Articles Posted in DUI

A former principal of a middle school in Hollywood has avoided a DUI conviction when a jury deemed there was not enough evidence in to substantiate the state’s charges of drunk driving and cocaine possession.

Forty-seven-year-old Steven Williams, who used to be employed by Driftwood Middle School, was arrested in February by deputies with the Broward County Sheriff’s Office as he was driving home from a wedding with two relatives. The stop happened at a Dania Beach marina, and deputies said Williams failed the sobriety tests, smelled like alcohol and dropped a small bag of white powder allegedly fell from his pocket. The substance later turned out to be cocaine.

Deputies had been called to a nearby marina, where authorities said one of Williams’ passengers had been involved in a fight with a security guard. Williams reportedly coaxed the passenger back into the vehicle and was trying to leave the marina when deputies arrived. The man who called 911 told the dispatcher authorities needed to stop the car because the driver was drunk and one of the passengers “attacked one of my guys.”
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Admerson Cleber Eugenio Vicente was not supposed to be behind the wheel of a car. In fact, according to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, the 24-year-old man from Jupiter was legally barred from doing so until 2020 because authorities had slapped a “habitual traffic offender” label on his record.

And yet, he was behind the wheel, according to troopers with the Florida State Patrol. Investigators say he was driving a vehicle the wrong direction down I-95. In so doing, he collided with another vehicle, in which two sisters – a 23-year-old violinist and a 24-year-old Air Force staff sergeant – were on their mother’s home in Pompano Beach, following a trip to Disney World.

They never made it. The two died almost instantly in the violent, fiery crash. By the time first responders got to the scene, it was too late to save them.

As for Vicente, he is now in serious trouble. At this point, it’s early in the investigation. No criminal charges have been filed. But assuming he survives, he almost certainly will face charges, and it’s likely he could find himself in prison for decades.
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It was bad when the West Boca Raton woman in Coral Springs crashed her car around midnight. What made it worse was that police ascertained she was drunk at the time.

But worse than that? She had left her 3-year-old child alone at home.

Deputies with the Palm Beach County sheriff’s office arrived at the house, but no one answered and they couldn’t gain entry. Finally, the woman’s husband arrived at the household and unlocked the door. There, they found the girl inside, sleeping on a bed.

The husband was reportedly just coming home from work and was surprised to see a deputy at his door. He had no idea his wife had left their daughter alone at home or that she’d been arrested for a DUI accident.

Now, the woman faces charges of DUI and child neglect.
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If you kill someone in a drunk driving accident in Florida, you will serve prison time if convicted. But how much time may come down to a number of factors, which include not just the individual facts of the case, but the disposition of the survivors, the strength of your defense attorney’s case and, interestingly, where the conviction happens.

This is according to a recent Miami Herald article, which analyzed why some DUI manslaughter convictions receive such widely varying sentences.

Per F.S. 316.193, the minimum mandatory sentence available in Florida for DUI manslaughter is four years. That’s the least amount of time a judge can give you. The most is 30 years per charge. The statewide average out of 400 DUI fatality cases in Florida since 2012 was just under 10 years.

But some areas had a reputation of being harsher than others. Broward is one of those.
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Florida’s 5th District Court of Appeals ruled recently the trial court in Florida v. Kleiber incorrectly applied the strict compliance standard in granting a DUI defendant’s motion to suppress blood test evidence.

DUI blood test evidence is critical in any case wherein a person is alleged to have driven drunk. Where the evidence itself cannot be challenged on its validity or merits, a DUI defense lawyer may seek to suppress the evidence from being considered by the court in the first place.

There are a number of ways to do that, and the strategy is going to be case-specific.

Here, defendant, a 25-year-old firefighter, was arrested by the Florida Highway Patrol in 2012 after a collision a year earlier on I-75 near Wildwood. Around 4:30 a.m., defendant allegedly rear-ended a vehicle in front of him on the highway. That other vehicle overturned multiple times and collided with a fence. The other driver, 29, and his 20-year-old passenger were rushed to a local hospital in critical condition. The 20-year-old woman later died.
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Back in 1996, a man in West Boca caused an auto accident that resulted in the deaths of five Boca Raton teenagers. The following year, he would receive a 15-year prison sentence.

Three years later, another man in West Boca killed six senior citizens in a crash. He too would later receive 15 years for his crime.

But now, in 2015, a 23-year-old in Riviera Beach has been sentenced to 30 years for the exact same crime: Vehicular homicide.
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Statements made to police detectives from a hospital bed will make it difficult for a man to build a solid defense following a fatal car accident in Pompano Beach in June.

The decedent in the case was working with one other as a driver/delivery person on a car hauler. The workers stopped on South Dixie Highway on June 23rd to drop off a vehicle to a business there. The workers parked the semi-truck on the far right lane of the roadway. The flashing hazard lights were turned on. They lowered the ramp in the rear and were working on unloading the vehicle from the lower ramp.

Decedent was standing inside near the back of the trailer trying to unchain another vehicle. Meanwhile, according to police, defendant driver was operating his vehicle in the right lane. He reportedly did not stop or swerved as he approached the stopped truck. Instead, he drove right up the ramp. He struck decedent with the front bumper of his vehicle, and decedent was launched through the front of defendant’s vehicle.
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This Independence Day, travel experts estimate some 35 million people are going to travel by car to BBQs, pools, beaches, parades and firework shows.

Many people celebrate these occasions with booze. In fact, authorities say in 2013, Americans cracked open some 68 million cases of beer over the July 4th holiday. That’s more than on any other holiday of the year, including New Year’s Eve and St. Patrick’s Day.

So long as those imbibing are adults and those driving are sober, there’s really no issue. But problems arise when people get behind the wheel after drinking. Every year, it’s estimated some 200 people in the U.S. are killed in drunk driving crashes every July 4th. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports 40 percent of all highway deaths over the course of the holiday weekend are attributed to impaired driving.
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One of the key pieces of evidence in many criminal Florida DUI cases is the breathalyzer test, typically conducted with a brand of machine known as the “Intoxilyzer.” It is designed to measure a person’s blood-alcohol content by analyzing particles released in one’s breath.

But the science behind the machines has been sketchy, and there have been more than a few successful challenges to admitting this evidence. This can have a profound impact on a case, as evidenced by the recent outcome in a South Florida DUI manslaughter case.

According to news reports, a fatal accident in Bonita Springs in 2011 set off an emotional, four-year legal battle. Much of it was centered on whether the court should allow the results of the driver’s breathalyzer test, which indicated she had a blood-alcohol level of between .138 and .146 – nearly twice the legal limit of .08.
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Although the constitutionality of sobriety checkpoints has been challenged repeatedly across the country, it has consistently been upheld.

That being said, police agencies are held to strict standards regarding how these operations must be carried out.

Those include officers having a valid reason for establishing the checkpoint (high number of DUI arrest or alcohol-related accidents in a certain area). There must also be a specific plan regarding which vehicles will be stopped (i.e., every third car, every other car). Any deviation from that plan must be explained and may be grounds to challenge a subsequent arrest.
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