Articles Posted in Uncategorized

An 18 year old Anaheim man could be facing years in prison for causing the deaths of a father and son while driving under the influence of alcohol in Santa Ana. He is being charged with driving with a blood alcohol level of .13, vehicular manslaughter by an unlawful act causing death with gross negligence while intoxicated and sentencing enhancements for causing great bodily injury. This young man, in addition to DUI, is being accused of running a red light at a high rate of speed, both of which play a role in how severe the sentence will be should he be found guilty.

Vehicular manslaughter is when the death of another is due to illegal driving, including gross negligence, drunk driving, reckless driving or speeding. Vehicular manslaughter can be charged as either a misdemeanor or felony. There is also something known as gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated. The sentence exposure is anywhere from 1 year in jail to 15 years to life in prison. Gross negligence or driving a few miles over the speed limit may be charged as a misdemeanor. But, drunk driving resulting in a death will most likely be filed as a felony.

In this case, this young man’s sentence exposure depends upon whether he pleads guilty to misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter or felony vehicular manslaughter. Facts that will be taken into consideration are whether or not he has any prior DUI convictions. Prior convictions of DUI can result in a charge of Second Degree Murder due to the fact that the individual knew the dangers of drunk-driving. Another fact to take into consideration is whether or not he committed an additional wrongful act and reckless driving such as speeding and/or running a red light. All of these issues play a role in determining how the case will be filed. Speeding and/or reckless driving can allow the District Attorney to add sentence enhancements to the charges, which makes penalty exposure more serious.

Fortunately there are legal defenses to Vehicular Manslaughter. An experienced Orange County California DUI Defense Attorney will be familiar with these defenses and the best way to utilize them to get the best result possible. A good DUI defense attorney would look at the validity of the intoxication evidence rather than some other reason for the impairment, as well as the blood or breath test results. Police procedures should always be looked at for possible misconduct. Another approach a good criminal defense attorney will look at is focusing on the accident and subsequent injury. Working with an accident reconstruction expert can help to determine whether the accident that caused the injury was truly the fault of the accused. Factors that a reconstruction expert will look at are things such as weather, road conditions, damage to the vehicles, and any other relevant evidence that is acquired. This is extremely important because, when police arrive at an accident scene where someone has been drinking, it is almost always assumed that the cause of the accident was due to drunk-driving.

If you have been arrested and/or charged with Misdemeanor Vehicular Manslaughter, Felony Vehicular Manslaughter, Gross Vehicular Manslaughter While Intoxicated or Felony DUI in Orange County California, whether involved in an accident or not, you will need a good Orange County California DUI attorney.

Continue reading →

A 24 year old Lake Forest woman and a 51 year old Fontana man were both arrested for suspicion of <driving under the influence or DUI, after they collided with each other.

According to statements taken at the scene, the 24 year old woman was unable to stop and ran through a red light, colliding with the Fontana man’s car. The Lake Forest woman was arrested for Felony DUI because the passenger in the Fontana man’s car was injured. The Fontana man was arrested for DUI.

DUI, or driving under the influence, charges are typically charged as misdemeanors. However, some DUI’s can be charged as felonies. A DUI that is charged as a Felony DUI, usually involves DUI manslaughter; DUI causing serious injury; 3rd DUI conviction within 10 years; and 4th DUI conviction at any time. Drunk drivers who cause injury, or DUI with injury is sometimes referred to as a “wobbler” charge, which means that it can be charged as either a felony or misdemeanor. However, prosecutors typically pursue the charge that carries the most punishment. An experienced drunk driving defense attorney, or DUI defense attorney, will have the knowledge and experience that is necessary to get the charge reduced to a misdemeanor.

