Recent Blog Posts in February 2010

Suzanne Amelia Carlson, a 27-year-old  Mission Viejo woman, is currently on trial in the Orange County Superior Court on charges of 2^nd degree murderin relation to 2007  DUI accident which killed her passenger, 55-year-old Scott Turner of Dove Canyon.

Carlson, who has three prior driving under the influence convictions, is also charged with gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated with prior convictions and faces 15 years to life if convicted.

According to the prosecutor’s case, Carlson was drinking for more than two hours at a Rancho Santa Margarita restaurant before leaving with Turner in Turner’s car.  She subsequently veered across two lanes of traffic on the 91 Freeway and rear-ended an 18-wheel Fed Ex truck, smashing the passenger side of Turner’s car, before hitting a wall.  Turner died shortly thereafter from massive internal injuries.

Test taken 90 minutes after the accident revealed Carlson’s blood alcohol level was .22 percent.             

A recent investigation conducted by the Investigative Reporting Program at UC Berkeley and California Watch has found  DUI checkpoints in  California are more effective in increasing profits for a number of police departments than in catching drunken drivers.

According to reports, in 2009, many  checkpoints actually netted more car impounds from unlicensed drivers than arrests related to driving under the influence.  In fact, the number was up 53 percent from 2007.  The towing fees and police fines related to these impounds amounted to approximately $40 million dollars.  In addition, the crackdown on  DUIs generated an estimated $30 million in overtime pay to police officers.

The investigation also revealed the majority of these impounds involved minority drivers, many illegal immigrants.  It has been suggested this is due to police frequently conducting checkpoints in and around neighborhoods with a predominantly Hispanic population.  Whatever the reason, such impounds seem at odds with a 2005 federal appellate court ruling preventing the police from impounding cars solely based on the driver being unlicensed. 

The state grant funding  DUI checkpoints in Orange County has netted another seven arrests for suspicion of driving under the influence. 

The checkpoint, conducted last weekend on Pacific Coast Highway in Seal Beach, also resulted in the impound of ten cars, arrests for driving on a suspended license as well as fifteen separate citations for various other violations. 

Two men were  arrested in connection with a fatal car accident in Santa Ana over the weekend.

According to reports, the driver of a Toyota Tundra was allegedly fleeing the scene of a traffic collision when he ran a red light and smashed into the passenger side of a Toyota Corolla.  The 20-year-old female passenger of the Corolla died at the scene while the 21-year-old male driver of the Corolla suffered minor injuries. 

The 22-year-old driver of the Tundra was arrested and booked on suspicion of murder, vehicular manslaughter, felony DUI, felony injury hit-and-run and possession of a controlled substance. 

The driver of the Corolla was also arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence. 

The California Supreme Court recently ruled a prosecutor’s use of a Power Point presentation depicting a jigsaw puzzle of the Statue of Liberty to define  reasonable doubt constituted prosecutorial misconduct.

In the case at issue, the Defendant was convicted of domestic violence under  Penal Code Section 273.5 with a prison prior.  He was sentenced to four years in state prison.  On appeal, the Defendant argued the Power Point presentation used during the prosecutor’s closing argument to exemplify the  reasonable doubt standard was improper and urged the jury to conclude “where there’s smoke there’s fire.”  

As explained in the decision, the visual presentation showed six pieces of an eight piece puzzle being assembled piece by piece on the screen which was “immediately and easily recognizable as the Statue of Liberty.”  Before finally adding the last two pieces, the prosecutor noted “we know this picture is beyond a reasonable doubt without looking at all the pieces of that picture.  We know that that’s a picture of the Statue of Liberty, we don’t need all the pieces of it.” 

The Court found this to be clear misstatement of the law which served to lessen the reasonable doubt standard required under the  Constitution to one which “invites the jurors to guess or jump to a conclusion.”  

Despite this finding, the Court found the presentation did not prejudice the Defendant given the facts in this particular case and, thus, affirmed the judgment.  They did, however, offer this warning: “Nevertheless, we caution prosecutors who are tempted to enliven closing argument with visual aids that using such aids to illustrate the “beyond a reasonable doubt” standard is dangerous and unwise.”     

Newport Beach police arrested a man in the early morning hours of Tuesday on suspicion of driving under the influence.  According to reports, the man was driving northbound on East Coast Highway when he drove his Escalade onto the curb, knocked over a parking sign and crashed into a brick planter before proceeding back onto the road.  He then continued another block before again jumping the curb, destroying another parking sign, sideswiping a palm tree, hitting a bus stop bench and coming to a stop inside a Corona Del Mar business. 

THE ORANGE COUNTY SHERIFF AND OTHER LOCAL AUTHORITIES RECENTLY VOICED CONCERN OVER THE STATE’S EARLY RELEASE OF THOUSANDS OF PRISON INMATES.

ACCORDING TO REPORTS, THE SHERIFF BELIEVES WHILE THE RELEASE WILL LESSEN COSTS TO THE STATE IT WILL, IN TURN, BURDEN THE BUDGETS OF LOCAL AGENCIES.  AS OUTLINED, THE RELEASE PROGRAM WILL ENABLE INMATES TO EARN CREDITS TO REDUCE THEIR TIME BY PARTICIPATING IN SUCH THINGS AS FIRE FIGHTING AND DRUG PROGRAMS.  IN ADDITION, ONCE RELEASED, INMATES WILL NOT BE SUBJECT TO SUPERVISED PAROLE AND/OR TECHNICAL PAROLE VIOLATIONS.      

THE PROGRAM DOES SEEM TO HAVE SOME FEATURES WHICH ARE FAVORED BY LOCAL AUTHORITIES, SUCH AS GPS SUPERVISION OF PAROLEE GANG MEMBERS AND 2000 ADDITIONAL ELECTRONIC DEVICES TO BE USED AS AN  ALTERNATIVE TO INCARCERATION FOR PAROLE VIOLATORS.  THE SHERIFF, WHO HAS HER OWN BUDGET PROBLEMS, HOWEVER, ANTICIPATES THIS MOVE WILL ULTIMATELY RESULT IN AN INCREASE IN COUNTY JAIL COSTS AS THE NUMBER OF FELONS IN THE JURISDICTION WILL INCREASE, THEREBY, LIKELY INCREASING THE AMOUNT OF  CRIME AS WELL.              

Trial is underway in the Orange County Superior Court in a  fatal DUI case which killed a 26-year-old ice hockey player and former figure skater from Fullerton.    

Brittany Schuetz, who has a prior drunken-driving conviction and whose  blood alcohol level at the time of this crash is alleged to have been .24 percent, stands accused of second-degree murder in the 2009 death of April Whang.  According to prosecutors, on the night of the incident, Schuetz ignored her friends’ pleas to not drive after consuming several drinks at a party in Sherman Oaks and instead got behind the wheel of her car to drive from Whittier to her Santa Ana home.

Prosecutors claim Schuetz ran through a red light at a La Habra intersection, slamming into Whang’s vehicle as it proceeded through a green light.  The impact threw Whang into the cargo area of her car.  Whang died at the scene of multiple traumatic injuries.  Schuetz, meanwhile, was found by police sitting in the driver’s seat of her car.  She allegedly had a strong odor of alcohol on her breath,  bloodshot and watery eyes and was unable to answer simple questions.       

If convicted, Schuetz faces 15 years to life in prison.