Austin DWI Defense Attorney

Ken Gibson

2006-12-09T22:53:00.000-06:00

Austin DWI Attorney
700 Lavaca St., Suite 1010
Austin, TX 78701
512 469-6056
Toll Free: 888-DWI Texas
www.austin-texas-dwi.com

Click here to find out more about Ken
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Who says police officers never lie?

2006-12-09T20:17:00.000-06:00

KXAN reported that an Austin police officer is under investigation for allegedly lying about a case that led to the criminal conviction of an Austin man.

Ernest Smith was convicted in September on drug charges, but the district attorney’s office learned something was wrong, and it had to do with one Austin cop.

It’s unclear exactly what this officer may have lied about, but it was big enough for the district attorney to do something it rarely does.

The district attorney’s office initiated a conversation with Smith’s defense attorney and offered to vacate a judgment on his conviction based on new information. Essentially, Smith’s conviction from September is going to be withdrawn.

APD and the DA are not sharing too much information with KXAN either but we do know this…

Sources say that officer lied about something in the drug case, so District Judge Bob Perkins dropped the case

entirely some three months after Smith was convicted. But friends of his say it’s too late.

That’s because Smith is still in jail on unrelated drug charges. It’s also unclear how this might affect the other cases this accused officer is involved with.

Travis County Judges are asking for help with the backlog of cases

2006-11-01T22:29:00.000-06:00

Each month Travis County court-at-law judges handle thousands of criminal cases. Judges say their average monthly caseload has increased 60 percent since 2002

“So the decision has been made to ask for one new court,” Court-at-Law #3 Judge David Crain said.

The five judges made their requested during a work session with county commissioners last month. Each county court currently has an average of 3,200 cases pending.

“The most labor intensive case is a DWI,” Crain said. (I guess my office probably has something to do with that.)

In the last decade, the number of DWI cases has risen 135 percent. Judges say the number of cases and the type of cases are taking its toll.

“There will be a time when our ability to function the criminal justice system and have orderliness and protect the community will be compromised,” Crain said.

Adding a sixth court-at-law would reduce the caseload for each judge to around 2,000 a month. Crain said that’s a more realistic number.

Creating a new court requires approval of the Texas Legislature, but it’s up to the county to fund it.

Last year, Hays County added another district court. They say it’s allowed them to signficantly reduce the number of backlogged cases.

“That’s important for the taxpayers because it means it takes less time for cases to get to trial. It means that fewer people who are waiting in jail,” 428th District Court Judge Bill Henry said.

In Travis County, the judges hope lawmakers approve a new court-at-law this legislative session so a new judge can take the stand by January 2008.

A new court would cost the county around $800,000 and would mainly cover salaries for additional staff.

If the commissioners court asks the Legislature to create a new court, funding would come from the 2007 - 2008 budget.

Click here for the full story as reported by New 8 Austin

Top five bars drunk drivers say they were last served

2006-10-01T16:00:00.000-05:00

KXAN NBC Austin obtained a list from Austin police identifying the top five bars drunk drivers say they were last served. It’s information meant to help curb DWI’s, but is it working?

Officers are asking suspected drunk drivers this question — “Where have you been drinking tonight?”

Several bars keep popping up as answers. Some more than others.

It’s a top five list no bar wants to be on. So far this year, more and more drunk drivers say they were partying at:

Cedar street,

Rain,

Club Carnaval,

Blind Pig,

Oilcan Harry’s.

“We try to get these officers to ask them, ‘Where have you been drinking?’ If it’s a business establishment. To give us an idea of are there any violations at those businesses that are already serving to people intoxicated?” APD Lt. Craig Cannon said.

So APD hands the list over to the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission, but it doesn’t seem to be going far.

TABC agents used to go into the bars on the list just about every night, undercover, looking for overserved patrons and arresting them before they got behind the wheel.

That was causing a lot of controversy. TABC agents were spotting drunks, just by looking at them. So the program stopped.

The problem of drunk driving has not. APD’s own research shows the number is on the rise. In all of last year, there were 5724 DWI arrests. So far this year, there has been 4165 arrest. Police say they average hundreds of arrests a month.

“We’d love to stop them before they get in the car,” Cannon said.

KXAN NBC Austin asked: “Some TABC agents may be thinking all the DWI’s we’re seeing, maybe it’s because we stopped this program?

Cannon said: “Oh no, it’s not related to that. It didn’t change anything we did. We still arrest the same DWI’s like before. We still ask the date, and we still trap the data. Regardless of the TABC policies or procedures.”

A TABC spokesperson says the agency still believes in its undercover program and are currently looking over its policies. So until then they are just holding on to the bar lists.

Click here for the full story as reported on KXAN

National effort targets drunken drivers

2006-08-19T14:17:00.000-05:00

Federal and state police started a nationwide crackdown on drunken driving Wednesday, saying previous efforts had not done enough to reduce deaths from impaired drivers.

The crackdown, however, may face resistance from a growing industry devoted to defending people arrested on drunken driving charges. These groups contend overzealous police forces inflated the problem out of proportion, trampling rights in the process.

The new effort, sponsored by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, involves 11,000 law enforcement agencies. It includes:

_Increased patrols and checkpoints in states that allow them.

_An $11 million television advertising campaign that will replace the previous “Friends don’t let friends drive drunk” slogan with “Drunk driving- over the limit, under arrest.”

“Drunk driving is an epidemic and is a scourge of this country,” said Jim Champagne, a Louisiana State Police trooper and chairman of the Governors’ Highway Safety Association. “The cost to the country in lives, in jobs and in economic value is unbelievable.”

The traffic safety administration released new statistics Wednesday showing that deaths in traffic accidents involving drivers whose blood alcohol level was at least 0.08 fell 1.2 percent in 2005 to 12,945.

NHTSA Administrator Nicole Nason said the decision to get tougher with drunken drivers came after a decade of small reductions in fatalities despite arrests that totaled 1.4 million in 2004.

“This is really focused on enforcement. This is not a friend asking a friend to not drive drunk,” Nason said. The message is “it’s illegal to drink and drive, and you’re going to go to jail for it.”

During the past decade, federal officials and groups such as Mothers Against Drunk Drivers pushed for tougher penalties against drunken drivers. Since 1999, every state has set its definition of drunk at the 0.08 blood alcohol level, and added penalties such as on-the-spot cancellation of driver’s licenses and vehicle impoundment for suspects who refuse blood alcohol tests. Champagne contended states could do more, and “stop piddy-padding in judicial systems and letting drunk drivers get off.”

While those changes made a small dent in alcohol-related deaths, they spawned a network of companies and attorneys who defend people charged with drunken driving. The National College for DUI Defense has about 500 attorneys as members (including Ken Gibson), and several Internet sites offer long lists of tips about what to do if pulled over for drunken driving.

“It’s lawful in every state to drink and drive, but it’s unlawful to drink to the point of impairment,” said Patrick Barone, a Birmingham, Mich., attorney who specializes in drunken driving defense. Roadblocks and checkpoints “are an inappropriate use of executive power and police resources.”

Barone and other attorneys contend the revenue generated from drunken driving cases in fines make police overly aggressive, arresting drivers who have a smell of alcohol on their breath but no signs of impairment.

Further, arrest quotas at some police departments sweep up innocent people.

Zero tolerance is a great slogan, but it’s not the law in any state in the country

Does Smoking Make You Drink More?

2006-07-27T10:59:00.000-05:00

People may drink more alcohol if they’re smoking cigarettes between sips, a new study shows.

Smoking and drinking often go together, though not all smokers drink and not all drinkers smoke.

Researchers from Texas A&M University studied interactions between nicotine, which is found in cigarettes, and alcohol. They studied adult female rats, but the findings may apply to people.

“Cigarette smoking appears to promote the consumption of alcohol,” says researcher Wei-Jung Chen, PhD, in a journal news release.

Chen and two other Texas A&M researchers — Scott Parnell, PhD, and James West, PhD — tested alcohol and various nicotine doses on the rats.

The researchers found that when they sent alcohol straight into the rats’ stomach via a tube, the rats had lower blood alcohol levels if they had also gotten nicotine.

“This may encourage drinkers to drink more to achieve the pleasurable or expected effect,” says Chen.

Nicotine may somehow affect the stomach’s handling of alcohol, the researchers note.

They figured that out by repeating their experiment with one change. They injected alcohol into the rats’ abdominal cavity (the space surrounding the abdominal organs) instead of piping it into the rats’ stomach. Nicotine had no effect on blood alcohol levels under those conditions, the study shows.

Chen plans to study interactions between alcohol and other drugs. Meanwhile, he says in the news release that “the current findings should be a warning to the general public regarding the danger of abusing multiple drugs, since the pharmacokinetic interactions among these substances are often unpredictable and injurious.”

Click here for the full story as reported on the webmd.com site.

Travis County Sheriff’s Office ramps up their DWI arrests

2006-07-24T07:02:00.000-05:00

Since the Travis County sheriff’s office formed a drunken-driving enforcement team in January, the number of DWI arrests by deputies has increased 61 percent so far this year, officials say.

Department records show that deputies made 362 DWI arrests from January through June, compared with 225 for the same period last year. Authorities said many of the arrests happened on major highways in Austin, including Interstate 35 and MoPac Boulevard (Loop 1).

Until this year, patrol deputies tried to spot and arrest drunken drivers while looking for other traffic violations and responding to calls for service. Hamilton said he wanted to create a team that specialized in finding and arresting drunken drivers, who last year contributed to 132 accidents in the county. Officials did not know how many resulted in fatalities or serious injuries.

Last year, 91 people died on Travis County roads; so far this year, the number is 53.

Hamilton initially named two deputies to the team but increased it to five officers a couple of months ago because of the unit’s success. He said he might continue to add deputies.

Hamilton’s efforts are part of a national trend in law enforcement to create DWI enforcement teams, which let officers develop an expertise in looking for drunken drivers.

The Austin Police Department has a similar unit with about 20 officers.

Lt. Al LeBlanc, who supervises the sheriff’s team, said his deputies usually work from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. and concentrate their patrols on weekends.

“They look for obvious signs of intoxicated drivers, whether it is weaving or driving too slow or running red lights,” LeBlanc said.

Click here for the full story as reported by the Austin American Statesman

Driving While on Cell Phone Worse Than Driving While Drunk

2006-06-30T10:43:00.000-05:00

Forbes.com reported that maneuvering through traffic while talking on the phone increases the likelihood of an accident five-fold and is actually more dangerous than driving drunk, U.S. researchers report.

That finding held true whether the driver was holding a cell phone or using a hands-free device, the researchers noted.

“As a society, we have agreed on not tolerating the risk associated with drunk driving,” said researcher Frank Drews, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Utah. “This study shows us that somebody who is conversing on a cell phone is exposing him or herself and others to a similar risk — cell phones actually are a higher risk,” he said.

His team’s report appears in the summer issue of the journal Human Factors.

In the study, 40 people followed a pace car along a prescribed course, using a driving simulator.

Some people drove while talking on a cell phone, others navigated while drunk (meaning their blood-alcohol limit matched the legal limit of 0.08 percent), and others drove with no such distractions or impairments.

“We found an increased accident rate when people were conversing on the cell phone,” Drews said. Drivers on cell phones were 5.36 times more likely to get in an accident than non-distracted drivers, the researchers found.

The phone users fared even worse than the inebriated, the Utah team found. There were three accidents among those talking on cell phones — all of them involving a rear-ending of the pace car. In contrast, there were no accidents recorded among participants who were drunk, or the sober, cell-phone-free group.

The bottom line: Cell-phone use was linked to “a significant increase in the accident rate,” Drews said.

He said there was a difference between the behaviors of drunk drivers and those who were talking on the phone. Drunk drivers tended to be aggressive, while those talking on the phone were more sluggish, Drews said.

In addition, the researchers found talking on the cell phone reduce reaction time by 9 percent in terms of braking and 19 percent in terms of picking up speed after braking. “This is significant, because it has an impact on traffic as a system,” Drews said. “If we have drivers who are taking a lot of time in accelerating once having slowed down, the overall flow of traffic is dramatically reduced,” he said.

In response to safety concerns, some states have outlawed the use of hand-held cell phones while driving. But that type of legislation may not be effective, because the Utah researchers found no difference in driver performance whether the driver was holding the phone or talking on a hands-free model.

“We have seen again and again that there is no difference between hands-free and hand-held devices,” Drews said. “The problem is the conversation,” he added.

According to Drews, drivers talking on the phone are paying attention to the conversation — not their driving. “Drivers are not perceiving the driving environment,” he said. “We found 50 percent of the visual information wasn’t processed at all — this could be a red light. This increases the risk of getting into an accident dramatically,” he said.

The reason that there aren’t more accidents linked to cell phone use is probably due to the reactions of other — more alert — drivers, Drews said. “Currently, our system seems to be able to handle 8 percent of cell-phone drivers, because other drivers are paying attention,” he said.

“They are compensating for the errors these drivers are causing,” he speculated.

This is a growing public health problem, Drews said. As more people are talking and driving, the accident rate will go up, he said.

One expert agreed that driving and cell phone use can be a deadly mix.

“We don’t believe talking on a cell phone while driving is safe,” said Rae Tyson, a spokesman for the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). “It is a level of distraction that can affect your driving performance,” he said.

NHTSA has just completed a study that showed that 75 percent of all traffic accidents were preceded by some type of driver distraction, Tyson said.

Tyson pointed out that talking on the phone is very different than talking to the person in the passenger seat. “If you are engaged in a conversation with a passenger, the passenger has some situational awareness, whereas a person on the phone has no idea what you are dealing with on the road,” he said.

“Our recommendation is that you should not talk on the phone while driving, whether it’s a hand-held or hand-free device,” Tyson said. “We realize that a lot of people believe that they can multi-task, and in a lot of situations they probably can, but it’s that moment when you need your full attention, and it’s not there because you are busy talking, that you increase the likelihood that you are going to be involved in a crash,” he said.

