Criminal-Defense-Blog.com

How Reliable Are Field Sobriety Tests?

2011-12-20T05:53:00.000-08:00

Do Judges Drink And Drive? Yes. Are They Treated Like Everyone Else? I don't think so.

2011-12-20T05:52:00.000-08:00

A veteran Cook County judge charged with DUI earlier this fall has been allowed to drive after a judge found there was no reason for the arrest, according to court records.
Cook County Circuit Judge James Gavin was charged with misdemeanor drunken driving after a Willowbrook police officer pulled him over on Oct. 28 for allegedly using the shoulder to pass another vehicle on southbound Route 83, DuPage County court records show.
Gavin allegedly smelled strongly of alcohol and failed an eye-gaze test before refusing to submit to other field sobriety and blood-alcohol testing, the records state.

His license was automatically suspended as a result of his refusal to submit to the tests. But on Dec. 7, DuPage Associate Judge Liam Brennan ordered that Gavin's license be returned after a hearing on the suspension, ruling police had no reason to stop Gavin.
Gavin, who was elected to the Circuit Court in 1996, could not be reached for comment. He is assigned to the Maybrook Courthouse in Maywood.
Attorney David Sotomayor said Gavin was on his way to his mother's home after leaving the courthouse. The judge had not consumed any alcoholic beverages that day and had driven briefly on the shoulder while trying to edge back into traffic after stopping to pick up chewing tobacco, Sotomayor said.

Read More About This Story Here

More On How Judges Beat The System

Attorney Jailed For Protecting Clients Rights!

2011-12-20T05:48:00.000-08:00

Judges sometimes think they are law enforcement officers and they are not going to let defense attorneys stand in their way.

A Michigan criminal defense lawyer spent about four hours in jail on Friday after being held in contempt for telling a client to assert his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination at his arraignment.

Attorney Scott Millard, 29, who works for Miel & Carr, was supposed to be jailed until Monday. However, he was released Friday after Ottawa County Circuit Judge Edward Post issued an emergency stay of Hudsonville District Court Judge Kenneth Post's contempt order, according to the Grand Rapids Press and the Holland Sentinel.

The articles don't explain whether the two judges are related to each other.

Post apparently had sought information about the 20-year-old client's drug use to determine appropriate bond conditions. However, Millard reportedly told him not to answer, because he might incriminate himself.

Chief District Court Judge Brad Knoll told the newspaper such questions are appropriate for this purpose at an arraignment, and Judge Kenneth Post told the Grand Rapids paper he could not comment on a pending matter.

However, attorney Josh Blanchard, who also works for Miel & Carr and is representing Millard in the contempt matter, disagreed, calling the district court's procedures not compliant with the law.

Blanchard also said Millard had done nothing wrong, only "what the law expects of an attorney." He said Millard “remained calm despite the judge’s threats of jail. He behaved in a manner we’d expect.”

Millard is appealing the contempt ruling and has asked the circuit court to take oversight of his client's minor-in-possession case.

Full Story At: ABAJournal.com

Another Glaring Example of Police Brutality.

2011-12-20T05:45:00.001-08:00

Are Local Police Tactics Too Heavy Handed?

2011-12-20T05:44:00.000-08:00

Hello? Mr. Commander-in-Chief? Why is the Pentagon giving $500 million of military equipment to police departments? $500 million in 2011 alone, that is. And that doesn't take into account the federal grants given to them by Homeland Security to buy even more. Why is the federal government militarizing our police departments?

The Pentagon Is Offering Free Military Hardware To Every Police Department In The US
The U.S. military has some of the most advanced killing equipment in the world that allows it to invade almost wherever it likes at will.
We produce so much military equipment that inventories of military robots, M-16 assault rifles, helicopters, armored vehicles, and grenade launchers eventually start to pile up and it turns out a lot of these weapons are going straight to American police forces to be used against US citizens.
1033 was passed by Congress in 1997 to help law-enforcement fight terrorism and drugs, but despite a 40-year low in violent crime, police are snapping up hardware like never before. While this year's staggering take topped the charts, next year's orders are up 400 percent over the same period.

