Officers scribbling tickets at record pace - DUI Pinellas

"The city's traffic unit is targeting school zones and major intersections with one thing in mind: safety.

By LORRI HELFAND, SP Times Staff Writer
Published October 25, 2005

LARGO - Speeders and red light runners, take heed. The Largo Police Department's traffic unit has been cracking down, issuing a record number of tickets for moving violations last month.

In September, officers wrote 2,489 tickets, 527 more than they did in April, the second-busiest month so far this year.

"We had the entire traffic safety unit hitting the major MPO intersections and school crossings," said patrol Capt. Glen Smith.

In 2003, the Pinellas County Metropolitan Planning Organization found that nine of the county's most accident-prone intersections were in Largo. To monitor school zones and scout out dangerous intersections, the city's traffic safety unit pooled all six of its officers, including two full-time officers who usually dedicate all of their time to DUI enforcement, Smith said."

To Drive or not to Drive . . .

"The penalties for DUI in the state of Florida can cost as much as $5,000 on the first offense, according to local law-enforcement officials. Offenders face revoked licenses, criminal records, community service, increased insurance rates, probation, fines and possible imprisonment.

Still, bar patrons say more leniency from the law and property owners is needed if they want them do the right thing and avoid driving home drunk.

Still, the towing costs for a DUI are higher -- financially and emotionally -- than for requesting a tow, Overstreet said.

"They can look at it as they are still getting screwed, but when you compare the cost of a DUI arrest, that's pretty cheap," he said. "It's much worse if you get in an accident and hurt or kill somebody. You're looking at spending the next 15 years in prison."

And now a word from the Bartender . .

Mixed blessing: "The bar culture changed when bartenders came face-to-face with legal action. Cases involving drunk customers going out and killing people with out-of-control vehicles sobered up the entire industry.

'Years ago it was more freewheeling,' Careys says. 'Nobody gave a damn about getting a DUI. The cops would pull you over and tell you to go to sleep for a while and get on home,' she said.

Now bartenders must pay attention to whether a customer has had one too many. Carey tells her students to slow down service to a customer who is getting drunk, or offer them coffee or something to eat.

How do you know if someone has reached their limit? 'They start slurring their words or they light two cigarettes at one time,' she says.

A technique Carey has used in the past is to take a customer's keys if they are laying on the bar. Then she asks the patron if she can call them a cab, and she gives the keys to the cab driver. If someone's really unruly, the last resort is to call the cops."

University of Florida's first DUI checkpoint - Gainesville.com

"The University of Florida's first DUI checkpoint on campus ended early Friday after police had arrested one person and issued 29 citations.

Police issued drivers a variety of citations, including for not having their car registration or proof of insurance, said UF Police Capt. Charles McCray.

A 27-year-old Gainesville man was stopped for driving under the influence and taken to the jail. A breath test gave readings of .111 and .105. In Florida, the legal limit for driving is 0.08.

DUI arrests on campus have been increasing since May of this year with more aggressive enforcement of traffic violations, according to University Police.

The check was held for five hours at Gale Lemerand Drive south of Museum Road next to the large commuter lot."

DUI Conviction Tossed Despite Confession - Tampa DUI from SPTimes

Columns: A principle should tip the scales of justice: "The point of requiring a corpus delicti is that a confession, by itself, is not enough to prove that a crime occurred. Otherwise, crazy people could confess to anything. Cops and prosecutors wouldn't need to worry about gathering evidence.
To quote the Florida Supreme Court in a landmark 1976 case:

The judicial quest for truth requires that no person be convicted out of derangement, mistake or official fabrication.

In this case, to prove the DUI-serious-injury charge, there had to be some independent proof that Esler was in fact drunk and driving the car that hit Jim. That evidence did not exist. The case boiled down to (1) Jim saying somebody in a white car hit him and (2) Tina saying she had been driving a white car in the area.

The appeals court reversed her conviction."

Convicted drunk driver tells story - (DUI Tampa Attorney) fromThe BG News -

"Convicted drunk driver tells story - Students gather to hear tale of spring break disaster

By Laura Hoesman
SENIOR REPORTER
October 24, 2005

Six years ago, drunk after an evening of partying on his spring break in Florida, Mark Sterner crashed his car, killing three of his fraternity brothers and earning three DUI manslaughter convictions.

Sitting in a Florida high-security prison, fearing for his own life every day, Sterner realized that to prevent other students from getting in the same trouble he was in, he had to tell people his story. Yesterday evening, to a crowd that filled the Union Ballroom, Sterner continued his mission to tell as many people as possible what can happen when people drive drunk."

Breath Tests on Trial

Sarasota County defense attorneys target breath-testing equipment

By Todd Ruger
Sarasota Herald Tribune

"SARASOTA COUNTY -- Defense attorneys are attacking the credibility of one of the county's most powerful tools against suspected drunk drivers: the Intoxilyzer 5000.

The briefcase-sized machine uses a breath sample to let police know if someone's blood-alcohol content is over the legal limit of .08.

But nearly 150 defendants in DUI cases say they need to know how the machine's software works to determine whether the results against them are reliable.

Their attorneys already know the problem: Prosecutors can't give them the software's source code because they don't know it. And the manufacturer of the Intoxilyzer 5000 says the code is a trade secret and won't divulge it