Tyson also sees this as a growing public health issue. “Every time we do a survey, there are more people using cell phones while driving,” he said. “And the popularity of hand-held devices like Palm Pilots or Blackberries, and people using them in the car, is another problem,” he added.

An industry spokesman said cell phones don’t cause accidents, people do.

“If cell phones were truly the culprit some studies make them out to be, it’s only logical that we’d see a huge spike in the number of accidents [since their introduction],” said John Walls, a vice president at the industry group, the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association-

The Wireless Association. “To the contrary, we’ve experienced a decline in accidents, and an even more impressive decline in the accident rate per million miles driven,” he said.

“We believe educating drivers on how to best handle all of the possible distractions when you’re behind the wheel is the most effective means to make better drivers, and that legislation focusing on a specific behavior falls short of that well-intended goal and creates a false sense of security,” Walls said.

New cell phone has built-in breathalyzer

2006-06-30T10:40:00.000-05:00

UPI reported that a cell phone with a built-in alcohol breath analyzer is headed to the United States from South Korea, where more than 200,000 of the devices already been sold.

South Korean manufacturer LG will introduce the LP4100 to the U.S. market later this year, ABC News reported.

Users blow into a small spot on the phone, and of nothing happens they are theoretically safe to drive. But if the user has had too much to drink, the $400 phone displays the image of a weaving car on the screen.

The report did not indicate what alcohol threshold was set in the phone.

To help the drinker, the phone can be programmed to disallow calls to selected numbers in the electronic phone book after certain hours, thereby preventing embarrassing late-night or early-morning inebriated calls to bosses and ex-partners, the report said.

FAA Issues Final Ruling On Alcohol, Drug Use

2006-06-26T19:27:00.000-05:00

The FAA Thursday issued a long-awaited final ruling on alcohol and drug abuse, under which a pilot who either refuses a drug or alcohol test at the airport, or is found with a blood-alcohol content of more than .04-percent, will lose his medical certificate.

The same rules would apply to air traffic controllers, as well. The rule also standardizes the deadline for reporting positive tests or refusals.

The changes go into effect July 21, 2006.

The new rules were met with opposition from the Air Line Pilots Association. ALPA says one positive test does not an alcohol or drug addict make.

The FAA states that before regaining medical certification for flight, a pilot whose been revoked for drug or alcohol abuse must enter rehabilitation and must demonstrate the ability to meet the standards set out in FAR Part 67. Furthermore, a blood-alcohol level of more than .04-percent must be reported to the FAA within two days.

The new rules don't change the penalties for pilots who are arrested for DUI or DWI. Even if it's unrelated to air travel, an arrest for driving under the influence or driving while impaired can still cost a pilot his ticket.

Click here for information on the FAA site, including the final order.

Another Bad Apple at the Austin Police Department is Fired

2006-06-06T17:26:00.000-05:00

In May, Austin police officer, Cpl. Richard Munoz, was fired by then-Police Chief Stan Knee after Munoz was accused of choking a handcuffed 15-year-old boy Nov. 11, at a trailer park, according to a police memo.

Munoz also investigated a separate incident at the park that day involving a teenager said to have been sexually preying on children but did not file the report properly, giving the attacker time to assault someone else, the memo said.

Munoz has appealed the firing.

Munoz has been with the department for almost 11 years. He was suspended temporarily three times before, according to city records. Those suspensions involved participating during work hours in an online chat room where he called himself “worstkindaman,” not reporting crimes and filing late crime reports, according to the records.

The department declined to comment Wednesday about Munoz’s firing May 3.

Details about what had happened emerged from the police disciplinary memo:
Munoz was called to the trailer park, whose address was removed from the report, because a 15-year-old boy was refusing to obey his mother.

Munoz arrested the boy and his 12-year-old cousin for not being in school but then realized that it was a school holiday.

He released the 12-year-old but kept the 15-year-old in handcuffs while he investigated the original disturbance call. Munoz got angry with the way the 15-year-old was acting, so he grabbed him by the face and neck, according to the memo. Four people, including the boy, said the teenager’s face became red and “his breathing inhibited due to being choked.”

While Munoz was at the trailer park, someone told him that another teenager there had fondled four children, including the handcuffed 15-year-old.

Munoz talked to the fondling suspect but did not contact the teenager’s parents. He also did not interview one of the alleged victims or get any information identifying the victim.

When Munoz later wrote a report about the incident, he did not put the right title on it so that it could be forwarded to the child abuse unit, according to the disciplinary memo. By the time internal affairs investigators discovered the mistake, “another child was allegedly assaulted,” the memo said.

After they got the report, child abuse investigators arrested the suspect and charged him with indecency with a child.

Internal affairs investigators also questioned Munoz about the choking incident at the trailer park, the memo said.

Munoz denied that he had put his hands around the teenager’s face or neck but later admitted doing so after taking a polygraph test, according to the memo.

The videotape in Munoz’s patrol car recorded the officer saying to the boy, “You aren’t man enough, do you understand me?” according to the memo.

Munoz had been suspended in 2005 and twice in 1998. His one-day suspension in 2005 was for his chat room participation during work hours, according to a police memo.

Munoz was suspended for two days in 1998 because as he was arresting an intoxicated bicyclist, another man left with the man’s bicycle and belongings, and Munoz never reported the theft, according to the police memo.

Munoz also didn’t get approval from a supervisor before having the arrested man booked into jail, the memo said.

Munoz was suspended again in 1998 for one day for two separate incidents. In the first incident, he told someone who complained that a vehicle had left the scene of a collision that he couldn’t take a report because the police computer system was down, a memo said. Munoz never wrote a report.

In the second incident, Munoz turned in a report five days late about a collision involving a pedestrian and a car, the memo said.

Click here for the full story as reported by the Austin American Statesman

Will all autos some day have breathalyzers?

2006-06-04T22:27:00.000-05:00

USA Today posed the question in a recent article:

Could the day be coming when every driver is checked for drinking before starting a car?

Widespread use of ignition interlock devices that won't allow a car to be started if a driver has had too much alcohol, once considered radical, no longer seems out of the question. Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) gives a qualified endorsement to the idea. New York state legislators are considering requiring the devices on all cars and trucks by 2009. And automakers, already close to offering the devices as optional equipment on all Volvo and Saab models in Sweden, are considering whether to bring the technology here.

Manufacturers are perfecting technology that could detect alcohol on the skin surface, eliminating the need for the current, cumbersome, blow-into-a-tube breath-analyzing systems. Current breathalyzers cost about $1,000. The newer systems are expected to cost about the same.

The New York bill was introduced by Assemblyman Felix Ortiz, who also sponsored the bill that became the first law banning the use of handheld cellphones while driving. To those who say neither the public nor the technology is ready for such a universal application, Ortiz says he heard similar complaints about the cellphone ban and hands-free technology. He compares the criticism to early complaints about mandatory safety belts.

But Ortiz's bill faces a tough fight. The idea of forcing every driver to pass a blood alcohol test to start a car raises privacy concerns, irritates non-drinkers and has some restaurant industry officials worrying about a march back to Prohibition, or at least the demonizing of social drinking.

MADD and others trying to reduce the 17,000 alcohol-related fatalities a year say ignition interlocks are the only sure way to separate potential drunken drivers from their "weapons."

"If the public wants it and the data support it, it is literally possible that the epidemic of drunk driving could be solved where cars simply could not be operated by drunk drivers," says Chuck Hurley, CEO of MADD, which is hosting its first conference on drunken-driving technology in June.

MADD doesn't currently support requiring the devices on all cars because it doesn't think the technology is ready. For now, the organization prefers requiring the devices, called ignition interlocks, for anyone convicted of a first drunken-driving offense.

About 70,000 ignition interlocks are on vehicles — most of them ordered by courts for repeat drunken-driving offenders.

Even without universal use, there's a huge potential market in the 1.4 million people who are arrested for drunken driving each year. Legislation is pending in at least 12 states that would require interlocks for some or all first-time offenders.

State Farm Insurance spokesman Dick Luedke says interlock discounts wouldn't make much sense because "for the majority of our customers, installing one of these things would have absolutely no impact. For the person who does have the problem and does install (the device), if it does inhibit him from driving impaired, that's worth way more than a lower insurance rate."

Barry Sweedler, a former National Transportation Safety Board official, is trying to persuade automakers to put the wiring for ignition interlocks in all cars to make it easier to install the devices. And once interlocks can automatically check alcohol levels without any action from drivers, Sweedler thinks they should be standard equipment on cars.

Current technology requires a driver to blow heavily into a breathalyzer device before starting the car and regularly while driving. With that system, "Unless a person is an offender, to require it for everyone is too intrusive," says Sweedler, past president of an anti-impaired-driving group that has sponsored ignition interlock conferences for the past six years.

George Ballance, director of sales and marketing for device maker DraegerSafety, says his company advocates interlocks as part of teen driving laws and insurance company discounts.

"We want to get on the preventive side of the cycle and not just be on the court-ordered side," he says.

Draeger encourages its employees to carry pocket breath analyzers and would fire any worker convicted of drunken driving.

"We're not here to say, 'Don't drink.' We're here to say 'Don't drink and drive,' " Ballance says.

Opposition to breathalyzers
Such talk makes John Doyle, executive director of the American Beverage Institute, cringe.

"This campaign is a lot further down the pike than people realize," says Doyle, whose group is funded by chains including Outback Steakhouse and Chili's and is leading the opposition to broader use of interlocks.

He says the existing devices are costly and easy to defeat, by getting someone else to blow into them or using an air compressor instead of a driver's own breath. Besides, he says most drunken-driving deaths are caused by hard-core offenders who have slipped through the system.

"How far are you going to go to reduce alcohol-related fatalities?" Doyle asks. "Maybe they should make driving at night illegal."

Opposition comes from other sources, too. Steven Brown, executive director of the Rhode Island ACLU, says his group opposes laws that require judges to mandate interlocks for convicted drunken drivers. Rhode Island's Legislature is considering a bill that would require interlocks for second-time offenders and first-time offenders with a blood-alcohol level above 0.15, which correlates to drinking seven drinks in an hour for a 170-pound male.

"Our concern about mandatory penalties is that they don't allow courts to take all situations into account, including that the cost is quite significant and the effect it has on family members," Brown says. "Some individuals can't afford it."

While automakers are working on interlock technology, they are cautious. General Motors safety chief Bob Lange says his company has been working on ways to integrate alcohol-detection devices into cars for 30 years, but still doesn't think any are close to ready for widespread use in this country.

"If the technology incorrectly restricts ... sober individuals, it is unlikely to be supported," says Lange, who says systems must be "transparent" to non-drinkers. "Public acceptance and technological viability are essential."

Sue Cischke, Ford Motor's safety chief, agrees obstacles remain. "Some of the challenges include designing a system that is most of all accurate, not easily disabled or avoided, is easy to use and does not create driver-distraction issues."

Swedish brands Volvo, owned by Ford, and Saab, owned by GM, are at the forefront of auto industry efforts to incorporate interlocks into cars. Swedish regulators are expected to soon propose a deadline of 2012 for all cars in that country to have alcohol interlocks.

Volvo's Alcolock — which is built into the seat belt buckle — will likely be available as an option on cars in Sweden within three years. Saab's Alcokey has the technology built into the key.

For automakers, anything that keeps a car from starting sounds too much like the public relations nightmare that came out of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's 1973 decision to require devices that would prevent cars from starting if seat belts weren't buckled.

After a huge public outcry and widespread disconnections, Congress passed a law the following year prohibiting NHTSA from requiring seat belt interlocks or warning buzzers lasting more than eight seconds.

Some critics say alcohol-related interlocks would be even more problematic than seat belt interlocks because about 40% of adults say they don't drink at all. MADD's Hurley says most people don't steal or have their cars stolen, but keys still have built-in anti-theft technology.

Ortiz agrees: "This is a tool that will save lives. We have to stop putting parameters on it."

Ortiz disputes claims that the technology is not ready, but even interlock makers don't think their systems should be offered on all cars — yet. Albuquerque-based TruTouch Technologies, which makes a device that detects alcohol using light rays through the surface of the skin, will introduce a version for use in police stations next year to replace breathalyzers. CEO Jim

McNally says he is talking to automakers about offering his system as an option, but not until at least 2010.

New Mexico, which has the toughest interlock law in the country, isn't ready to go as far as Ortiz is proposing. Last year, New Mexico passed the first law requiring interlocks for first-time drunken-driving offenders after earlier debating — and rejecting — mandatory installation in all vehicles.

Wary of 'annoying' car buyers
Volvo technical safety adviser Thomas Brobergsays he isn't sure mandating interlock technology is the way to go: "It might not be good to force these kinds of systems onto customers. There are quite a few things that can be quite annoying to the customer."

Jim Champagne, a former Louisiana state police lieutenant colonel who spent decades responding to drunken-driving crashes and now chairs the Governors Highway Safety Association, is guardedly optimistic about the prospects for interlocks.

Champagne says he would "love to see" optional interlock devices offered.

"It would give an opportunity for parents and guardians to get more involved," he says. But as standard equipment on all cars? "To tell the American public this is going to be on your car? No way."

Join the Austin Police Department and you too could make $100K

2006-06-04T20:14:00.000-05:00

City paid patrol officers $3.9 million extra last year to meet staffing goal.

The bill for overtime at the Austin Police Department for routine patrols has increased 468 percent during the past five years, hitting $3.9 million last year, according to city payroll and budget records.

At least 10 officers earned enough overtime to make six-figure salaries in 2005, working as many as 70 hours a week to cover for fellow officers who were sick, injured, suspended or on vacation. They also filled in the gaps for 107 officer positions the city has authorized but not filled.

Austin police Cpl. John Coffey racked up the overtime in 2005, working an average of 55 hours a week. Coffey earned $145,451. The city has 107 fewer officers than allowed.