Read More Here

Judge Jails Criminal Defense Attorney For Telling Client To Not Speak About Past Drug Use.

2011-12-14T14:36:00.000-08:00

Judge Ken Post

HUDSONVILLE -- For Stanton attorney Scott Millard, a scheduled court hearing Friday was to be a simple arraignment for a 20-year-old client on a minor-in-possession charge.
It took only minutes before Millard was on his way to jail on a contempt charge, an order that left lawyers with Millard's law firm crying foul.

Hudsonville District Court Judge Ken Post sent the 29-year-old Millard to jail about 11 a.m. Friday after he reportedly advised his client not to answer questions about past drug use.

Millard was out of the clink in about four hours after an Ottawa County Circuit Court judge granted an emergency stay on the contempt sentence. But attorneys with Miel & Carr PLC say Post stepped outside his legal bounds and want changes in his courtroom.

"The judge threw (Millard) in jail for asserting his client's Fifth Amendment rights," said Josh Blanchard, a co-employee of Millard at Miel & Carr. "It seems inappropriate to me to jail an attorney for being an attorney."

Read The Whole Story Here

FAA Chief Resigns After DUI Arrest...

2011-12-14T14:29:00.000-08:00

WASHINGTON (AP) – FAA administrator Randy Babbitt resigned Tuesday as head of the Federal Aviation Administration following his arrest over the weekend on charges of drunken driving.

Babbitt was about halfway through a five-year term. Deputy FAA Administrator Michael Huerta will serve as acting administrator. Industry officials and lawmakers said they expect Huerta to continue in the post through next year since the White House probably will want to avoid a possible nomination fight before the presidential election.

In recent months, Huerta has been leading the FAA's troubled NextGen effort to transition from an air traffic control system based on World War II-era radar technology to one based on satellite technology. Huerta was managing director of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City and held several senior transportation department posts during former President Bill Clinton's administration.

Babbitt, 65, was arrested Saturday night in Fairfax City, Va., by a patrolman who said the nation's top aviation official was driving on the wrong side of the road.

Babbitt said in a statement that he had submitted his resignation to Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and it had been accepted.

"I am unwilling to let anything cast a shadow on the outstanding work done 24 hours a day, seven days a week by my colleagues at the FAA," Babbitt said. "They run the finest and safest aviation system in the world and I am grateful that I had the opportunity to work alongside them."

LaHood thanked Babbitt for his service, saying that under his stewardship the nation's aviation system "became safer and stronger."

Babbitt "worked tirelessly to improve relations with the labor community and bolstered employee engagement among his 49,000 colleagues at the FAA. He led the FAA's efforts to improve pilot training and enhance safety for the traveling public, as well as those that work in aviation," LaHood said in a statement.

Earlier in the day, LaHood told reporters he was disappointed to learn of Babbitt's arrest from a news release issued by the Fairfax City police department on Monday.

Get The Whole Story Here

Ohio is now converting to a new breath machine, the Intoxilizer 8000!

2011-12-07T12:37:00.000-08:00

We told you about the Ohio Impact: The state spent millions of dollars on the Intoxilyzer 8000.
Since the state bought those machines in 2009, results from those machines are being challenged in court as flawed.
And the person in charge of buying those machines is now working for the company that makes them.
Here are the fast facts:

CMI is based in Owensboro, Ky. It manufactures the Intoxilyzer 8000 machines.
Ohio bought more than 700 Intoxilyzers.
The cost? $6.6 million.
It was paid for by a federal grant.
Last summer, an Athens judge allowed results from the Intoxilyzers to be challenged in court, hundreds of DUI cases could be thrown out.
Defense attorneys say the machines are seriously flawed, sometimes sending innocent people to jail.

The man who helped purchase those machines for Ohio had a connection to the company that made them, CMI.
His name is Dean Ward.

Read More: http://www2.ohiovotes2011.com/news/2011/nov/14/8/only-nbc4-intoxilyzer-8000-purchase-questioned-ar-828733/