A conviction of felony DUI carries a much more serious punishment than a misdemeanor DUI. A misdemeanor first offense DUI can be punishable by up to six months in the county jail, whereas a felony DUI can carry a year or more in state prison sentence.
A good Orange County California DUI Defense Attorney will be familiar with the variety of defenses available to someone who is being charged with DUI or Felony DUI. Some of the obvious legal defenses to felony DUI are challenging the underlying DUI. The appearance of being under the influence can be the same as fatigue and/or certain types of illnesses. Challenging the validity of the breath or blood test results and challenging police procedures and/or police misconduct. Other defenses might be that your negligence was not the actual cause of the injuries, but that there was something other than your intoxication or negligence that caused the accident and/or injuries.

Anyone charged with misdemeanor DUI or Felony DUI, should seek to hire an experienced DUI Defense Attorney, specializing in Drunk Driving Defense. An experienced Orange County, CA DUI defense lawyer should aggressively pursue and develope a strategy to defend your felony (or misdemeanor) DUI case and work to minimize all the negative consequences.

Continue reading →

An Orange County California man was convicted earlier this month for gross vehicular manslaughter after hitting and killing a pedestrian. The man was arrested an hour after fleeing the scene. His blood alcohol was reported to be three times the legal limit. This 41 year old Santa Ana man had three prior convictions for DUI or Driving Under the Influence.

Gross Vehicular Manslaughter While Intoxicated is a felony. The punishment is up to 10 years in State Prison or 15 years to life if you have prior DUI convictions.

A good Orange County California DUI Defense Attorney will be familiar with the variety of defenses available to someone who is being charged with DUI or Felony DUI. Some of the obvious legal defenses to Gross Vehicular Manslaughter or DUI’s in general are challenging the underlying DUI. The appearance of being under the influence can be the same as fatigue and/or certain types of illnesses. Challenging the validity of the breath or blood test results and challenging police procedures and/or police misconduct.

A Criminal Defense Attorney will attack the allegations of gross negligence in one of two ways. 1. That that you didn’t act with gross negligence but instead acted with ordinary negligence; and 2. That your gross negligence was not what caused the resulting death. That the acts of another person or forces beyond your control such as road conditions or weather were the cause of the death. Your attorney might hire an accident reconstruction expet to help in this type of defense.

Continue reading →

A 20 year old Lake Forest woman has been charged with 1 Count of Felony driving under the influence of alcohol with injury, 1 Count of driving under the influence with blood alcohol .08% or more causing injury and 1 Count of Minor driving with blood alcohol of 0.5% or more.

According to Lake Forest Deputies, the Orange County, CA woman hit a 16 year old girl after she lost control of her car and went up over a curb. The 16 year old girl suffered critical injuries, including broken bones and was in a coma for a period of time. The girl is expected to survive. If convicted, the accused faces up to 3 years in state prison.

DUI, or driving under the influence, charges are typically charged as misdemeanors. However, some DUI’s can be charged as felonies. A DUI that is charged as a Felony DUI, usually involves DUI manslaughter; DUI causing serious injury; 3rd DUI conviction within 10 years; and 4th DUI conviction at any time. Drunk drivers who cause injury, or DUI with injury is sometimes referred to as a “wobbler” charge, which means that it can be charged as either a felony or misdemeanor. However, prosecutors typically pursue the charge that carries the most punishment. An experienced drunk driving defense attorney, or DUI defense attorney, will have the knowledge and experience that is necessary to get the charge reduced to a misdemeanor.

A conviction of felony DUI carries a much more serious punishment than a misdemeanor DUI. A misdemeanor first offense DUI can be punishable by up to six months in the county jail, whereas a felony DUI can carry a year or more in state prison sentence.

In Orange County California, being under 21 and driving with a blood alcool of 0.01% or greater subjects you to the penalties under California’s “Zero Tolerance Law”. This means that even if you have only one drink, you may be found guilty of the offense. You do not need to be found to be “under the influence”, only that you consumed some measure of alcohol. Penalties for a minor being convicted of DUI vary according to the circumstances. Violating California Vehicle Code 23140 is an infraction and therefore not filed as a misdemeanor or felony. However, certain circumstances can cause the punishment to be more severe. Possible sentences include three to five years of informal probation; $390.00 to $1,000.00 in fines; up to one year in county jail; mandatory court-appointed alcohol class; and a six month driver’s license suspension.