"Sixty hours a week is nothing," said Austin police officer Jonathan Martin, a retired U.S. Marine with 11 years on the force who last year made $55,000 in overtime, nearly doubling his salary. "I've worked hard all my life, and this is an opportunity for me."

The department chose five years ago to set a new staffing goal. To reduce crime, former Chief Stan Knee decided the city needed at least 80 percent police staffing at all times, or having eight officers show up for every 10 assigned to a patrol area.

But instead of hiring enough new officers to ensure that they could fill those shifts, city and department officials decided to give supervisors the authority to use overtime if any shift dropped below 80 percent staffing.

City Manager Toby Futrell says Austin would need 86 new officers to avoid overtime to fill shifts, at a cost of $6 million for their first year, according to city estimates. The city doesn't have statistics to show what it would cost to reach its authorized strength — in other words, to have a fully staffed Police Department.

And even if the city decided to hire the additional officers, reaching full staff could take several years because of a 2004 decision to cut back on the number of police academy classes to save the city $1 million per year. The city decided to add a class this year to help keep up with hiring needs.

"We are going to continue to assess this," Assistant City Manager Rudy Garza said. "But based on our assessments, we believe adding back a second cadet class should improve the staffing levels."

The overtime increases are part of a steadily growing police budget, prompted in large part by a new contract in 2004 that gave Austin officers — already the highest-paid in the state — raises and bonuses.

Even spending $3.9 million in overtime pay hasn't been enough to always hit the city's staffing target.

City officials say the department reached the goal 89 percent of the time last year. But certain parts of town have seen fewer officers on the street. In December, for example, the busy downtown area met the staffing goal 76 percent of the time, department records show.

Several officers and supervisors said the shortages leave officers waiting longer for backup on calls and can increase response times for less serious calls such as car and home burglaries.

They said it also keeps them from having time for community policing, one of the department's proclaimed priorities, which encourages officers to build relationships with residents in the neighborhoods they patrol so they can learn more about crime and other quality of life concerns. And because they're so busy responding to calls, they rack up more overtime by staying as long as two hours at the end of their shifts writing reports.

In the city's 68 police patrol areas, supervisors continue to send out regular pager messages offering overtime shifts. First come, first served.

Martin, a motorcycle officer, routinely answers those calls. He worked the most hours of any officer last year, averaging 60 hours a week and earning $117,000, making him the eighth-highest-paid officer in the city.

Officers who once competed for the rare opportunity to make extra cash have become so accustomed to overtime money that they depend on it to pay their mortgages and car notes. Martin said he uses the money to send his son to the University of Texas.

Policies and practice
Today, total overtime, including that of patrol officers, accounts for 6 percent of the department's $172 million budget — a higher percentage than that of San Antonio, Dallas and El Paso.

Futrell said those cities do not have minimum staffing levels.

Experts who study police staffing say using overtime is part of doing business for most law enforcement agencies nationwide, particularly in places with officer shortages.

However, Elaine Deck, program manager for the International Association of Chiefs of Police in Alexandria, Va., said overtime usually isn't used indefinitely because of the expense and because of fear of officer burnout.

"When people are in prolonged periods of overtime, they are prone to exhaustion," she said. "And anybody who is exhausted isn't going to be as efficient or effective."

Department policy allows officers to work up to 30 hours of overtime per week. They also can work up to 16 hours in a row, unless a supervisor allows them to stay on duty longer.

It is up to the officers to keep track of how many hours they work. Officers may be — and frequently are — asked to produce a log to supervisors at any time, said Mike Sheffield, president of the Austin Police Association.

Sheffield said officers generally know when they are too tired to work any longer.

"They know their own limits," Sheffield said. "And if somebody comes to work and supervisors detect they are tired, the supervisor has a lot of options. He can certainly send them home."

Changes for police
The department first began feeling stretched — and began using overtime to fill vacant slots — shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, when the city began shifting 17 officers from regular patrol to guard potential terrorism targets.

Later that year, Knee, who left the department last month to take a job helping train police in Afghanistan, decided to set the 80 percent staffing goal after the police union urged him to adopt a minimum standard.

Futrell, who at the time was deputy city manager, and former City Manager Jesus Garza signed off on the proposal.

"It seemed like a reasonable goal," Futrell said. "The idea was that any shift has to anticipate someone is going to be out sometime."

City officials said the staffing decision has worked: Violent crime dropped 5.4 percent in 2005, and last year Austin was declared the third-safest major U.S. city, according to FBI data.

Rudy Garza, the assistant city manager, said the department also has stayed within its budget and paid for the growing overtime costs by squeezing other police programs.

Still, overtime costs shot up almost immediately.

From fiscal year 2001 to 2002, the amount the department spent on overtime for street patrols jumped from $690,000 to $1.8 million, a 161 percent increase.

The number of overtime hours rose 144 percent, from 21,075 in 2001 to 51,413 the next year.

Then in 2004, the city eliminated a cadet class, which

meant fewer officers were hired on average each year to replace those who retired or left for other reasons.

Futrell said Knee recommended the move so the city could save about $1 million a year at a time when officials were slashing programs in every city department after the dot-com bust.

The Police Department also cut $4.5 million in other costs that year and slashed 43 civilian positions.

Futrell said that adding a second cadet class should help decrease the use of overtime over the next year.

The department expects to add about 70 officers when the current cadet class graduates later this month and another 70 when the newly created class, which will start in August, graduates next spring.

Because the city doesn't know how many officers it will lose to attrition by then, Futrell can't say how the new graduates will affect the department's overtime budget — or whether they'll give the department enough officers to always reach the 80 percent staffing goal for all shifts.

The city has budgeted 1,435 officer positions and now has 1,328.

Patrol officers 'adjust'
Among the officers who worked the most overtime in 2005, Cpl. John Coffey made the most money, according to payroll records.

He earned $78,449 in regular pay, plus $60,198 in overtime for an average 55-hour workweek. Coffey also received $6,804 for "miscellaneous allowances," such as cell phone money and a bonus for having a college education, bringing his total income to $145,451.

Knee, who resigned last month, earned about $153,000 last year.

Coffey made headlines in 2002 after he fatally shot Sophia King, a mentally ill woman in East Austin who witnesses said was standing over her apartment manager wielding a knife. A Travis County grand jury did not indict him on any charge and he was not disciplined in the shooting.

He and eight of the department's other officers who earned more than $100,000 last year declined to comment.

Sergeants such as Fred Toler appreciate officers willing to work the extra hours.

Last month, Toler, who works in Northwest Austin, said he is supposed to have seven officers per shift to be fully staffed, but one is in the military and was sent to Afghanistan in March, and another officer was injured and will be out until later this month. Another is in special training for the next year.

And that doesn't count officers calling in sick or taking vacation.

"I do my best to fill it, and if I don't, my officers know I did the best I could," Toler said. "We just operate short-handed, and they understand that. We adjust."

Sergeants in charge of scheduling patrol shifts said they will continue to call on officers such as Martin, and he said he will keep working overtime as long as he has the energy — and a checking account that could use the boost.

But, he said, "I think everyone is in agreement. We want more people."

Highest-paid Austin patrol officers in 2005
Cpl. John Coffey - Total Pay: $145,45
Det. Terence Meadows - Total Pay: $128,078
Cpl. Jeff Koble - Total Pay: $126,287
Cpl. Gary Newberg - Total Pay: $123,772
Officer James Schramm - Total Pay: $120,900
Officer Robert Schmitt - Total Pay: $119,833
Cpl. Jorge Carvalho - Total Pay: $118,924
Officer Jonathan Martin - Total Pay: $117,345
Officer Alejandro Sanchez - Total Pay: $115,426
Cpl. George Jackoskie - Total Pay: $112,585

Other reasons for overtime
The $3.9 million Austin police spent last year to put more officers on the streets is the biggest piece of the department's overtime budget, but it's not the only piece. Last year, the department spent $10.3 million overall for overtime, up from $4.9 million in 2001.

These are some of the other duties that have helped push up overtime costs, along with the total amount of overtime money spent for each in 2005:

•Additional work hours — $804,255. Paid to officers for extra work at the end of shifts such as writing reports or booking a suspect into jail.

•Court appearances — $544,199. A contract between the city and the Austin Police Association says officers must be paid at least three hours of overtime if they have to show up for court more than an hour before going on duty.

•Special assignments — $783,312. Officers can earn overtime for assignments such as a recent effort in

Northeast Austin to reduce property crime and a citywide effort to reduce traffic deaths.

•Special events — $669,729. These are major city events such as Mardi Gras and the South by Southwest Music Festival that need officers for traffic control and security.

•Reimbursed special events — $2.6 million. Organizers of other big events, such as last month's World Congress on Information Technology and the annual Capitol 10,000 race, reimbursed the city for officers' time.

Click here for the full story as reported in the Austin American Statesman

Austin Police Commander arrested for DWI

2006-05-24T17:45:00.000-05:00

The Austin American Statesman reported that an Austin police commander was arrested and charged with drunken driving Sunday night after he crashed his car into a ditch at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport.

Cmdr. James O'Leary, 61, who supervises the department's training division, was arrested about 8:30 p.m. Sunday and booked into the Travis County Jail about 90 minutes later, authorities said. He was released on bail Monday afternoon.

Assistant Police Chief David Carter said O'Leary has been placed on restricted duty pending the outcome of the criminal and internal investigations into the accident. O'Leary could not be reached for comment Monday.

Airport spokeswoman Leslie Schneiweiss said O'Leary crashed his white 1995 Lincoln Town Car into a ditch near a parking lot on Presidential Boulevard.

The car sustained minimal damage, and O'Leary was not injured, she said.

According to the arrest affidavit, an airport police officer said O'Leary smelled of alcohol, his eyes were bloodshot, watery and glassy, his speech was mumbled and confused, and his balance was wobbling on the field sobriety tests.

Schneiweiss said airport police arrived a short time later and performed a field sobriety test on O'Leary. She would not say whether a blood alcohol test was performed.

O'Leary took two breath tests. On the first he blew 0.213. On the second -- 0.212. Both are more than two times the legal limit of 0.08. I guess he forgot he could refuse the breath test.

"He cooperated 100 percent," she said. "He never mentioned anything about his affiliation with APD. As far as our officers are concerned, it was a standard DWI arrest."

O'Leary, a former Army lieutenant colonel and a Vietnam veteran, has been with the department for 25 years and also worked on the department's crowd management team.

As you may remember, a federal jury ruled this year that he did not use excessive force when he used pepper spray during an anti-war demonstration on Congress Avenue the day after the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

O'Leary is on paid restrictive duty until the investigation is complete. His future is uncertain.

APD has no set policy on what punishment officers accused of a crime will face. Each is dealt with on an individual basis.

In the past six years, eight Austin police officers have been arrested for DWI. Last year, of the 22 officers who faced some sort of discipline, one was for DWI, that officer was suspended for 42 days.

Diet mixers make people drunk faster

2006-05-23T10:16:00.000-05:00

The Scotsman News just reported that DIET mixers in alcoholic drinks get people drunk quicker than full-sugar alternatives, scientists have found.

Taking a drink with sugar-free versions of mixers, such as tonic water, cola, bitter lemon and lemonade, produces higher blood-alcohol levels.

The findings were revealed by Dr Chris Rayner, of the Royal Adelaide Hospital in Australia, at a conference in the United States. Dr Rayner, the lead author of the study, found that combining alcohol with a mixer containing artificial sweeteners resulted in significantly higher levels of blood-alcohol than the same drink taken with an ordinary mixer.

The blood-alcohol concentration peaked at 66 per cent higher, according to a study in which volunteers were given an orange-flavoured vodka drink made with either a diet or non-diet mixer.

An alcohol counselling organisation warned that people choosing to have a diet mixer should be aware of the effect.

Dr Rayner, appearing yesterday at Digestive Disease Week, a conference in Los Angeles, said:

"More and more people are choosing diet drinks as a healthier alternative.

"What people do not understand is the potential side-effects that diet-mixed alcoholic drinks may have on their body's response to alcohol."

Researchers studied eight volunteers, tracking the rate at which the regular and diet alcoholic drink was emptied from the stomach and their subsequent blood-alcohol levels for three hours.

It took 21 minutes for half the diet drink to leave the stomach, compared with regular drinks, which took 36 minutes.

Peak blood-alcohol concentrations were found to be "substantially greater" with diet drinks at 0.05 per cent, while regular drinks measured at 0.03 per cent.

Dr Peter Rice, a senior Dundee University psychiatry lecturer specialising in alcohol misuse, said the key advice to people was to know their own limits.

However, Dr Rice added the main factor affecting absorption of alcohol was still likely to be the amount of food in the stomach.

Paul Waterson, of the Scottish Licensed Traders Association, said it was already known that fizzy drinks increased the rate of alcohol absorption.

Click here for the full story as reported in the Scotsman

Overtime on DWI cases inflates one Officer's salary to $172,000

2006-04-26T09:31:00.000-05:00

As a senior officer in the Houston Police Department, William Lindsey Jr. received a salary of about $72,000 last year.

Because he is on the department's DWI Task Force, however, Lindsey's overtime pay put him at an income level rivaling Mayor Bill White and Police Chief Harold Hurtt.

The 27-year HPD veteran grossed more than $100,000 in overtime pay in 2005, and he wasn't the only task force member pulling in a six-figure income.

Two others in the unit, including Lindsey's supervisor, were boosted above the $100,000 income level last year with significant help from overtime pay.

Though police and prosecutors defend the hefty overtime as an effective means of getting drunken drivers off Houston's streets, critics of the practice say many of those hours are an unnecessary expense that increases the risk of putting physically and mentally fatigued officers on duty.

Lindsey's total income of more than $172,576 from HPD last year put his pay above White's $165,000 but below Hurtt's $184,000. The mayor and police chief are not eligible for overtime pay.

