Arizona DUI Weekend Advice (DUI-DWI-News.net)
Arizona DUI Weekend Advice
As always, we maintain that the best way to avoid a DUI in Arizona is to not drive at all after drinking. (…)
As always, we maintain that the best way to avoid a DUI in Arizona is to not drive at all after drinking. However, if it is too late for this advice and you now face a DUI charge as a result of the 4th of July weekend Arizona DUI taskforce, we can help you with your case. If you got arrested for DUI in the Tucson or Phoenix areas this weekend, give me a call so we can discuss your options. The most harmful thing that most DUI defendants can do to their case is to go into court without an attorney and plead guilty. Don't do it unless acting on the advice of experienced DUI counsel.
Quoted from
PHOENIX - Arizona law enforcement is reminding folks not to drink and drive this Fourth of July weekend. A DUI task force started patrolling the streets Thursday night. The Governor's Office of Highway Safety says more people celebrate America's birthday by drinking alcohol than on any other holiday. To fight that task forces will set up DUI checkpoints throughout the state. Last year more than 500 drivers were cited for DUI during an extended July 4th detail. Source: feeds.feedburner.com Followup to Utah’s DUI Single Breath Test
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 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’ 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? 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. MSN Privacy . Legal
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.
Sommer criticized prosecutors for questioning her behavior after her husband’s death, saying, “I did what I did.”
“We did what we were supposed to do,” Dumanis told KFMB-TV. “We’re all looking backwards now and second-guessing everything.”
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24207106/
© 2008 MSNBC.comhttp://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2008/06/25/20080625crash0625.html
A question of justice in deadly accident
The case underscores the sometimes-subjective process that authorities use in determining whom should be prosecuted in a crime, particularly after a fatal accident when witness accounts vary.
Source: feeds.feedburner.com
UHP Seem Disappointed in only 6 Utah DUI Arrests
Here is a follow up to the New Years Eve post where the there were car dealerships paying cops to arrest Salt Lake City and Provo City DUI suspects. Many police worked overtime and many resources were pulled in for this cause. All the sponsored money, all the overtime paid, and all the resources used for New Years Eve culminates in six DUI arrests for New Years. No crashes or accidents ocurred that were DUI related. The UHP seem disappointed. The UHP expected a lot more.
Deseret Morning News
New Year’s DUI sting is on the dry side
UHP makes only 6 holiday arrests in Salt Lake, Utah counties
By Linda Thomson and Rebecca Palmer
Deseret Morning News
Published: January 2, 2008
Maybe all those "Don’t Drink and Drive" messages are starting to hit home.The Utah Highway Patrol reported it made only six DUI arrests in Salt Lake and Utah counties from New Year’s Eve through the morning of New Year’s Day, according to UHP spokesman Cameron Roden.
"It’s somewhat surprising," Roden said.
There also were no DUI-related crashes and no DUI-related fatalities in those two counties during the holiday that traditionally is associated with heavy drinking."This makes us really happy," Roden said. "It looks like we achieved the message we wanted to put out that people should take alternate means home. We’re glad there weren’t any crashes or injuries."
In 2006, the UHP reported that New Year’s Eve and early New Year’s Day produced 10 DUI arrests for the areas it covers in the Salt Lake Valley, according to Deseret Morning News archives.
Roden on Tuesday credited the media — newspapers, TV and radio — with helping police agencies emphasize how dangerous drinking and driving can be and the fact that there would be plenty of law enforcement officials out on the roads watching for any DUI-related problems.
Various other law enforcement agencies in the Salt Lake Valley said they had no statistics as yet regarding DUI arrests on Tuesday.
The UHP did have one particularly troubling DUI case involving an intoxicated 17-year-old male who led police on a chase from Tooele to the east side of Salt Lake City. The youth ran over three sets of spikes placed by police but kept on going until he finally ended up driving on the tire rims with shreds of rubber flapping.
The 30-minute chase started about 9:30 p.m. when Tooele police officers tried to stop a small, speeding pickup truck, dispatchers said. The truck moved onto state Route 201, and UHP troopers took over.
"He was all over the road at speeds up to 80 mph and down to 30 mph," Roden said. "We attempted to spike the vehicle at 5600 West and we were not able to. We attempted to spike it at Bangerter Highway around Route 201 and got some of the tires. We spiked it a third time and got all four tires," Roden said.
The young driver still kept going, although now at speeds of 10-20 mph.
"The tires were flapping all around," Roden said. "His vehicle finally gave out on him."
The 17-year-old was arrested just west of Foothill Drive in Salt Lake City (2800 East), and he was booked into a juvenile detention facility.
He told police he was underage and had been drinking, so that’s why he ran.
Here is a comment posted at the article site:
"Previous articles touted UHP troopers’ claims that finding impaired drivers on the road was like shooting fish in a barrel and the highest rates of impaired driving is over the holidays.
The State of Utah’s own statistics don’t bear this out.
Perhaps the federal grant money-funded scare tactics were to induce some pre-legislative session hysteria.
http://www.fox11az.com/news/topstories/stories/KMSB_20080701_jh_drivers.1427a9f4.html:
Study shows Tucson has safe drivers | Top Stories | FOX11AZ.com | News for Tucson, Arizona
Tucson motorists rank 39th in a study of what cities have the safest drivers. The Allstate 2008 Best Drivers Report ranks the habits of drivers in 200 cities across the United States. According to the study, Tucson drivers will have a car crash every 11 years, compared with the national average of every 10 years.
“The Best Drivers report is a realistic snapshot of what’s happening on the nation’s roadways,” said Tucson Allstate agent Keith Duncan. “The intent of the report is to raise awareness about the importance of safe driving, especially among teen drivers, and start an ongoing discussion that we hope will save lives.”
Source: feeds.feedburner.com
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