The Department of Motor Vehicles has it’s own punishments/consequences for minor’s drinking and driving. If a minor violates the Zero Tolerance Law he or she will lose their driver’s license for one year, be required to attend and complete a minimum three month alcohol program; and possibly be ordered to participate in a “Youthful Drunk Driving Violation Program”. Participation in this program includes a visit to an E.R., the coroner’s office or a chemical dependency recovery center.

Anyone charged with misdemeanor DUI or Felony DUI, should seek to hire an experienced DUI Defense Attorney, specializing in Drunk Driving Defense. An experienced Orange County, CA DUI defense lawyer should aggressively pursue and develope a strategy to defend your felony (or misdemeanor) DUI case and work to minimize all the negative consequences.

Continue reading →

A 21 year old Fullerton, California man plead guilty last month to manslaughter for the 2009 deaths of his two friends when he lost control of his truck and hit a tree in Santa Ana, California. His friends were passengers in his vehicle and were ejected upon impact. The young man had a blood-alcohol level above 0.10 percent at the time of the crash.

This young man’s sentencing exposure depends upon whether he plead guilty to a misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter or felony vehicular manslaughter. There is also Gross Vehicular Manslaughter While Intoxicated. The sentence exposure is anywhere from 1 year in jail to 15 years to life in prison. Some of the determining factors are that the person was driving under the influence or DUI, that while they were DUI they committed an additional wrongful act and reckless driving such as speeding. Another determining factor is whether it was a first, second or third or more offense.

Fortunately there are legal defenses to DUI. An experienced Orange County California DUI Defense Attorney will be familiar with these defenses and the best way to utilize them to get the best result possible. A good DUI defense attorney would look at the validity of the intoxication evidence rather than some other reason for the impairment, as well as the blood or breath test results. Police procedures should always be looked at for possible misconduct. Other defenses might be that your negligence was not the actual cause of the death or in this Santa Ana case, deaths. And, lastly, the accident itself. Was there something other than your intoxication or negligence that caused the accident.

If you have been arrested and/or charged with Driving Under the Influence in Orange County California, whether involved in an accident or not, you will need a good Orange County California DUI attorney.

Continue reading →

A 64 year old man was struck by a car in Irvine, CA, while walking across the street. The pedestrian suffered head trauma and broken bones and is in critical condition. The driver is suspected to have been driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs at the time. The accident is still being investigated to determine whether or not the driver had been drinking or was DWI prior to the accident. If it is determined that the driver was driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs when the accident happened, he or she faces possible felony DUI charges.

Someone who is arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs or DWI, will either be charged with a felony or a misdemeanor. First, second and third offenses are usually filed as misdemeanors. If, however, the driver is involved in an accident, kills or injures a person, or is arrested for a fourth DUI, the offense will be charged as a felony.

The penalties for misdemeanor DUI and felony DUI vary greatly. Someone being charged with a felony DUI faces a far greater punishment than someone being charged with a misdemeanor DUI.

An experienced Orange County drunk driving defense attorney will first try to determine whether, based on the facts, the charges will be filed as a misdemeanor or felony. If felony charges are filed, a good criminal defense attorney specializing in DUI, will try to get the charges reduced from a felony to a misdemeanor. If the defendant agrees to plead guilty to the lesser charge, the punishment is far less harsh.

Continue reading →

Californians, what does it cost to get a DUI? That has been the subject of numerous articles. As each year passes, new fines are piled on top of fines, costing the dui driver thousands and thousands of dollars, along with other little-known consequences. The average cost hovers over ten thousand dollars, up to twenty, including bail, attorney’s fees, court fines and increases in insurance costs, not to mention job loss and personal consequences.

What if you can’t drive to work anymore? What if you are DUI in your work truck? The DMV will take your license for a year. How are you going to work? How will you support your family?