Among the other task force members with six-figure incomes in 2005 was Lindsey's supervisor, Sgt. Edward Robinson, whose $76,055 in overtime pay boosted his overall compensation to $161,722.

Senior police officers like Lindsey are paid roughly $50,000 to $70,000 in salary, before overtime, depending on various incentives for education and certifications, according to employee records obtained by the Houston Chronicle.

The police department was still working late last week to compile a list of DWI Task Force members. But the Chronicle confirmed the names of at least eight officers who were in the unit during 2005.

Those officers were paid a total of $317,000 in overtime last year. That figure made up 38 percent of their total compensation, which averaged about $103,000.

In addition to the more than $100,000 in overtime pay he collected in 2005, Lindsey was paid more than $85,000 in overtime in 2004. He refused to comment last week on his overtime or on a disciplinary record that includes a 15-day suspension in 1990 for submitting inaccurate overtime pay requests.

Police chief unconcerned. Hurtt, who learned about the high overtime pay after Chronicle inquiries, said he doesn't worry about the public's perception of the spending.

"If the officer is truly earning it, I think the public is well-aware of the staffing levels at the Houston Police Department," he said, referring to manpower shortages that have sparked other overtime programs since Hurricane Katrina evacuees came to town. "And I also think the public is well-aware that certain officers have special training."

Police officials say the overtime pay for the DWI Task Force is necessary because of the nature of the job, which requires officers to work nights — when more drunken drivers are out — and then testify in daytime court hearings for previous arrests.

A typical task force officer works from 9 p.m. to 7 a.m. Wednesday through Saturday. Some then have to go to various courts for hearings on weekday mornings, said Lt. Robert Manzo, a police spokesman.

In such cases, they are paid overtime for court appearances and, often, for the period between their night shifts and the hearings. Still others work overtime shifts on their days off.

The system is laid out in the officers' collective-bargaining agreement, which was negotiated with the city while Lee Brown, a former police chief, was mayor.

HPD's budget director, Larry Yium, said officers' salaries and court overtime are paid out of the general fund, the tax- and fee-supported portion of the budget that covers most city operating costs. Currently, the department is using two grants totalling $257,000 from the Texas Department of Transportation to reimburse overtime costs associated with DWI enforcement, he said.

Yium said he isn't surprised that some officers get large overtime payments.

"I'm aware that we have officers who approach this number because of the nature of their assignments," he said. "We always periodically look at that to make sure they're working within their guidelines and it's something that the supervisors and others can justify."

Manzo said adding officers to the task force wouldn't cut overtime costs.

"If we doubled the size of the DWI Task Force, then we would presumably have double the number of subpoenas, which would mean the amount of paid overtime for going to court would double," he said.

Officers are prohibited from working more than 16 hours in a 24-hour period, Manzo said, or more than 80 hours in a workweek, without a shift supervisor's approval.

Manipulation?

Defense attorneys who specialize in DWI cases contend some task force members manipulate arrests to accumulate overtime.

"They switch defendants or piggyback on each other's cases," said lawyer J. Gary Trichter.

"They get additional officers involved, because it bolsters (the DWI case), which is valid."

But, in many cases, he added, task force members bring in other officers who collect overtime for their involvement, although they were not really needed.

Marc Brown, who heads the misdemeanor division at the Harris County District Attorney's Office, said DWI cases often require more than one officer to appear in court. Prosecutors, for example, need the testimony of the arresting officer, who may have relied on help from a colleague with the specialized training to give a field sobriety test.

This is especially true with officers in a large city, as opposed to those from suburban departments, Brown said. The sheer number of Houston patrol officers means many aren't specialized to handle drunken-driving cases they encounter on patrol. State law requires certification for officers to conduct breath tests. Special training also is required for officers to know what to look for when conducting eye tests of suspected drunken drivers.

Other agencies streamlined

However, unlike Houston police, most DWI cases filed by Texas Department of Public Safety troopers are handled by one trooper, said DPS spokeswoman Tela Mange.

She added that, even with two-person units, one trooper will work the DWI investigation while the other directs traffic. Only the investigator goes to court in most cases, she said.

"I'm not aware of situations where there would be multiple troopers testifying, unless one trooper saw the original (offense) and someone else backed him up," Mange said. "But that would be very unusual."

She noted that, unlike HPD, the DPS requires all troopers to be certified in field-sobriety testing and operating breath-test machines.

"It only takes one DPS trooper to make an arrest," Trichter said. "But with the HPD task force, they get at least three, sometimes four, people involved."

In many cases, all of those officers testify at trial, where they compile more overtime hours, Trichter said.

Hans Marticiuc, president of the Houston Police Officers' Union, said Lindsey's overtime pay doesn't concern him.

"I don't know how else you get around that," he said. "He's certainly deserving of the overtime if he's making the arrests and (prosecutors) are putting him on the trial docket.

"If you're working it, then you have a right to it," Marticiuc said. "It's good for him and certainly a benefit to the public if he's getting drunks off the streets."

Houston police made almost 12,600 DWI arrests in 1985, but the total had dropped by about half by 2004, according to HPD statistics. The district attorney's office does not keep statistics on DWI conviction rates, Brown said.

The decline in drunken-driving arrests has been attributed largely to changing social norms.
In the courtroom

Last week, at least two DWI cases in which task force members testified ended in acquittal.

Defense lawyer Sam Adamo, who represented one defendant, said he and other DWI specialists have been attempting to inform jurors about the task force and the overtime pay, but they often are blocked by judges and prosecutors.

"These guys are like small-town speed traps," Adamo said. "Regular officers have to work extra jobs. But these (task force) guys don't have to, because they're making so much money coming down to the courthouse."

Hurtt said that practice, if true, would concern him.

"What we'll do is have supervisors do an audit of their citations," he said, "and if it's occurring, we'll take corrective action."

Click here for the full story as reported by the Houston Chronicle

Austin's Nightclub Dallas WINS!

2006-04-26T09:23:00.000-05:00

Friday, a judge ruled against the TABC in every single complaint made at Austin's Dallas Nightclub. It could not have gone worse for the TABC.

Fate of Dallas' liquor license now in hands of TABC.

An administrative law judge recommended Friday that Dallas Night Club keep its liquor license, saying that the evidence presented in a January hearing did not support the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission's bid to stop the club from serving alcohol.

Judge Sharon Cloninger ruled that the commission failed to prove that Dallas bartenders knowingly served alcohol to intoxicated persons or that its weekly 69-cent drink special induced customers to drink excessively or prevented employees from adequately monitoring customers' drinking.

You can Download the judge's ruling here: http://alt.coxnewsweb.com/statesman/news/042106dallasruling.pdf

The commission declined to comment on Cloninger's 43-page decision. The three-member commission will make the final decision on whether to cancel Dallas' license.

"I regret that we had to go this far, but we're comfortable that we've been vindicated and we're going to rebuild our clientele and our business," said Betty Jensen, president of Cowpoke Inc., which runs the club on Burnet Road.

It's the latest setback for an agency whose recent undercover operations in bars across Texas have brought loud complaints from bar owners, patrons and local tourism officials — and prompted state lawmakers to hold a hearing earlier this week on the tactics.

The commission recently suspended the program that sent commission agents and local police into bars to arrest what they said were intoxicated patrons. Commission officials are reviewing the program, which was announced Aug. 26.

Dallas became a target of the undercover stings after it appeared at the top of an Austin police

list of bars where people arrested on suspicion of drunken driving said they consumed their last drink. Commission agents and Austin police conducted frequent undercover operations at Dallas, arresting patrons for public intoxication and accusing bartenders of selling alcohol to intoxicated people and the club's manager of inducing customers to drink excessively, a violation of TABC rules.

Dallas fired back last week, filing a federal lawsuit accusing the commission of unfairly targeting the club and using an inconsistent standard to decide when patrons are drunk.

The three-day hearing before Cloninger in January focused on three undercover operations that agents and police conducted at the club on Wednesday nights, when the club holds its drink special, in March, May and July 2005.

During the stings, Dallas customers were arrested on charges of public intoxication and bartenders accused of serving an intoxicated person were cited.

In one case, a bartender was accused after a patron was arrested for public intoxication in the parking lot — he had fallen asleep in his car with the engine running. Cloninger wrote that there was no evidence that the man was visibly "intoxicated to the degree that he may endanger himself or another person" when he was served beers inside the club.

Cloninger noted that on three nights when the club was crowded with hundreds of people, its capacity is 885, commission agents and Austin police arrested only one customer for public intoxication each night.

Agents and officers testified during the January hearing that they saw many more intoxicated patrons in the bar on those nights. The judge quoted one police detective who "said she saw an estimated 20 to 30 publicly intoxicated patrons over (a) four-hour period, but did not identify any of the patrons or describe any of the signs of intoxication she observed, except to say some of the patrons were holding longnecks or drinks."

"I think this was the right decision," said Dallas manager Bill Thompson, who said he left the state in February in part because of commission pressure on the club. "It was never our drink special that put us in the unfavorable position we found ourselves in. It was selective enforcement."

Click here for the full story as reported by the Austin American Statesman

The TABC’s undercover sting operation regarding public intoxication tickets is now suspended

2006-04-17T17:38:00.000-05:00

Agents claimed they could spot drunk people in bars and restaurants just by looking at them.

They’ve made more than 2,000 arrests in the past six months.

For months, there has been criticism about TABC agents going into bars and restaurants and hauling people off to jail.

The agents claimed they could look at people and determine they were drunk and a danger to themselves or others.

Some say this is an abuse of power, and now two senators say this sting operation needs to be reviewed.

Senators John Whitmire and Kino Flores have called for a joint committee hearing to look at the program.

The committees will meet Monday.

One of the hardest hit clubs in Austin is the Dallas Night Club. They’ve seen their business drop-off by more than 80 percent.

Agents were coming into the club and taking customers out to the parking lot for sobriety tests and often times, taking them to jail.

On Wednesday night, management of the Dallas Night Club responded to suspension of the TABC operation.

“We’re ecstatic. We’ve been trying to do something about it for the past year. It’s killed our business. People are scared to come out. I don’t even drink, and I’m scared to go out. And it’s not right. We don’t want to put drunks on the road, but we don’t want people to be afraid to do something that’s legal. If they don’t want people drinking, they should outlaw alcohol,” Scott Bennett with the Dallas Night Club said.

The TABC’s undercover operation has resulted in more than 2,200 public intoxication arrests in the past six months. That’s more than double the amount from the same time last year.

Click here for the full story as reported by KXAN

Dallas nightclub sues state agency

2006-04-17T17:17:00.000-05:00

Austin bar claims TABC overstepped its authority with undercover stings

Dallas Night Club is suing the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission, accusing the state agency of unfairly targeting the bar and using an inconsistent standard to decide when patrons are legally drunk.

"The TABC has embarked on a deliberate and knowing course of conduct to drive Dallas out of business," says the lawsuit, which attorney Jesse R. Castillo said was mailed to U.S. District Court in Austin on Monday. "Dallas has lost the bulk of its clientele and millions of dollars in revenue."

Similar operations in other parts of the state have brought a backlash against the commission from tourism officials, lawmakers and others.

The agency said Wednesday that it has suspended its crackdown on public intoxication after a public outcry. Spokeswoman Carolyn Beck told The Associated Press that the commission put the program on hold "to give us time to sift through all the information we've received and pull together all the information and determine the best way to proceed."

The lawsuit filed Monday seeks unspecified damages and claims the commission's enforcement efforts are unconstitutional.

Since Dallas appeared at the top of an Austin police list of bars where people arrested on suspicion of drunken driving said they consumed their last drink, the nightclub on Burnet Road has been in the cross hairs of the commission. Along with Austin police, the agency's agents have conducted numerous undercover operations at Dallas, arresting patrons for public intoxication and accusing bartenders of selling alcohol to intoxicated people and the club's manager of inducing customers to drink excessively, both violations of beverage commission rules.

This week's lawsuit follows an administrative hearing in January in which commission officials argued that Dallas' liquor license should be canceled. An administrative judge is expected to make a recommendation to the commission this month.

Commission officials have said that the club has not done enough to address concerns about its drink promotions, particularly the weekly 69-cent drink special.

Dallas argues in its lawsuit that the agency "is arbitrary and inconsistent in the standard it uses to define 'intoxication.' "

Police can charge someone for drunk driving if the person has a blood alcohol level of .08, while a

public intoxication arrest requires finding that a person is "a clear danger to themselves or others," the lawsuit says.

Commission agents overstepped their authority by using the DWI standard to arrest Dallas patrons in its stings, the lawsuit says.

"We'd rather not be here, but we didn't have a choice," said Betty Jensen, president of Cowpoke Inc., which runs Dallas.

Click here for the full story as reported in the Austin American Statesman

Legislative Committee is going to review TABC's tactics

2006-03-31T09:30:00.000-06:00

Public outrage and the potential for lost business caused by state regulators arresting bar patrons for being intoxicated prompted a key lawmaker on Tuesday to call for a suspension of the program pending a review by the Texas Legislature.

"Based on what I'm hearing from my constituents and from all across the state, this is a good time to put this program on hold until we have an opportunity to review it," said state Rep. Charlie Geren, R-Fort Worth, vice chairman of the House committee that oversees the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission. "I'm getting a lot of calls and e-mails, and it's absolutely all negative."

The commission has garnered national publicity in recent days over its stepped-up enforcement program called Sales to Intoxicated Persons, or SIPs, where undercover officers observe customers in bars and taverns and arrest those who appear drunk. Bartenders and wait staff who serve intoxicated patrons are also subject to arrest.

Carolyn Beck, a spokeswoman for the TABC, said the SIPs program has been around for several years. But the agency has beefed it up after lawmakers last year authorized the hiring of more than 100 additional employees to force compliance with state laws governing alcohol use.

"Our focus is public safety," Beck said. "We intervene when it appears that someone is a danger to himself or others because of being intoxicated in a public place."

