DUI Category Archives — Page 9 of 17 — Fort Lauderdale Criminal Attorney Blog Published by Fort Lauderdale, Florida Criminal Lawyer

April 9, 2016

DUI, Hit-and-Run Charges for Hollywood Man

By The Law Offices of Richard Ansara, P.A.

A Hollywood man has been arrested for DUI and hit-and-run after he allegedly caused a fatal crash and then failed to remain at the scene.

According to The Sun-Sentinel, 53-year-old Gabriel Tommie could be facing up to 5 years in prison.

Officials report defendant was driving a pickup truck in January when he reportedly struck a vehicle at the Stirling Road and South University Drive intersection. The driver of the other vehicle involved in the crash was reportedly injured, but Tommie left the scene. Continue reading

February 6, 2016

Drunk Driving Arrest in Boynton Beach for Man Who Hit 7 Cars at Intersection

By The Law Offices of Richard Ansara, P.A.

After reportedly plowing into seven vehicles at a Boynton Beach intersection, the driver of a pickup reportedly failed a number of field sobriety tests. He was arrested by police for DUI and driving on a suspended license.

James Dean Martin, a 47-year-old from Delray Beach, was hauled out of his pickup truck by several people at the scene shortly before 4 p.m. on a Saturday and held on the ground until police got there, according to The Sun-Sentinel.

An 18-year-old woman who had recently purchased a new car told a reporter he approached a line of vehicles waiting at the intersection traveling, “probably like, 50, 70 mph and he just bumped each car.” No one was injured, but the teen said she was shaken up because there were children in other vehicles and her brand new vehicle was damaged. Continue reading

January 2, 2016

Florida DUI Defense: Auto-Brewery Syndrome

By The Law Offices of Richard Ansara, P.A.

File this one under “strange but true”:

A New York woman recently successfully warded off a DUI conviction after presenting evidence in court that her body brews its very own alcohol. You read that correctly. This woman reportedly blew a blood-alcohol level that was more than four times the legal limit, despite having consumed nowhere near that level of alcohol.02

Despite this extremely high amount of alcohol in her blood, she was not exhibiting any of the typical symptoms of alcohol consumption when she got to the hospital. Although her blood-alcohol level would suggest she was nearing a coma-state, hospital officials wanted to release her immediately because she didn’t seem drunk at all.

Her defense lawyer was at first puzzled. The woman herself insisted she had only consumed four drinks over a six-hour period when she met her husband at a local bar/grill. Experts opined that at that rate, a woman of her size would have a blood-alcohol level of somewhere between 0.01 and 0.05 by the time she was driving home. She should have been well below the legal limit of 0.08. Continue reading

December 21, 2015

Troopers Suspect Drunk Driving in Fatal Crash on I-75 in Oakland Park

By The Law Offices of Richard Ansara, P.A.

The driver who rear-ended an Oakland Park food truck in September, causing fatal injuries to one of the passengers, is believed to have been under the influence of alcohol, according to investigating troopers with the Florida Highway Patrol.

According to a newly-released search warrant obtained by The Sun-Sentinel, driver Joseph Decaro Jr., co-owner of a Bonefish grill in Plantation, told the trooper he was taste-testing holiday martinis with the bartenders just an hour before the crash. Decaro, who has not been arrested or charged with any crime as of this writing, allegedly told the trooper he had left work about a half hour prior to the crash and had nothing to drink a half hour before he left the restaurant.

Authorities say Decaro was operating an F-150 truck when he rear-ended a food truck in which 54-year-old Patsy Jane D’souza was riding. She wasn’t wearing a seat belt and was ejected onto the highway, where she died. The 48-year-old food truck driver suffered minor injuries.

Decaro, 45, of Miami, reportedly told the investigating troopers on scene that he and his staff were instructing bartenders on how to make certain martini drinks to ensure they were properly mixed. As he described it, he consumed, “A sip of this one, a sip of that one. Make another one, sip of this one, sip of that one.” Continue reading

November 21, 2015

DUI Manslaughter Defendant Fights for Third Trial in Two Appeals

By The Law Offices of Richard Ansara, P.A.

A battle over blood evidence is one of just two fronts on which a polo club founder is fighting his conviction for DUI manslaughter, following a second trial over a fatal accident in Wellington that killed a 23-year-old recent engineering graduate.

Defense attorneys for 52-year-old John Goodman, heir to a heating-and-cooling company and founder of the polo club, argued recently before Florida’s 4th District Court of Appeal that the blood evidence against him is not reliable. Because prosecutors leaned heavily on it during his second trial, they argue a new trial should be granted.

He is also appealing his retrial conviction on other technicality grounds. Further, he is asking the state to give him “credit for time served” for the 368 days he spent on house arrest while his second trial was pending.

Prosecutors are fighting back on each of these appeals. https://www.ansaralaw.com/dui.html

November 10, 2015

Florida DUI Manslaughter, Hit-Run Cases Result in Disparate Sentences

By The Law Offices of Richard Ansara, P.A.

Last month, a South Florida disc jockey was convicted of DUI manslaughter and vehicular homicide in an auto accident that killed a couple in a vehicle stopped at a traffic signal ahead of him. The crash happened in 2013 in Coral Gables.

Defendant, Ervens Prudent, is better known in Miami as “DJ AOL.” His blood-alcohol level was allegedly nearly twice the legal limit as he was driving home from a friend’s wedding. Though he conceded on the stand he was at-fault for the crash, he insisted he wasn’t drunk. Rather, he had fallen asleep.

His sentencing hearing is scheduled for Nov. 18, and he faces up to 30 years in prison. The question of what he’ll actually get is tough to say, given how disparate sentences can be in cases that alleged DUI manslaughter, vehicular homicide and hit-and-run.

This fact was highlighted several months ago in an in-depth analysis by the Miami Herald, which found that while the average DUI manslaughter sentence in Florida was 9.5 years, punishments varied greatly depending on jurisdiction. For example:
–Palm Beach County – Average 11.54 years average
–Hillsborough County – 10.18 years average
–Miami-Dade – 6.09 years average

October 19, 2015

Former Florida Middle School Principal Not Guilty of DUI

By The Law Offices of Richard Ansara, P.A.

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.”
Continue reading

October 5, 2015

Man Faces Homicide Charges in Double Fatal Crash

By The Law Offices of Richard Ansara, P.A.

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.
Continue reading

September 17, 2015

Boca Raton Mom Arrested for DUI, Leaving Child Alone

By The Law Offices of Richard Ansara, P.A.

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.
Continue reading

September 2, 2015

Penalties for Florida DUI Manslaughter Widely Vary

By The Law Offices of Richard Ansara, P.A.

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.
Continue reading