Kerry Kennedy, daughter of late senator Robert F. Kennedy, was acquitted of charges of driving while intoxicated (similar to California’s DUI charges) earlier this morning in a New York courtroom. Jurors spent just over an hour deliberating the facts before delivering their verdict.
Kennedy was found collapsed over the steering wheel of her vehicle after swerving and sideswiping a tractor-trailer on a New York interstate highway back in July, 2012.
If there is one thing that being an Orange County criminal defense attorney has taught me it is that good people do bad things. And all people have reasons for doing what they do. When a loved one has come into contact with the criminal justice system, it is the role of his criminal defense attorney to make the prosecutor and/or judge understand why. Few actions can be accurately summarized by knee-jerk or one-word responses such as “greed,” “anger” or “lust.” Like the fictional Valjean in Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables who stole a loaf of bread for his starving sister, many have motives that most would find sympathetic. It is the criminal defense lawyer’s job to find out what, in particular, was going on in a defendant’s life when an incident occurred.
Was he subject to unusual pressures?
With the holidays approaching, more shoppers will come out in force to pick up a holiday gift for their loved ones. Understandably, retailers will be keeping a closer eye on their products to ensure that the shoppers don’t become shoplifters.
Shoppers can unwittingly become victims of the criminal justice system, even if they’re not shoplifters. High-end retailers have been under recent scrutiny for acts of discrimination against potential buyers, in one circumstance even telling a black woman that she would not be able to afford the item she was looking at, before the clerk realized she was Oprah Winfrey.
What to do when Social Services has been called—
You and your husband were arguing the other night. Neighbors called the police. The police told you that they had to arrest one of you and he chose you. You’ve bailed out of jail, you’ve contacted an experienced Orange County domestic violence or criminal defense attorney, you are prepared for court and then you come home and there it is out of left field- a business card left on your door from the Department of Child and Family Services with a note that you must call a social worker. You call as instructed and are told that “your social worker” needs to investigate “your case.”
Orange County may soon create a registry-style website for dangerous dogs. If the measure is approved by the Orange County board of supervisors there would be a few new definitions for “dangerous” or vicious” in regards to your pet. What are the ripple effects? You can expect higher home insurance premiums in some areas, home prices potentially affected, and less foot traffic in certain areas to business. The recent proposal for a website that shows you the location of these dangerous animals is most likely in response to recent attacks in other counties in Southern California that resulted in bodily injury and in one Antelope Valley case death.
What does this mean for criminal law? If you have a vicious or dangerous dog and this website comes into existence, your neighborhood, depending on volume of “dangerous” or “vicious” dogs, could become a target by law enforcement. A person having mere custody of such a dog may make them liable regardless of ownership. If you have a guard dog or a breed that is prone to aggressiveness, you may want to consider that a photo of the dog and your address will be published to the public at large. Vigilantes have been known to occasionally target sex offenders based on the published sex offender registry, so the safety of your dog, your home, and potentially even you and your family could be at risk if the information is published in a similar dangerous dog registry.
In an earlier post, I detailed an example of a lawyer who got herself into some trouble in an incident involving alcohol, police, and a whole bunch of negative publicity. That fiasco was the result of a series of poor decisions regarding her personal life that unfortunately affected her professional career. But certainly any attorney—or even a judge, for that matter—would never allow a lapse of professional conduct in the courtroom to jeopardize his or her career, right?
Prosecutors, district attorneys, and judges like to be viewed as “tough on crime.” In the case of judges, that’s how many of them get elected to their positions. Although many are objective, fair, and just in their rulings, there are some who secretly challenge the “innocent until proven guilty” paradigm of criminal proceedings. An unfortunate few officials have convinced themselves that anyone who stands before their bench must somehow be guilty; the question is, “how guilty?”
In February, Joe Hundley was aboard a flight from Minneapolis to Atlanta to pay a final visit to his brain-dead son in the hospital and take him off of life support. He had not slept the previous night and was consuming alcohol as a method of coping with the pain and stress of the situation.
He was seated next to Jessica Bennett, who was holding her 19-month old son on her lap. When the flight made its final descent to Atlanta, Bennett’s son began crying. Hundley became agitated and allegedly leaned over to Bennett and told her to “shut that (N-word) baby up.” He repeated the phrase to Bennett before reportedly slapping the child on the face, leaving a scratch below his right eye.
More than one drink may soon be too much and could lead to a DUI arrest. As many know, the legal driving limit in California is a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of less than 0.08%. This level was drastically lowered from 0.15% in the 1980s and may now be lowered again.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has recommended that the limit be lowered to 0.05%. Although the NTSB has no authority to make changes itself, it is an influential agency, and can encourage lawmakers to make changes in their respective states, as well as provide financial incentives for states to adopt their suggestions.
We knew it wouldn’t be long until there would be a tie-in between drinking and dieting. For those of you watching your waistlines, you may want to be extra responsible when thinking about driving, especially if you are inclined to choose a sugar-free mixed drink.
The results are in: a recent study conducted by a cognitive psychologist at Northern Kentucky University shows that if you drink with a sugar-free mixer, your blood alcohol content (BAC) will actually be higher than if you consumed the same amount of alcohol with a sugar-sweetened mixer. We presume that the sweeter the drink, the greater the effect. Margaritas, which are heavily sweetened, can pack a much greater punch when consumed with a sugar-free mix.
Home confinement is often an attractive alternative to doing jail time, but in some cases, making your ankle bracelet attractive carries its own punishment.
Rebecca Gallanagh was charged with the crime of public disorder for being involved in a fight outside of a local nightclub in the UK. As an alternative to incarceration, she was fitted with an electronic ankle bracelet that monitors her position through GPS satellites. She was ordered to adhere to a strict 9PM curfew in her home that officials could monitor through the signals received by the device.
The Orange County Criminal Lawyer Blog