Geren, whose Fort Worth barbecue restaurants serve alcohol, said his employees are trained to identify when a patron is becoming intoxicated and will cut them off without hesitation.

The House Licensing and Administrative Procedures Committee, of which Geren is vice chairman, will hold a hearing on the SIPs program April 17 in Austin.

The program has its supporters, including Mothers Against Drunk Driving, which regularly lobbies the Legislature to take measures to end Texas' distinction of having the highest DWI fatality rate in the nation.

But critics have pointed out that the program could cost Texas valuable convention business, especially considering that many arrests have occurred in hotel cocktail lounges where patrons planned to travel no farther than the elevator that would take them to their rooms. In other instances, people were arrested even though they had been accompanied by a designated driver, according to reports.

Phillip Jones, president of the Dallas Convention and Visitors Bureau, said the program has the potential to devastate the Texas tourism and convention industry.

"I just got an e-mail from someone who said he was considering bringing a convention with 25,000 people to Dallas," Jones said. "He told me that until you guys fix this problem, no city in Texas is even going to be on the list."

Jones said that the convention industry pumps more than $8 billion annually into the North Texas economy, and that the cocktail hour is often integral to the experience.

"That's where people relax, socialize and network," Jones said. "They have a right to do that without fear of being arrested."

Under Texas law, anyone with a blood-alcohol level of 0.08 or higher is considered too drunk to drive. The legal definition of public intoxication is "not having the normal use of mental or physical faculties because of alcohol or drug use."

Public intoxication is a Class C misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $500. A law enforcement officer has the discretion of issuing a citation or making an arrest.

When the program gained attention last week, TABC Administrator Alan Steen sent a memo to state lawmakers listing the agency's justifications for stepping up enforcement.

"Just because someone is not driving or has a designated driver, it does not make it legal to become intoxicated in a public place to the extent that the person may be a danger to him/herself or others," Steen's memo said.

Geren and other lawmakers said that while they have no sympathy for drunken drivers, they are concerned by what appears to be heavy-handed tactics against otherwise law-abiding citizens who are enjoying a night out.

"I'm from a pretty conservative district, but I haven't heard from anybody who supports this," said state Rep. Toby Goodman, R-Arlington.

Kathy Walt, spokeswoman for Gov. Rick Perry, said the governor's office has received more than 140 calls and letters concerning the SIPs program, all of them critical.

Beck, the TABC's spokeswoman, said that the agency's enforcement also includes aggressive steps to curtail underage drinking, even though it often goes unpublicized.

"We have a hot line staffed 24 hours a day where someone can report pasture parties and other events where minors are drinking illegally, and we will respond and take action," she said.

Geren said he would do nothing to discourage the effort to combat underage drinking or to interfere with enforcing DWI laws.

"I've even heard from people who say they don't drink and want a crackdown on drunken driving but think that this is going too far," Geren said.

Click here for the full story as it appeared in the Fort Worth Star Telegram

Lakeway Police Officer Arrested for DWI

2006-03-30T15:58:00.000-06:00

A Lakeway police officer was on restrictive duty Thursday following his arrest on charges of driving while intoxicated.

According to an arrest affidavit, Bryan McCannon, 30, was intoxicated at nearly two times the legal limit.

He was off-duty when he arrested Saturday night.

The sheriff's office says McCannon was involved in a head-on collision with minor injuries along F.M. 2769 in Travis County.

When deputies arrived, they determined he was intoxicated and arrested him.

This will likely be the second Lakeway officer terminated by the Lakeway Police Department in the last few months. Things seem to be out of control out there.

Click here for the full story as reported by KVUE television station.

The University of Texas has a new police chief

2006-03-26T21:53:00.000-06:00

Former Austin Police Department Assistant Police Chief Robert Dahlstrom is the new UT police chief.

Dahlstrom faces many new challenges. During the interview process many in the UT community expressed concerns over off-campus safety in highly populated student areas.

Student government suggested joint jurisdiction between APD and UTPD.

“I think the joint jurisdiction would be a very difficult thing to do. You have two different radio communications, you have two different 911 calls that come in.

You have different policies,” Dahlstrom said.

Dahlstrom is the fourth person to serve as UT’s police chief since the department was created in the late 1960s.

The biggest problem on campus other than minor theft is alcohol, Dahlstrom said. And, he adds, alcohol can lead to more violent crime.

The most recent UTPD crime statistics show 314 arrests and 330 referrals for liquor law violations in 2004.

“And tell them exactly the downfalls of drinking where you lose control of your judgment and make bad judgments that can affect you for the rest of your life,” Dahlstrom said.

“It’s always had a very good reputation being a good department and I hope to continue that reputation and keep it good,” Dahlstrom said.

Click here for the full story

Ken is interviewed on KXAN

2006-03-24T14:51:00.000-06:00

If you have a drink in an Austin bar or restaurant, and you do something out of the ordinary, you could go to jail.

The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission says they can spot people who’ve had too much to drink, just by looking at them.

It’s an issue creating a lot of controversy. It’s also creating a lot of arrests.

The TABC sting operation has increased arrests by 95 percent.

Agents are going into bars and restaurants looking for folks who are a danger to themselves or others.

When they spot someone drawing attention to themselves, that person is likely headed to jail.
“Don’t do anything more than anyone around you in a bar is doing,” TABC spokeswoman Carolyn Beck said.

The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission are sending agents into bars to ticket people who have had too much to drink.

How can they tell? Simply, they look at you.

“You may be arrested and taken to jail and get a citation as well, It’s the officer’s discretion,” Beck said.
TABC busts are up 95 percent over the last year. Legal experts say there’s a reason for that.

“TABC is trying to justify their existence. They think that it is a politically popular thing to get out there and arrest folks,” defense attorney Ken Gibson said.

Gibson says the method TABC agents use to determine if you’re drunk is nothing short of harassment. If you do anything out of the ordinary, they’ll haul you outside for a field sobriety test.

“It’s the old, ‘I’ll know it when I see it.’ standard, and that’s not enough. There’s got to be more to it than that,” Gibson said.

The TABC insists agents can spot people who are a danger to themselves or others just by looking at them. They stand out. They’re a spectacle and easy to spot.

“Someone catches the attention of an agent in a bar, it means they’ve done something beyond what every other person in that bar who is also drinking has done. They’ve done something to bring attention to themselves,” Beck said.

That’s a claim Gibson doesn’t buy and says the conviction rate of these tickets and TABC’s ultimate success will be extremely low.

“They’re going to have a difficult time proving this person was a danger to himself or others when he’s sitting in a bar, not bothering anybody,” Gibson said.

Defense attorneys News 36 spoke with say they expect the conviction rates of these tickets to be less than 10 percent.

The TABC says their ultimate goal is to reduce over serving by bartenders and to prevent drunk driving.

That’s an issue everyone seems to agree on. It is the method the agents are using that’s drawing the most criticism.

Click here for the full story as reported on KXAN

22 Austin Police Officers were suspended in the last 5 months of 2005

2006-03-19T17:32:00.000-06:00

Twenty-two Austin Police officers have been reprimanded and suspended for departmental violations ranging from unnecessary use of force and public intoxication to falling asleep on duty, according to disciplinary memos issued by the Civil Service Commission from August through December 31.

Among the circumstances surrounding the suspensions of the last five months of 2005 are:

•Sgt. Daniel Armstrong was suspended in November for 42 days for driving while intoxicated when off-duty. An officer found Armstrong in the Cedar Park Post Office parking lot asleep behind the wheel of his Ford F-150 pickup, the report states. Armstrong was given a $257 public intoxication ticket.

Armstrong said in an interview that he embarrassed himself and the department.

"I deserved every one of those 42 days," the 12-year-Austin police department veteran said. But he added, "When police are disciplined, I ask that the public does not crucify them but think instead about what we deal with on a daily basis."

•Detective Ralph Tijerina was suspended for 25 days in December for driving in an impaired state in Hitchcock, near Houston.

•Officer Julie Schroeder was indefinitely suspended in November for
violating the police department's use of force policy when she fatally shot

Daniel Rocha on June 9. Schroeder shot Rocha during a scuffle after she lost her Taser.

Schroeder, who was later fired, didn't use the minimum level of force necessary to arrest Rocha, she violated the Taser policy by carrying her Taser inappropriately and she violated the department's video recording policy, the report said.

•Sgt. Don Doyle was suspended for 28 days in November for failing to use his mobile video/audio recording equipment to tape Rocha's traffic stop.

•Officer Joseph Swann was indefinitely suspended in August for grabbing a man's crutches and pushing him to the ground during a March 20 traffic stop.

•Sgt. Kevin Leverenz was suspended for 15 days for not turning on his in-car video camera after he had issued a man two citations.

Leverenz assaulted the man, whom he says made an obscene gesture at him, but he failed to document the incident and lied about his encounter with the man, according to the report.

•Detective Robert Hightower was suspended for 90 days in December for making inappropriate comments to and engaging in inappropriate behavior with his co-workers.

•Cpl. Andrew Haynes was suspended for three days in October for making inappropriate comments to a man during a traffic stop in the 1800 block of East 12th Street on April 19.

•Officer Ewa Wegner was suspended for 10 days, and her former partner, Officer Charlie Maestas Jr., was suspended for five when the department discovered they had run up $7,579.16 in cell phone charges between 2004 and 2005.

Both Wegner and Maestas admitted that they used the phones for personal calls and that they did not reimburse the city for expenses incurred, the report states.

•Officer Gregory Thornton was suspended for 10 days for parking his car outside of a motel where his girlfriend's car was parked and waited for her while he was off-duty.

Thornton followed the man who had been with her, the report said, and obtained his license plate number. When Thornton was on-duty July 28, he checked the man's warrants, driver's license number and address.

•Officer Robert Cortez was indefinitely suspended in November for neglect of duty and insubordination. A month after he was put on a personal improvement plan, he called or text-messaged his girlfriend 25 times during his patrol shift, actions taped by the video and audio systems in his car.

Cortez was also disciplined for failing to respond to calls and taking too long to write reports.

•In July, Officer Jared Tucker was driving west on RM 12 in Hays County when he tried to pass three vehicles traveling in the same direction when it wasn't safe to do so.

Tucker caused a wreck but didn't check on the crash victim and mitigated his responsibility when Department of Public Safety officials questioned him about his role in the incident, the report states. He was suspended for 90 days.

Click here for the full story as reported in the Austin American Statesman

Ambien and Alcohol

2006-03-19T17:07:00.000-06:00

With a tendency to stare zombie-like and run into stationary objects, a new species of impaired motorist is hitting the roads: the Ambien driver.

Ambien, the nation's best-selling prescription sleeping pill, is showing up with regularity as a factor in traffic arrests, sometimes involving drivers who later say they were sleep-driving and have no memory of taking the wheel after taking the drug.

In some state toxicology laboratories Ambien makes the top 10 list of drugs found in impaired drivers. Wisconsin officials identified Ambien in the bloodstreams of 187 arrested drivers from 1999 to 2004.

And as a more people are taking the drug — 26.5 million prescriptions in this country last year — there are signs that Ambien-related driving arrests are on the rise. In Washington State, for example, officials counted 78 impaired-driving arrests in which Ambien was a factor last year, up from 56 in 2004.

Ambien's maker, Sanofi-Aventis, says the drug's record after 13 years of use in this country shows it is safe when taken as directed. But a spokeswoman, Melissa Feltmann, wrote in an e-mail message, "We are aware of reports of people driving while sleepwalking, and those reports have been provided to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as part of our ongoing postmarketing evaluation about the safety of our products."

A spokeswoman for the F.D.A. said the drug's current label warnings, which say it should not be used with alcohol and in some cases could cause sleepwalking or hallucinations, were adequate. "People should be aware of that," said the spokeswoman, Susan Cruzan.

While alcohol and other drugs are sometimes also involved in the Ambien traffic cases, the drivers tend to stand out from other under-the-influence motorists. The behavior can include driving in the wrong direction or slamming into light poles or parked vehicles, as well as seeming oblivious to the arresting officers, according to a presentation last month at a meeting of forensic scientists.

"These cases are just extremely bizarre, with extreme impairment," said Laura J. Liddicoat, the forensic toxicology supervisor at a state-run lab in Wisconsin who made the presentation.

Her presentation, which reported on six of the cases, was made at a meeting of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, where her counterparts from other parts of the country swapped similar tales.

Several of Ms. Liddicoat's cases involved drivers whose blood revealed evidence of Ambien overdoses. In one of them the driver, who was also taking the antidepressant citalopram, crashed into a parked car, was involved in another near collision, then drove over a curb. When confronted by police, he did not recall any of the recent events, according to the presentation.

Ms. Liddicoat did not describe any of those cases as sleep-driving — in fact, she said she had not heard of that defense — and it is possible that some drivers' claims of driving while asleep may be mere Ambien alibis.

But some medical researchers say reports of sleep-driving are plausible.

Doctors affiliated with the University of Minnesota Medical Center who have studied Ambien recently reported the cases of two users who told doctors they sleep-drove to the supermarket while under the drug's influence. Neither of the patients remembered the episode the next day, according to Dr. Carlos Schenck, an expert in sleep disorders who is the lead researcher in the study.

"Luckily, neither of them got hurt," said Dr. Schenck, who added that sleep-driving — which really occurs in a twilight state between sleep and wakefulness — was more common than people generally suspect. He said he believed that Ambien was an excellent sleep agent, but that patients need to be better warned about its potential side effects.

The traffic cases around the country include that of Dwayne Cribb, a longtime probation and parole officer in Rock Hill, S.C. Mr. Cribb says he remembers nothing after taking Ambien before bed last Halloween — until he awoke in jail to learn he had left his bed and gone for a drive, smashed into a parked van and driven away before crashing into a tree.

Mr. Cribb is still facing charges of leaving the scene of an accident.