DUI drivers don’t consider these things. They don’t consider hitting another car or pedestrian and causing injury or death. The best defense against the DUI driver is education. WIth the rise in binge drinking among teens and college-age people, the potential for harm at all levels remains a threat.

It is up to adults to teach younger adults and children the risks of DUI, not to mention alcoholism and its related social problems. There are numerous resources available for this purpose.

In the event you find yourself having been cited or arrested for DUI the law provides for safeguards to make sure that law enforcement is doing it’s job correctly and in accord with the constitution and other state laws. I don’t endorse DUI driving, but I defend those accused so that the system for dealing with them is fair, not a witch hunt. Whether you live in Irvine, Mission Viejo or Huntington Beach, if you are charged with a DUI, call an experienced DUI defense attorney to assist you.

Continue reading →

Here’s a service that saves lives. If you have had too much to drink and don’t want to drive, call them. http://www.thelevfoundation.org/rides/
But here’s the kicker: The organization offers ideas for parents to communicate with their kids about alcohol and drugs. They also offer peer-to-peer mentoring and creates a healthy and Youth to Parent classes, offering “an open environment where parents and children feel comfortable asking and answering questions. Through the “Communicating in a New Millennium” series, LEV has created a unique forum where parents and children engage in dialogue over issues ranging from relationships, to academics and substance abuse”.

This is truly a public service. If you or someone you know fails to take advantage of a service like this and is ultimately arrested, feel free to call my office to discuss your legal problem, no matter where it occurs in Orange County.

Continue reading →

Sadly, once again, a life taken and a life wasted because of DUI here in Orange County. A Long Beach man, Ivan Gandarilla, was convicted today of second-degree murder in the death of his passenger after a collision in Los Alamitos.

There is nothing really special about the facts in this case. It’s commonplace nature is worth commenting upon, though. Every year, there are too many deaths related to DUI here in Orange County. Ultimately, each of us is responsible for his own conduct. Had the passenger thought to question Gandarilla’s level of intoxication, he might be alive today.

DUI murder is know as “Watson” murder. It’s based upon the idea that, given the facts, someone who gets into a car drunk, a car weighing thousands of pounds, knowing he’s drunk, acts with malice (intent to kill). You would look to see if he had a prior DUI (Gandarilla had two) such that he knew that getting into a car drunk could likely result in death to someone else but still drove drunk.

Gandarilla was a serious alcoholic. His blood alcohol level in his prior DUI was .33. Think about that: thats over FOUR TIMES the legal limit. Gandarilla couldn’t stop drinking once he started. Whether his prior DUIs were in Los Angeles or Orange County, it didn’t matter. It’s the same crime. Gandarilla was prosecuted in Westminster because the murder took place in Los Alamitos. That meant the case was assigned to the West Justice Center.

Interestingly, had Gandarilla had no prior convictions, the DA might not have charged him with Murder. They might have pursued a manslaughter conviction, which is easier to prove because the mental state is “lower” in a sense than murder. You don’t have to show intent, just a violation of the law. Running a red light, for instance. With alcohol, the scenario changes completely. With the priors, it’s a totally different story. A DUI defense attorneyhttps://www.williamweinberg.com would want to explore, especially in Gandarilla’s case, the damaging effects of alcoholism on his judgement in the first place, his overall psychological status, as well as the liability for the accident and other factors such as lighting, signal calibration, speed of the other vehicle or safety equipment on either vehicle.

Continue reading →

San Bernardino Sun is reporting that San Bernardino police arrested 10 people and wrote 167 tickets during a weekend driver’s license and sobriety checkpoint on Saturday afternoon and evening. The checkpoint was from 3 until 11 p.m. in the 1600 block of West Fifth Street.

In addition to the tickets and criminal arrests, officers impounded 69 vehicles Police said 50 motorists ticketed did not have a license or were driving on a suspended license. Four of the 10 people arrested were suspected of driving while under the influence, police said.

The DUI checkpoint was funded by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

Continue reading →