:26:46 AM MST

* Jan 11:
* Owner: Club targeted after citation protest
* Jan 10:
* Bogey’s stinging over sting

CLEARFIELD - Three state undercover cops walked into Bogey’s Night Club one September night and then over the course of two hours repeatedly made lewd comments to a waitress, waved a $5 bill at a rowdy customer enticing her to expose her breasts and, when she refused, bought her a drink.
After ordering themselves dinner and drinks, the officers cited the club for serving alcohol to an intoxicated patron - the same woman they had treated to a shot of Jagermeister liqueur.
Club owners say the state brought liquor violation counts against them after the 2006 sting that has taken a year to defend while ignoring the officers’ misbehavior in making the bust.
"We asked for an investigation into the officers’ conduct in July - and we’re still waiting for a response," said club attorney Lisa McGarry.
Shelia Page, who prosecuted the case for the Utah Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, said buying customers drinks is legal and the officers indicated to her that their other behavior was an effort to "blend in" with the crowd. She added that it is up to law enforcement agencies - not her department - to set policies governing officers’ behavior.
Lt. Ed Michaud, head of the state’s alcohol enforcement team, said he was unaware of the officers’ actions until questioned by a reporter. He said the agents’ conduct was "over the top and an embarrassment
to the department" that will be addressed at future training sessions.
Virtually all liquor violations come from stings - a prospect owners fear most because citations bring hefty fines and even closures. Club owners are reluctant to speak out against investigators or the Utah Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, which makes recommendations on sanctions the liquor-control board rarely questions.
Bogey’s was fined for allowing the agents into the club without checking for a required membership card. But state could not prove the woman was intoxicated after owners produced tapes from a surveillance system that contradicted officers’ assertion the woman was so unsteady that she had trouble walking without holding onto something or someone for assistance.
For his part, club owner Allen Whittle said he still is angry the agents got away with sexually harassing a server.
During an administrative hearing in September, Officer Jerry Walters said that in order to maintain their cover, agents asked the waitress to accompany them to a MILF contest, which Walters identified as "Moms I’d Like to F—" competition.
"I feel very confident in telling you [the waitress] had no idea that she was dealing with three police officers sitting at that table, based on the conversation we had," he testified.
The waitress, who works part-time at the club and is a full-time emergency medical technician, said Walters and officers Rolynn Snow and David Antonsen "kept up with the MILF comments" for some two hours.
She also testified that when a particularly unruly customer started to pull up her blouse the officers began "egging her on to flash, yelling ’show us your t–s.’ " The woman declined, but told the agents they could buy her a drink instead.
McGarry, Bogey’s attorney, questioned why the officers bought alcohol for someone they suspected was intoxicated. The agents countered that the woman only showed "early signs" of intoxication when they bought her the shot.
Hearing officer Carol Clawson ruled the waitress and bartender - not the agents - "were in a better position" to determine if the woman had too much to drink. She dismissed the "over service" alcohol count, however, saying the state couldn’t prove the woman was intoxicated, in part because she showed the same uninhibited behavior drunk or sober.
Clawson discounted the club’s assertion the agents had a duty to take the woman home if they believed her drunk.
"While law enforcement may have a general duty to protect the public," she wrote, "in this instance Bogey’s has the primary duty to ensure that its patrons do not drink so much that they are unable to drive."

I saw this story about Cynthia Sommer and was overjoyed that an innocent woman was released from jail.  I was saddened that it took 2 years of jail, a jury conviction, and a "second test" to finally exonerate her.  Why did it take so long for a second test.  This was a murder case.  This was a case that the prosecutors convicted an innocent woman.  This was a case that could have been solved without ruining a life of a grieving woman with a simple duplicate test.  What does this story have to do with DUI’s in Utah?  People in Utah accused of DUIs are requested to take a single test.  The breath sample is not preserved for later testing by an independent agency.  Compare the breath test machine that has the same computer chip of the 1970 version of the Atari computer game with the high tech blood testing machines used in most murder cases, and yet the first test was wrong.  How many innocent people have been convicted of DUIs because only one test was given?  In Utah the answer could be astonishing.

 The story follows:

MSNBC.com
Cleared woman questions prosecutors
She spent two years in prison for husband’s alleged arsenic death
The Associated Press
updated 6:11 p.m. MT, Fri., April. 18, 2008
SAN DIEGO - A woman who spent more than two years in jail before she was cleared of killing her Marine husband with arsenic questioned Friday how prosecutors could sleep at night, now knowing that new tests showed no traces of poison.

Cynthia Sommer, 34, said she barely slept herself on her first night of freedom after a San Diego Superior Court judge Thursday dismissed charges that she poisoned her husband in 2002.

She was convicted of first-degree murder in January 2007 after initial tests of Sgt. Todd Sommer’s liver showed levels of arsenic 1,020 times above normal.

But prosecutors found no traces of poison in previously untested tissue as they prepared for a second trial. A judge had ordered a new trial in November after finding she had ineffective representation from her former attorney.

At her trial, prosecutors argued that Sommer used her husband’s life insurance to pay for breast implants and pursue a more luxurious lifestyle.

With no proof that Sommer was the source of the arsenic detected in her husband’s liver, the government relied heavily on circumstantial evidence of Sommer’s financial debt and later spending sprees to show that she had a motive to kill her 23-year-old husband.

‘I did what I did’
Sommer criticized prosecutors for questioning her behavior after her husband’s death, saying, “I did what I did.”

She was set free within hours of the judge’s ruling and emerged from the Las Colinas Detention Facility in suburban Santee.