A registered nurse who lives outside Denver took Ambien before going to sleep one night in January 2003. Sometime later — she says she remembers none of the episode — she got into her car wearing only a thin nightshirt in 20-degree weather, had a fender bender, urinated in the middle of an intersection, then became violent with police officers, according to her lawyer.

The woman, whose lawyer says she previously had a pristine traffic record, eventually pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of careless driving after the prosecutors partly accepted her version of events, said the lawyer, Lloyd L. Boyer.

Many states do not currently test for Ambien when making impaired- driving arrests. But a survey still under way by a committee from the forensic sciences group and the Society of Forensic Toxicologists found that among laboratories that conduct tests of drivers' blood samples for two dozen states, 10 labs list Ambien among the top 10 drugs found in impaired drivers, according to Dr. Sarah Kerrigan, a forensic toxicologist in Houston involved in that survey.

Ms. Liddicoat, in Wisconsin, is among experts who suggest that Ambien may need a stronger warning label. Others arguing that case include doctors, Ambien users and defense lawyers.

"Doctors are handing out these drugs like Pez," said William C. Head, an Atlanta lawyer who is one of the nation's leading defense lawyers specializing in impaired-driving cases.

The F.D.A., which would have to order any labeling changes, says it is not aware of any pattern of problems with the drug. Still Ms. Cruzan, in response to a reporter's question, said the agency would look into unusual sleepwalking episodes.

Including the notifications from Sanofi, which as a matter of policy the F.D.A. declined to discuss, the agency did receive 48 "adverse event" reports in 2004 involving Ambien use without other drugs. They involved three cases of sleepwalking, six reports of hallucinations and one traffic accident.

Ambien's competitors — Lunesta by Sepracor and Sonata by King Pharmaceuticals — are not as widely used in this country, and do not seem to be cropping up with any frequency on police blotters. Ambien sales last year reached $2.2 billion, according to IMS Health. Among the three drugs, Ambien accounted for 84 percent of prescriptions dispensed.

A federal prosecutor was persuaded that Ambien played a part in a well-publicized case last summer involving not a car but an airliner. A US Airways flight from Charlotte, N.C., to London last July was diverted to Boston, after a passenger who had taken Ambien became "like the Incredible Hulk all of a sudden," according to his lawyer.

The man, Sean Joyce, a British painting contractor, became agitated, tore off his shirt and threatened to kill himself and fellow passengers, according to court documents. If convicted, Mr. Joyce could have faced a maximum sentence of 20 years in jail for interfering with a flight crew, according to his lawyer, Michael C. Andrews.

But under a plea agreement Mr. Joyce was sentenced to five days already served, after the prosecutor accepted his story that his eruption, which he said he could not recall at all, occurred as a result of taking one Ambien pill and drinking two individual-serving bottles of wine.

Many of the impaired-driving cases involve people who drank alcohol before taking Ambien. Mr. Cribb, for instance, said he had two beers with dinner before he took the drug and went to bed.

Sanofi-Aventis says that while sleepwalking may occur while taking Ambien, the drug may not be the cause. It also notes that the warnings with Ambien, including those in its television ads, specifically instruct patients not to use it with alcohol and to take it right before bed.

Alcohol has sometimes been shown to cause sleepwalking, and it can also magnify Ambien's effects, according to Dr. Mark Mahowald, director of the Minnesota Regional Sleep Disorders Center at Hennepin County Medical Center, who is also involved in Dr. Schenck's study.

In the past, the center has received grant funding from Sepracor, Lunesta's maker, but Dr. Mahowald said that none of the researchers currently received any funding from sleeping pill companies.

Ambien's alcohol warning is apparently ignored by many people. But Mr. Head, the defense lawyer, says he has concluded that no one should take Ambien the same evening they have been drinking alcohol. "Not even a toast," he said.

Mr. Head is now defending a man in Decatur, Ga., who, after having three drinks one night, said he took two Ambien and was in bed watching David Letterman's monologue on television. Without realizing it, the man says, he got back out of bed and behind the wheel and was arrested on multiple charges that included driving on the wrong side of the road.

Too many other people taking Ambien also evidently disregard the other label guidelines.

Ann Marie Gordon, manager of Washington State's toxicology lab, said that many of those arrested reported that they took Ambien while driving so it would "kick in" by the time they got home. "Hello — it kicked in before you got home?" Ms. Gordon said. "That's not a good thing. I'm amazed at the number of people who do that."

But misuse of the drug may not explain all the cases. The nurse near Denver took a single Ambien and went to bed, according to her lawyer, Mr. Boyer of Englewood, Colo. Mr. Boyer said that only when the woman returned home after her arrest did she discover a partly consumed bottle of wine on her counter — unopened when she went to bed, she said — leading her to suspect she had begun drinking after taking Ambien.

Research by Dr. Schenck and others elsewhere have found evidence that Ambien users engaged, unawares, in various middle-of-the-night behaviors. In a study published in 2001, researchers at the Mayo Clinic Sleep Disorders Center reported on five cases of unusual nighttime eating, sometimes while sleepwalking, in patients taking Ambien. The chief of physical medicine and rehabilitation for the VA North Texas Health System in Dallas, Dr. Weibin Yang, said he became aware of Ambien's potential side effects while at another hospital treating a 55-year-old patient after hip surgery.

The man, who had no history of sleepwalking, walked into a hospital corridor one night, where he urinated on the floor. On another night, he got out of bed and told nurses he was going to church. Dr. Yang said the patient was also taking other medications, but the sleepwalking stopped when Ambien was discontinued. The patient, he said, had no recollection of either event.

Dr. Yang said such experiences persuaded him that people could drive, without realizing it, after taking Ambien.

Meanwhile in South Carolina, Mr. Cribb, who has already pleaded guilty to driving under the influence, still faces a charge of leaving the scene of an accident. He says he has sworn off Ambien. "There has to be a stronger warning," he said, "about what this drug does to you."

Click here for the full story

Brackenridge physician wants more done about DWIs in Austin

2006-03-04T07:37:00.000-06:00

Hoping to jolt police, city officials and residents to action, the chief of emergency medicine at Brackenridge Hospital sent a letter requesting more to be done about DWIs in Austin, TX.

And, it is not all alcohol related. Dr. Pat Crocker said, is that two-thirds tested positive for drugs ranging from tranquilizers and painkillers to illegal narcotics. Folks should remember that DWI is defined as the loss of normal use of mental and/or physical faculties due to alcohol, drugs or a combination of them.

He got responses back saying they have worked on the problem and intend to do more. They invited him to help.

Austin Police Department data show that DWI arrests are up 28 percent between 2000 and 2005, a period when the city's population increased 6 percent, according to Texas State Data Center estimates. In 2005, police reported 5,724 DWI arrests, more than police made in any of Texas' five other largest cities.

In fact, figures provided by individual police departments show that Austin police made significantly more DWI arrests per capita last year than Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, Fort Worth and El Paso.

Crocker said he was pleased to hear about the Austin DWI arrests but thinks that enforcement is still an issue.

Assistant City Manager Rudy Garza said Austin police increased road patrols in 2004 from 40 to 72 officers, and Police Chief Stan Knee said his department doubled the number of DWI enforcement officers to 20.

In addition, Capital Metro now runs buses from college neighborhoods to the Sixth Street entertainment district so students can come and go cheaply without risking a DWI, Knee said.

"This community needs to take seriously driving while impaired," Knee said. "We will make 6,000 DWI arrests in 2006."

Click here for the full story as reported in the Austin American Statesman

Austin Police Officers Disciplined

2006-02-24T14:47:00.000-06:00

In an Austin KXAN exclusive, we've learned APD disciplined a number of Austin cops last month for doing things the police chief calls either "inappropriate" or "dangerous."

Austin Police are constantly asking you not speed or run red lights because something bad could happen.

According to police documents, Officer Darren Carver, driving a marked police car, was at the intersection of San Jacinto and 8th Street when he ran a red light causing a multi-car crash. Carver was not on his way to an emergency call.

"I drive out here all the time and see them speed and run red lights," cab driver John Makinson said.

APD Chief Stan Knee says, due to Officer Carver's failure to operate his vehicle in a careful and prudent manner, four vehicles were damaged. Fortunately there were only minor injuries.
Officer Carver was suspended for one day.

Then there's Officer Joshua Visi sued by movie star Jason Patric last week for unlawful arrest and cleared in court.

But according to a police document, we learned Officer Visi was accused of wrongdoing, inappropriate behavior this past July when he stopped a woman around 11:30 p.m. and gave her a traffic ticket. That wasn't the problem.

According to the chief's memo, the next day Officer Visi called the violator to discuss the various options of handling the citation. It was inappropriate. Sources say the officer invited the woman to a party and attempted to have the ticket dismissed in a manner not authorized by policy.

Officer Visi was suspended for 12 days.

Other police officers were suspended last month for doing things on Austin streets you might find equally shocking.

Click here for the full story on the KXAN website

Another Bad Apple in the Austin Police Department

2006-01-22T21:32:00.000-06:00

17-year veteran faces aggravated assault charge in off-duty incident.

A 17-year veteran Austin police officer was arrested Saturday and charged with aggravated assault after his colleagues said that while he was off duty Friday night, he threatened a man with a revolver during a disagreement about money invested in speculative stocks.

Officer Robert Jackson, 48, remained at the Travis County Jail on Saturday night. His bail was set at $50,000.

Jackson will be placed on restricted duty at home, with pay, pending the outcome of the criminal and Internal Affairs investigations, police said.

The second-degree felony carries a fine of up to $10,000 and up to 20 years in jail. The case will be presented to a grand jury by the Travis County district attorney's office.

About 8:40 p.m. Friday, Jackson confronted Edward Karaback, 62, inside Karaback's apartment at 3816 S. Lamar Blvd., Assistant Police Chief Cathy Ellison said. Jackson believed Karaback owed him money from stock investments, according to police spokeswoman Laura Albrecht.

Ellison said Jackson was investing in "penny stocks" with Karaback. The term refers to small-market-value stocks that trade for less than $5 a share. These stocks are often traded on the lightly regulated over-the-counter market and are much more volatile than large- company stocks.

The stock investments — at least $25,000 worth — apparently sparked the incident Friday night. Karaback said Jackson loaned the money to him for investments.

Jackson pointed a revolver in Karaback's direction, Ellison said.

Karaback "felt threatened," she said. "He felt he was going to be shot."

Late Saturday, Karaback gave this account of the incident:

He said he opened his apartment door, and Jackson emerged from behind a mutual friend who had accompanied Jackson. Neither Karaback nor the police would identify the friend.

Karaback said Jackson came through the door and pulled a gun out of the right side of his sweatshirt pocket. Jackson pointed the gun toward the ceiling, and bullets spilled from the weapon, Karaback said.

"I can't use those; those are Austin police issued," Karaback recalled Jackson saying. Then, according to Karaback, Jackson said, "but I can use this one," and pulled one bullet from his left sweatshirt pocket.

"Have you ever played Russian roulette?" Karaback said Jackson asked as he spun the cylinder.

Karaback said their mutual friend intervened and persuaded Jackson to leave. Karaback, who filed for personal bankruptcy Jan. 10, said he gave a copy of his court filing to the friend.

The friend then picked up the bullets Jackson had spilled on the floor and started to leave the apartment. When he opened the door, Jackson re-entered and demanded repayment of his loan.

Karaback said Jackson said he wanted money by the end of the month and a total of $35,000 by the end of the year.

Karaback said he told Jackson, "That's basically impossible; I have no money."

Jackson then said, "I don't care how you get it," according to Karaback.

Minutes later, Karaback said, the two men left.

Karaback once ran an illegal investment service called Penny Stock Management Program in Austin, according to the Texas State Securities Board. The board issued a cease-and-desist order on April 27, 2004, against Karaback, who consented to the order.

According to the order, Karaback managed funds for investors by purchasing penny stocks and offered to split any profits equally. Because Karaback wasn't a registered securities dealer, the board ruled that his scheme violated state law.

Karaback said he is currently a contract driver with Noble Logistic Services Inc. in Austin. Karaback said he and Jackson met in 2001 through the mutual friend.

Jackson invested with Karaback from 2001 to 2003, Ellison said. From 2003 to 2005, Jackson was getting a return on his investments.
Jackson "does have some discipline history," Ellison said, but she declined to elaborate Saturday.

The previous incidents were "nothing of this magnitude," she said.

"It's unfortunate. It's disappointing," she said. "We're here to protect folks, not cause harm."

Click here for the full story as reported by the Austin American Statesman

2006-01-13T18:16:00.000-06:00

There are several bars and clubs around Austin under investigation accused of contributing to DWI.

Element is one bar on a list of about 20 that have Austin Police stepping up enforcement, and the TABC is working undercover.

There's no question about it. Law enforcement want to stop drunk drivers.

Austin Police have started asking a specific question to every DWI suspect pulled over.

"The question I believe is where were you drinking or where did you have your last drink," Lt. Robert Saenz with TABC said.

APD made a list of the bars that kept popping up as the answer.

They shared it with the TABC.

These are the top bars and the number of times named by DWI suspects in the six-month investigation by APD and TABC.
1. Dallas Night Club -- 45

2. Sherlock's Pub -- 31

3. Cool River -- 31

4. Lucky Lounge -- 20

5. Element Nightclub -- 18

6. Chuggin' Monkey -- 15

7. Yellow Rose -- 14

8. Rain -- 13

9. Rodeo Night Club -- 13

10. Dizzy Rooster -- 13

11. The Library -- 13

12. Oslo -- 13

13. Oilcan Harry's -- 13

"It allows us to focus our troops in more specific areas," Saenz said.

The latest top five bars DWI suspects say served their last drink are Dallas Nightclub, Sherlocks, Cool River, Lucky Lounge and Element.

The list doesn't sit well with some bar owners.

"Even though you were there last, you may not have become intoxicated there," Sixth Street bar owner Bob Woody said.

