Floating Under the Influence in Alaska

DUI laws around the country have been enforced against people riding golf carts, motorized bar stools, Zamboni ice cleaners and horses. Those cases have been prosecuted and won because the facts fell into some convoluted definition of "vehicle" or "conveyance" or "vessel". And, either a judge or jury bought the argument.

In Alaska - land of nature, wildlife, freedom and Sarah Palin - a man was arrested and charged for "driving under the influence of alcohol, floating in a raft on a river through Fairbanks". There are a few ways to look at these types of cases. First, does the object you are "in or on" constitute a vehicle? Second, could you really hurt yourself or someone else in it, even if your BAC was over the legal limit?

In Alaska, many people get around by boat and the waterways are an essential means of transportation. Their DUI statute reads:

"[a] person commits the crime of driving while under the influence of an alcoholic beverage, inhalant, or controlled substance if the person operates or drives a motor vehicle or operates an aircraft or a watercraft while under the influence of alcohol".

The law also goes on to define "operating a watercraft" as "navigate a vessel for means of transportation on water". Floating in a raft on a river is not "navigating", it's floating. If by navigating they want to include my hands used to steer my inflatable raft, then lock me up.

For more information about my firm Jonathan Blecher, P.A. and my qualifications, please visit my website www.duilawdefense.com.

Memorial Day "Urban Weekend" Arrests Down on Miami Beach

According to statistics from the Miami Beach Police Department, the total number of arrests on the Beach are nearly half of what they were during last year's "Urban Weekend". Sgt. Bobby Hernandez, a Miami Beach PD spokesman, thinks that a combination of education and community outreach to visitors as well a shift in police tactics are the main causes for the decrease.

Chilling Effect on Chilling for the Weekend

In past years, MBPD conducted "license plate checks", as seen above, on the causeways leading to and from the Beach, slowing down traffic and making it otherwise uncomfortable to get to the scene. This year's efforts included highly-visible CCTV cameras at main locations, and street-level ambassadors preaching chill. Combine that with the well-traveled word that troublemakers WILL get a skull-bashing and go to jail as well as a wild-west shootout on Washington Avenue in 2011 might have had something to do with it.

Here are the stats from the MBPD:

2014
Total Arrests: 191
Arrests by Race: 118 black males, 58 white males, 9 black females, 6 white females
Felony Arrests: 41
Felonies by Crime: 17 drugs, 15 "other felonies," 4 battery on a police officer, 2 aggravated battery, 1 aggravated assault, one robbery, 1 "CCF" - carrying a concealed firearm
Total Calls for Service: 1,685

2013
Total Arrests: 357
Arrests by Race: 207 black males, 108 white males, 23 black females, 19 white females
Felony Arrests: 65
Felonies by Crime: 3 aggravated assault, 4 CCF, 28 drugs, 6 battery on a PO, 24 "other felonies"
Total Calls for Service: 2,075

For more information about my firm Jonathan Blecher, P.A. and my qualifications, please visit my website www.duilawdefense.com.

Judge Threatens PD in Court - Then "Beats his Ass"

Brevard County (FL) Judge John Murphy was relieved of duty by the Chief Judge after Murphy picked a fight with a Public Defender in his courtroom - and carried it out into the hallway.

The Public Defender must have gotten pretty deep under the judge's skin to get the judge to tell him (from the bench) that "If I had a rock, I would throw it at you right now!" But there's more:

"You know I'm the public defender. I have a right to be here and I have a right to stand and represent my client," The PD, Andrew Weinstock said in the video of the incident

"If you want to fight, let's go out back and I'll just beat your ass," Murphy tells Weinstock before the two head out of the courtroom.

 

For more information about my firm Jonathan Blecher, P.A. and my qualifications, please visit my website www.duilawdefense.com.

Texas Judge Resigns: Caught Texting Prosecutor During DUI Trial

The legal deck is stacked against defendants and defense lawyers in DUI cases, we all know that. These days, "presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt" is nothing more than a tag line at the end of COPS.

In DUI cases the prevailing prosecutorial mindset is that Defendants are guilty until the jury is tricked into a "not guilty" verdict. Plea bargains are squeezed out of defendants by prosecutors who load up on charges in order to get an agreement to plead guilty to DUI.

Recently, (former) Judge Elizabeth E. Coker of Texas signed an agreement with the State Commission on Judicial Conduct to resign. Among other things, the complaint alleged that Judge Coker texted the prosecutor about specific questions to ask during the trial and how to refresh the recollection of a police witness.

Her efforts to help prosecutors obtain a guilty verdict in the case were lost on the wisdom of the jury, who found the defendant "NOT GUILTY".

In a similar incident, former Texas prosecutor and judge Ken Anderson pled guilty to intentionally failing to disclose evidence in a case that sent an innocent man to prison for murder. As a prosecutor, Anderson had evidence that could have cleared him. Anderson withheld the evidence and secured a murder conviction against the defendant. The wrongfully convicted defendant served 25 years in prison while Anderson went on to become a judge.

Add incidents like this to prosecutors who tell police officers how to testify, or who withhold evidence from the defense and you see what we are up against day after day.

For over 30 years, Miami DUI Attorney Jonathan Blecher has been defending DUI cases with positive results for his clients. For more information about my firm Jonathan Blecher, P.A. and my qualifications, please visit my website www.duilawdefense.com.