“The only question I have for (prosecutors) is how they sleep at night?” Sommer said.

Her attorney, Allen Bloom, said he felt the evidence was contaminated. “We’ve said that all along,” he told reporters outside the courthouse.

Bloom accused the district attorney of “gross negligence.”

San Diego County District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis defended her handling of the case Friday, saying that justice was served and that her office acted appropriately.

Earlier samples contaminated?
“We did what we were supposed to do,” Dumanis told KFMB-TV. “We’re all looking backwards now and second-guessing everything.”

A recently retained government expert speculated that the earlier samples were contaminated, prosecutors wrote in a motion filed in court. The expert said he found the initial results “very puzzling” and “physiologically improbable.”

Todd Sommer was in top physical condition when he collapsed and died Feb. 18, 2002, at the couple’s home on the Marine Corps’ Miramar base in San Diego. His death was initially ruled a heart attack.

Dumanis said Thursday there was no proof of contamination but offered no other explanation. She said she didn’t know how the tissue may have been contaminated.

“We had an expert who said it was arsenic and no reason to doubt that evidence,” Dumanis said. “The bottom line was, ’Was there arsenic in Mr. Sommer causing his death?’ Our results showed that there was.”

Sommer said she wasn’t sure what she would do now that she was out of jail. She was looking forward to seeing her four children, ages 8 to 16.

“It’s already been an incredible day. I can’t wait to finish it,” she said.

© 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24207106/

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© 2008 MSNBC.com

Here is the story as posted in Seattle.

I have also posted the story here in case the link dries up.

 

 

State crime lab chief resigns after problems raised on DUI evidence
Director, who leaves in March, says problems now fixed
By TRACY JOHNSON
P-I REPORTER

The head of the state labs that test crime evidence is stepping down, a move that prosecutors and defense lawyers say could help bring back lost confidence in the way drunken-driving cases are handled around the state.

Barry Logan’s resignation, effective March 14, comes after a series of problems at the Washington State Patrol toxicology lab have cast doubts on breath tests for suspected drunken drivers.

Mike Urban / P-I
Barry Logan talks to the media Thursday about his crime lab resignation. At right is State Patrol Chief John Batiste.
"Barry has done an excellent job of addressing the issues during this difficult period," State Patrol Chief John Batiste said. "But he and I agree that forward momentum will require different leadership."

The decision stunned attorneys who have worked with Logan on criminal cases and saddened his staff, leaving some in tears, but the lab has drawn stinging criticism about errors and ethical problems in recent months.

"Too many things went wrong on his watch," said defense attorney Francisco Duarte, who specializes in DUI cases. "I believe he wanted to run a laboratory that was based on integrity — and ultimately, he failed to do so."

DUI attorney Ted Vosk, who has worked to uncover problems at the lab and has persuaded judges to throw out many breath-test results, said he believed Logan’s departure was appropriate.

"His stepping down now seems to represent, at least in my mind, that we were right," Vosk said.

Logan has served as the state toxicologist since 1990 and became director of the Forensic Laboratory Services Bureau — overseeing toxicology and crime labs — in 1999, managing 220 workers at eight lab locations.

On Thursday, he said he has dedicated his career "to quality evidence in DUI cases" and, after spending months trying to fix the lab’s problems, wants the public to know it "can have confidence in the results of these tests."

"I have done as much as I can," he said. "I feel that it’s going to help move things forward to have a new director."

Logan, a 46-year-old native of Scotland who is well known and respected in his field, said he remains proud of the labs’ work and takes responsibility for many of the Seattle-based toxicology lab’s errors — though he believes they were "dramatically overstated" by defense attorneys.

"With the benefit of hindsight, I can always say that I might have handled things differently," he said.

Doubts about the lab’s work surfaced last summer, when lab manager Ann Marie Gordon was accused of signing off on scientific tests she hadn’t actually done.

Some of the criticism toward Logan was about how he handled a vague tip about the wrongdoing. He assigned Gordon to investigate the matter, apparently unaware that she was the problem.

Then other errors came to light involving the same issue: how the lab tests an ethanol-water solution used to make sure breath-test machines give accurate readings. The solution is critical in tens of thousands of drunken-driving cases each year because if it’s off, people may face charges based on faulty results.

The State Patrol has maintained that inaccurate results have been extremely limited. Defense attorneys have argued that the lab’s shoddy practices call all of its work into question.

In October, two Skagit County judges challenged Logan’s credibility as they cited careless and potentially flawed work at the lab.

Last month, three King County District Court judges questioned his ability to serve as state toxicologist and found that the lab was fraught with ethical problems, scientific errors and carelessness — making all breath tests unreliable.

On Thursday, King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg said Logan built "a solid foundation" of forensic science and suggested that his resignation "is a positive step toward rebuilding the professional reputation of the lab."

Prosecutors, he said, "are eager to work with the State Patrol and the new toxicologist to make sure that they have corrected questioned administrative procedures … and ultimately restored the confidence of the court system" in breath tests as evidence.

Batiste said he would immediately begin a search to replace Logan. Crime Lab Division Manager Larry Hebert, a 34-year veteran, will take over in the interim.

The state has already appointed Fiona Couper, who most recently served as chief toxicologist in Washington, D.C., to serve as the state toxicologist.

Her job will now be a separate position from the director of the Forensic Laboratory Services Bureau because having someone fill both jobs, as Logan does, is "too much to ask of any one person," Batiste said.

P-I reporter Tracy Johnson can be reached at 206-467-5942 or tracyjohnson@seattlepi.com.