Austin Police are stepping up patrol in those areas. Each bar is under investigation by the TABC.

"The top five locations we go into them weekly," Saenz said.

Undercover agents check if bartenders are serving to already intoxicated people.

Those bartenders face fines, could be arrested and if the bar doesn't help bring the numbers down, it could be shut down.

Bob Woody owns 15 bars downtown. None of them are on the crackdown list, but he says something is wrong about focusing on bartenders to curb DWI's.

"It does frustrate me if you took this guy and you put him in the car, he'd be drunk. But if you got him the club what applies to him being drunk or over served? You see, that's a grey area," Woody said.

Woody says he is even installing cameras in his bars as a form of defense if his bartenders are accused of over serving.

Click here for the full story as reported by KXAN

Former Austin Police Department DWI Task Force Officer Indicted

2005-12-30T22:29:00.000-06:00

A Travis County grand jury indicted three Austin police officers, accusing them of punching and using stun guns on a handcuffed suspect after a September traffic accident.

Officers William Heilman (a former member of the Austin DWI Task Force), Christopher Gray and Joel Follmer each were indicted on a charge of official oppression, a class A misdemeanor that carries a maximum punishment of a year in jail. Gray and Follmer are on restricted duty — Gray since Oct. 7 and Follmer since Dec. 9, according to police records. They are being investigated by the department's Internal Affairs Division.

Heilman resigned earlier this month. In October, he shot a man who refused to take his hands out of his pockets and repeatedly told officers to "shoot" inside a Northeast Austin home. The man, who was later found to have two knives, survived the gunshot wound to his cheek; a grand jury reviewed the case and did not indict Heilman earlier this month.

The incident that led to the indictments happened after a Sept. 21 traffic accident at 8224 Burnet Road involving Ramon Hernandez, 25, of Austin.

According to an arrest affidavit, which was based on the officers' statements, Hernandez began running from police when they asked for his driver's license and insurance.

Heilman found Hernandez a block away and the two got into a struggle, the affidavit said. Heilman was attempting to handcuff Hernandez when he said Hernandez tried to take his gun, the affidavit said.

"Officer Heilman then tazed Hernandez several times, but this had no effect on Hernandez," according to the affidavit.

Other officers then arrived to help Heilman, and the arrest was captured on patrol car video cameras.

According to the indictments, Follmer and Gray both hit Hernandez while he was handcuffed and Heilman and Gray used their Taser stun guns on Hernandez while he was handcuffed.

Hernandez was taken to Brackenridge Hospital before being booked into the Travis County Jail. He was charged with assault on a public servant and attempting to take a weapon from a police officer, both third-degree felonies punishable by up to 10 years in prison. The grand jury today declined to indict Hernandez on those charges. He could not be reached for comment.

Police today said that a routine review of the incident by supervisors showed that the officers may have violated policies — including the use of force on a handcuffed suspect — and that the review led to further investigation by internal affairs, the department's Integrity Crimes Unit and the Travis County District Attorney's office.

Each of the officers is white; Hernandez is Hispanic. Heilman was on the force for four years, Gray is a six-year veteran and Follmer joined the department in July.

Click here for the full story as reported in the Austin American Statesman

Broken Travis probation department getting fixed

2005-12-26T17:30:00.000-06:00

Travis County probation officers are so bogged down with paperwork and heavy caseloads that they do not have time to focus on ways to keep the probationers they supervise from committing new crimes, according to a recent consultant's report.

The analysis of the department that oversees about 11,500 people who might otherwise be in prison or jail also found other problems, including:

•Probation officers gather a wealth of computerized data that could help identify effective programs and plans for probationers, but those data are not regularly analyzed.

•Many probation officers do not leave their offices for home visits, a valuable way to develop relationships with probationers and spot potential problems.

•Many low-level offenders are too strictly supervised, increasing officers' workloads and diverting resources from probationers who need to be watched more closely.

Now, Director Geraldine Nagy has begun a two-year overhaul of Travis County adult probation, officially called the Community Supervision and Corrections Department. Nagy said she asked for the analysis as a starting point.

"The officers are real excited about this," said Nagy, who was hired early this year. "Most of them want to make a difference."

Her plan sounds simple: Let research and analysis guide how strictly people on probation are watched and determine what combination of programs gives them the best chance to stay out of prison and jail. Making that happen in a department that has a $22 million budget and in which many of the 143 probation officers keep tabs on 133 probationers each will be far from simple, Nagy said.

Travis County is one of only a handful of probation departments nationwide implementing such changes, which are known in criminal justice parlance as evidence-based practices, she said.

The effort comes as the Legislature has shifted some of its focus from building prisons to beefing up probation.

Supervising someone on probation costs about $2.27 a day; housing them in a Texas prison costs $40 a day.

To lighten the workload on probation officers and enable them to develop better relationships with probationers, visit them at their homes and spot potential problems before they occur, Travis County soon will hire at least 13 new probation officers using an $800,000 state grant, Nagy said. In return, local officials pledged to reduce by 10 percent the number of people who have their probation revoked and are sent to prison by the end of next year.

In fiscal year 2004, the most recent year covered in the report, about 2,000 people had their probation revoked in Travis County.

About two-thirds of the people on probation in Travis County have that status because they committed felonies, according to the report, which cost the county $23,500 and was done by the Austin-based JFA Institute, headed by well-respected former state corrections expert Tony Fabelo. Most of the felons committed a drug-related offense.

Being on probation in Travis County means taking regular drug tests and sometimes performing community service or getting treatment for things such as mental health problems or drug and alcohol abuse. Failing a drug test or breaking other rules can mean a trip to jail or prison.

The consultant's report said the current system has not lowered the number of probationers who re-offend.

"There's a tendency to just put somebody in probation and almost automatically follow a certain number of programs," state District Judge Mike Lynch said. "What you want to do is look and say, 'Who needs those? Does everybody need the same things? Does everybody go into the right program?' "

The key to the new Travis County plan, Nagy said, is sharpening the process of evaluating people entering the probation system. Do they use drugs? How often do they change addresses? Are they motivated to change?

The answers to those questions and others help officers put probationers into categories. Under the initiative, research then will show which treatment plan gives them the best chance of succeeding, Nagy said.

Nagy noted that the JFA report found that the department has committed employees, is well-organized and collaborates well with prosecutors, law enforcement and community groups in trying to reduce crime. The report also praised the leadership of Nagy, a former probation officer who has a doctorate in psychology from Kansas State University and previously worked for the arm of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice that sought to improve probation departments statewide.

"In some cases, it's like trying to look into a crystal ball" to see what programs will help people on probation cease committing crimes, said Buddy Meyer, trial chief in the Travis County district attorney's office.

"We all want to set them up on a track where it's more likely they'll succeed instead of fail."

Click here for the full story as reported in the Austin American Statesman

Texas troopers watching for DWIs

2005-12-22T19:15:00.000-06:00

The D-P-S "Operation Holiday" effort begins tomorrow and runs through Monday in an effort to reduce traffic fatalities.

All available troopers will be on patrol.

Officers will be watching for drunken drivers, people who are speeding and travelers not wearing seat belts.
Troopers during the Christmas 2004 weekend made 340 D-W-I arrests.

D-P-S says nearly eleven-thousand speed tickets were issued during that period, while almost 12-hundred citations were written for seat belt violations.

Click here for the full story as reported in the Austin American Statesman

Police step up enforcement during holidays

2005-12-14T10:24:00.000-06:00

Officers throughout Central Texas will be targeting drunken, aggressive and erratic drivers through Jan. 1.

Law enforcement agencies in Central Texas will be targeting people who drive erratically or under the influence of alcohol from now until Jan. 1 in an effort to curb traffic accidents during the holiday season, police said Tuesday.

The Austin Police Department highway enforcement command, along with the Texas Department of Public Safety, the Travis County sheriff's office and others, will increase the number of officers on patrol throughout the region through Operation Holiday Lights.

Operation Holiday Lights targets drunken and reckless drivers.

Watch that driving, folks: The roads will be filled with law officers ready to slow you down.

They'll be using a mobile breath-test unit, background, in their efforts. Austin Police Chief Stan Knee, right, and officials from many other area agencies unveiled the operation Tuesday at Blue Santa headquarters on East 51st Street.

The usual 9-mph cushion that officers allow for drivers to go over the speed limit will be reduced to 4, Police Chief Stan Knee said.

The enforcement comes after Austin saw eight traffic fatalities in 2004 between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day, Cmdr. David Carter of the highway enforcement command said.

There have been more than 80 traffic fatalities in Travis County this year. Of those, nearly 60 were in Austin. Forty-eight percent of those involved drugs or alcohol, and a third involved speeding, Knee said.

He said that this holiday season, aggressive and distracted drivers will be cited along with drunken drivers.

Along with citations, officers will pass out ribbons and fliers from Mothers Against Drunk Driving to those who are stopped.

Click here for the full story as reported by the Austin American Statesman

Travis County Sheriff's Office is adding deputies to arrest suspected DWI drivers

2005-12-03T20:09:00.000-06:00

The Travis County sheriff's office is creating a traffic unit to increase their DWI arrests.

Sheriff Greg Hamilton said the unit, which will consist of four deputies, will have the sole task of finding and dealing with drunken drivers. It will operate from 6 p.m. to 4 a.m., and will focus on the eastern part of the county, where wrecks have increased significantly in recent years as the population has grown.

The DWI unit has three deputies and should add a fourth by Jan. 1, Hamilton said. He added that the unit is intended to work closely with the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission and the Texas Department of Public Safety.

Hamilton, a former beverage commission employee, said that at conferences around the country, people joke that "if Texas would just reduce its number (of drunken driving fatalities) by 10 percent, the figure nationwide would go down noticeably."

In 2004, Texas accounted for 9 percent of the nation's 15,045 alcohol-related traffic fatalities, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Forty-one percent of the state's traffic deaths involved alcohol, according to the highway administration.

Hamilton said he's found the recent increases in Travis County alarming. In 2003, the sheriff's office made 345 arrests for driving while intoxicated; this year, they've arrested more than 550, "and we're just getting into DWI season," said Lt. Al LaBlanc, who oversees the unit.

The DWI unit will use what the sheriff's office has termed "stealth cars," which LaBlanc said are marked but in "more subdued colors" that impaired drivers might not identify as readily.

"We're not trying to be big brother," Hamilton said, "but we've lost enough lives to DWIs and aggressive driving."

The unit is part of a larger effort by the sheriff's office to fulfill one of Hamilton's campaign promises: cutting down on drunken and aggressive driving on the county's roads.

Roger Wade, a sheriff's spokesman, said all patrol deputies will begin looking for reckless driving — aggressively weaving through heavy traffic, for instance — and not just speeding.

In this year's budget, the sheriff's office got 10 new patrol deputies at a startup cost of about $86,000 each. The DWI unit is included in those 10 deputies.

The sheriff's office should have about 20 of its 183 deputies dedicated strictly to patrolling once the positions are filled, Wade said, though he added that with deputies sometimes shifting roles, that number is not set in stone.

Click here for the full story as reported in the Austin American Statesman

SCRAM bracelet is being used in Dallas for DWIs

2005-11-27T09:48:00.000-06:00

To keep convicts sober, judges use technology and special courts .

As the holidays approached, folks in Dallas district Judge Vickers Cunningham's office last year figured at least a few convicted drunken drivers on probation would fall off the wagon.

Stone-cold sobriety is typically a condition of a defendant's probation. Yet it's always been hard to hold defendants to that condition because the body metabolizes alcohol much quicker than drugs, making random urine tests practically useless.

But last year, Judge Cunningham started using a new tool to combat and monitor the drinking problem of probationers: the Secure Continuous Remote Alcohol Monitor (SCRAM), an ankle bracelet that detects alcohol consumption.

"I've been on the bench 11 years, and this is the best criminal justice tool I've ever had," said Judge Cunningham, who announced this week that he is stepping down from the bench to pursue another elected office. Political insiders speculate he will run for Dallas County district attorney.

He is among judges across the nation who are using new technology and innovative programs to deal with a problem that jail time doesn't seem to solve: people who can't stop driving after drinking.

"It's extremely frustrating," Judge Cunningham said. "We have all these programs and all these intervention-type deals, and these people keep coming back."

Nearly everyone who appears before Judge Cunningham to face drunken driving charges already has multiple drunken driving convictions. But he's seen more success stories since he started putting the ankle monitor on probationers, he said.

The device, SCRAM for short, detects alcohol by testing unnoticeable sweat emissions. It's so finely tuned that it can detect if the person takes cold medicine containing alcohol or even a swig of alcohol-based mouthwash. It also alerts the monitoring agency if the ankle device has been tampered with.

When Judge Cunningham asked Dallas-based Recovery Healthcare to start providing and monitoring the devices about two years ago, he was just trying to figure out a quick and cost-effective way to implement SCRAM. The device is often too expensive for tight probation office budgets, and he has his defendants pay Recovery Healthcare themselves. Alcohol Monitoring Systems, which developed SCRAM, now touts that partnership nationwide as a model program.

"The Dallas area is fortunate because it had every tool: our tool, a strong treatment program and judges really enforcing the program," said Kathleen Brown, the company's spokeswoman.

Another initiative
In Denton County, county criminal court judge David Garcia has fallen for the device, too. But he's also spearheaded another initiative to battle multiple offenders.

"I don't want to push paper; I want to be able to make a difference," Judge Garcia said. "It doesn't do us any good if we punish them, send them back on the street and they do the same thing. We're trying to change that philosophy."

In July, a team of his county's law enforcement and legal officials headed to Austin for a program that trained them in establishing a court that specifically deals with repeat offenders. The program isn't aimed at social drinkers or people with a single alcohol-related infraction. Instead, it targets people who seem to be alcoholics.

DWI courts, as they're called, use existing space and resources. Judges usually set aside a specific day or afternoon depending on the need to hear, monitor and judge defendants who are have become familiar faces.

Probationers are typically required to come to court weekly so the judge can assess progress they've made in staying sober and getting their life together. They're expected to hold down jobs, pay child support and live up to other financial responsibilities. Besides checking in with a probation officer, defendants must also attend alcohol treatment sessions.

"We all recognize it as a disease," Judge Garcia said.

"Some people for whatever reason turn to alcohol. And then they get behind the wheel, and I'm trying to stop them and to change their everyday life pattern."

Nationwide popularity
Like the SCRAM device, DWI courts are becoming increasingly popular nationwide. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration helped fund the Austin training session, which included teams from Denton, Dallas and Collin counties. It was the agency's first of about 10 such sessions in the country.

David Hodges, a judicial liaison for the program, said the reason such programs are gaining in popularity is because they do something jail time doesn't seem to: get people to stop drinking.

"What sold me is every judge that I have talked to that has participated, their faces light up when you talk about it," said Mr. Hodges, who was a McLennan County judge for about 20 years. "They tell me, 'I was so burnt out. This has saved my career. I'm really making a difference in people's lives.' "

But it's not just judges who rave about the program, Mr. Hodges said. The defendants and their families like it. It's successful, he said, because it doesn't just threaten defendants, it teaches them how to alter the behavior that keeps getting them into trouble.

"All of a sudden everybody started going, 'You know, just throwing people in jail and throwing away the key might not be the solution to this,' " Mr. Hodges said.

"It's not like a ... liberal type of thing. We're doing it because it works."

When such innovative initiatives don't keep probationers from drinking, Judge Cunningham has little patience. And sure enough, SCRAM devices alerted him during the 2004 holiday season that three people on probation had fallen back into old habits.

Their punishments: 30 days in jail.

"Talk is cheap," Judge Cunningham said. "I want performance."

HOW IT WORKS

The Secure Continuous Remote Alcohol Monitor, or SCRAM, straps onto a person's ankle and tests imperceptible emissions of sweat about once an hour.

Once a day, a modem downloads the data, which manufacturer, Alcohol Monitoring Systems stores. If the person had had any alcohol, even mouthwash, it shows up. "It's as obvious as the nose on your face," said Dallas District Judge Vickers Cunningham. Some courts, like Judge Cunningham's, use a third-party treatment provider for the device. Others rely on internal probation officers to administer the program.

When the downloaded data shows an "alcohol event," Alcohol Monitoring Systems lets the courts, the probation office or the treatment provider know. The wearer is quickly called into court or their probation office. Offenders face penalties ranging from a few days in jail to revocation of probation. Larry Vanderwoude, SCRAM program manager for Dallas-based Recovery Healthcare, provides the device and monitors to law enforcement in conjunction with treatment. He has about 200 patients who use the bracelet and said while he has no complete data on its success because of the small sample size and short amount of time it's been available, even those on it seem to appreciate it after time. "I think it's been probably the most successful thing in working with repeat DWI offenders," he said.

"This seems to work."

Despite the praise from the judicial staff, every attorney that I know that has had clients on the SCRAM, have complained about false positive reports. I think, in Austin, we are headed that way, but I fear the problems that other folks have had with this system. It is not, cannot be, testing for ethyl alcohol. We are exposed to chemicals everyday that could cause a false positive.

Click here for the full story as reported in the Dallas Morning News

DPS plans holiday traffic watch

2005-11-24T06:49:00.000-06:00

Starting at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 23, the Department of Public Safety in Rosenberg will participate in Operation CARE (Combined Accident Reduction Effort), a nationwide effort to reduce fatalities during the holiday season.

DPS troopers, along with other state agencies, will be on the lookout this holiday weekend for seatbelt violators, speeders and drunk drivers.

"We're now entering that time of year where more drivers are on the road," said Senior Trooper Gary Pflughaupt. "Many people will not be wearing their seatbelts, and some drivers will be impaired. DPS will have all available troopers out on the road during the Thanksgiving holiday."

Operation CARE will be in effect for five days, starting Wednesday morning and concluding at midnight Sunday, Nov. 27.

Pflughaupt said the purpose of Operation CARE is to help make the public aware of the penalties for driving recklessly in Texas.

Click here for the full story as reported in the Fort Bend Herald.

DWIs in Austin

2005-11-14T22:24:00.000-06:00

One out of every five drivers on the road after midnight is under the influence of something, according to MADD TEXAS. The key is knowing what police officers are looking for when you're on the road.

Corporal David Daniels is assigned to the Austin Police Department's DWI Task Force. On a recent Saturday night, he combed North Lamar down to William Cannon and through the streets of downtown looking for drunk drivers.

A DWI charge usually starts off as a routine traffic stop.

"We look for violations, running red lights or speeding. Intoxicated drivers have a hard time maintaining their lane of traffic," Daniels said.

And, if you've had anything to drink - even just one - get ready to prove you're not drunk. Daniels said officers conduct sobriety test any time a driver indicates they've been drinking. More than a dozen officers are looking for drunk drivers on any given night.

Sometimes, when drivers correctly refuses to walk the line or follow their eyes with the officer’s flashlight, it’s off to the BAT bus. It stands for Blood Alcohol Testing. The small white school bus is stationed at different locations on different days as a faster way to process drunk drivers.

In Texas 42.5 percent of DWI arrests were wise enough to refuse to take a BAC test, according to a state report.

Once suspects are taken to the BAT bus, they must decide whether to submit to a breath test. In Texas, refusal is a so called "automatic" 180-day license suspension. If you look at my website, www.austin-texas-dwi.com, you will see that the "automatic" suspension may not be so automatic.

The breath test on the BAT bus offers immediate results, but suspects get a heavy dose of reading material while they wait. Public service announcements about DWI materials.

For those who end up in police custody facing a DWI charge, it’s a mandatory night in jail, unless they call an attorney to arrange for a late night Hobby Release. In Travis County, there are four criminal courts that hear DWI cases on their dockets.

Nine out of 10 people in Travis County plea bargain, according to W. Clay Abbott, a DWI resource prosecutor for the Texas District and County Attorneys Association.

Between Sept. 2004 and Aug. 2005, a record 7,589 DWI arrests were made, and Travis County convicts about 80 percent of DWIs, a pretty high statistic on the national scale. That leaves one-tenth of cases getting dropped and the other tenth going to trial. As you can see, who you hire as your attorney can make the difference between a plea and a reduction or acquittal.

"This is an area that has the youngest prosecutors and the most experienced defense attorneys. Same thing with officers. You start on the street, and if you're really good at what you do, you promote to something else. So, the rookies are all on the state's side," Abbott said.

Rookie prosecutors are up against veteran lawyers.Abbott said juries are increasingly siding with tougher punishment. “Jurors have been more receptive to giving harsher sentences, judges therefore right behind them. The consequences are becoming more dire for people that commit the offense,”

Most of APD's arrests are for a first offense DWI, though prosecutors are say many driving with a suspended license charges are linked to a previous DWI charge. That means even more criminal misdemeanor cases continue to cycle through the criminal justice system.

Click here for the full story as reported by the Austin American Statesman.

Round Rock police arrest DPS Trooper

2005-11-10T21:51:00.000-06:00

Officer charged with theft after allegedly taking merchandise from Wal-Mart store.

Round Rock police arrested a Texas Department of Public Safety trooper Thursday and charged her with misdemeanor theft after she allegedly took $58 worth of merchandise from a local Wal-Mart, according to police documents.

Jennifer Lopatowski, 30, is in custody at the Williamson County Jail with bail set at $750.

A Wal-Mart loss prevention officer called police to the store near the intersection of Interstate 35 and Louis Henna Boulevard shortly after 2 p.m. Wednesday after he saw Lopatowski put a jacket, an infant sleeper and four flash cards into a Wal-Mart bag and another bag she brought into the store, police documents said.

According to the documents, Lopatowski said she forgot to pay for the items with her Wal-Mart gift card.

Lopatowski attended the DPS training academy in July 1998 and graduated as a probationary trooper in January 1999. She worked as a highway patrol trooper in Hempstead before transferring to Magnolia in May 2000, said Lisa Block, a DPS spokeswoman.

Lopatowski worked as a trooper at the Capitol from June 2002 until she transferred to the Region 6 office in East Austin in June 2003, Block said. In September 2005, Lopatowski transferred to DPS' private security bureau, an office that oversees licensing for security personnel, Block said.

The Internal Affairs division of DPS is investigating the incident, Block said. Lopatowski, who was on family leave at the time of the arrest, will remain on leave pending the results of the investigation, Block said.

The class B misdemeanor has a maximum penalty of six months in jail and a $2,000 fine.

Click here for the full story as reported by the Austin American Statesman

Campus culture of drinking slow to change

2005-11-05T08:52:00.000-06:00

Fraternity keg parties, "beer pong" tournaments and dollar pitcher nights are rites of passage for college students.

But authorities are cracking down, saying alcohol is the common denominator not just in flunking out but in campus rapes, criminal mischief and even deaths.

Spurred by an evolving view of their community role, colleges and universities have made strides against disruptive drinking with stricter policies, tough penalties and more education.

But researchers say students are doing more binge drinking, which raises new challenges.

And just as students have conflicting views on alcohol, officials have different ideas on how to curb destructive use.

"You crack down on one area, and it moves to another area," said Drew Hunter, president of the BACCHUS Network, a peer-based education program that focuses on alcohol abuse and prevention. Responsible Drinking. To reduce excessive drinking, many universities have turned to intervention, Web-based self-assessment tests and even medical amnesty, a policy that shields students from sanctions if they call for help because of an alcohol-related emergency.

Education alone doesn't work, officials say. The same goes for scare tactics.

"You can educate students, but as long as alcohol is thrown at them ... they're going to drink," said Henry Wechsler, a social psychologist and the principal investigator of the College Alcohol Study, conducted by the Harvard School of Public Health since 1992.

He said limiting access is crucial to curbing consumption. "I don't want to knock education ... but they have to do a lot more."

Binge drinkers

The biggest binge drinkers remain white males in the Greek system and some athletes, even though they are targets of most information, Dr. Wechsler said.

Though some researchers dispute the term and definition, binge drinking is described by the Harvard study as five drinks in a row by a man and four drinks by a woman on one occasion.

Unlike their grandparents' generation, today's college students drink to get drunk and do so more frequently, Dr. Wechsler said. Nearly a quarter say they don't drink, and almost 1 in 5 are binge drinkers, the Harvard researchers found.

Suspensions

Along with education, the university uses discipline, treatment programs and intervention to combat the problem. It doled out 65 suspensions in the past year for alcohol-related offenses. Self-assessments More universities, including Southern Methodist University and next year the University of Texas at Austin, have taken a new approach: drinking self-assessment tests.

More than 450 universities use AlcoholEdu, a multimedia interactive program developed by Outside The Classroom Inc., one of at least nine companies that offer such products. It asks about alcohol use, family drinking history, athletic status and other issues.

Most use it as part of sanctions for alcohol offenses such as underage drinking, but 140 universities offer the course to new students.

The University of Illinois found that students who completed the program reported 50 percent fewer negative health, social and academic problems related to drinking than students who hadn't taken the course.

Other researchers say knowledge-based prevention programs alone are ineffective in behavior change. Outside The Classroom Inc. acknowledges that the course can't be relied upon alone.

At the University of California, Berkeley, where a moratorium on alcohol at its 70 fraternities and sororities went into effect in May, the course was required for the 6,900 incoming students this fall.

A 10- to 15-minute program developed at San Diego State University and University of Texas has also become popular. Check Up to Go, or e-CHUG, gives students an assessment of their drinking habits. The program converts the amount of alcohol a student consumes monthly to the equivalent number of cheeseburgers, a striking comparison for some test-takers. "A big problem for a lot of university students is that they don't really know what problem drinking is compared to non-problem drinking," the AMA's Mr. Yoast said.

44 cheeseburgers

Dave Pierson, 23, of New Orleans said the results of an e-CHUG test he took at the University of Texas showed he drank more than 95 percent of males his age did.

"It said I drank the equivalent of 44 cheeseburgers in a month," he said over a noontime drink at Cain & Abel's, a bar on the west side of the Austin campus.

This year, University of Texas officials also added the medical amnesty policy, already in place at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., and Emory University in Atlanta.

"One reason alcohol poisoning deaths occur is that a student is left to 'sleep it off' because other people are afraid of getting in trouble," said Chuck Roper, coordinator of the Alcohol and Drug Education Program at the University of Texas.

Robert Maust, head of a substance abuse panel at the University of Colorado at Boulder, said changing college culture isn't easy, especially when some believe it isn't a school's responsibility to educate students on alcohol.

Click here for the full story as reported by the Dallas Morning News

Cedar Park Police Recieve $54,000 Grant

2005-11-05T08:38:00.000-06:00

Police are working extra hours due to a grant from the Texas Department of Transportation.

The $54,000 Selective Traffic Enforcement Program Grant allows the department to pay more than 1,600 hours of overtime for officers who do additional traffic enforcement.

The grant funding lasts through September 2006.

The officers focus specifically on traffic violations such as driving while intoxicated.

Click here for the full story as reported by the Austin American Statesman

Jury awards judge $1 million against state trooper on DWI arrest

2005-10-31T16:20:00.000-06:00

The Colorado State Patrol says it is working with the state attorney general's office to determine how to react to a federal jury's decision to award $1 million to a municipal judge it held was wrongly arrested on a drunken-driving charge.

Jurors found Friday that trooper Cpl. Kevin P. Turner did not have probable cause to arrest John S. Wilder of Monte Vista for drunken driving or prohibited use of a weapon, and did not qualify for immunity from a lawsuit as a public employee. It was the second time the case had gone to trial. Wilder lost in 2004 but was granted a new trial. Wilder said he had tried to settle the case, unsuccessfully offering to drop the case without receiving any money if the patrol revised its arrest procedures.

"The Colorado State Patrol is shocked and disappointed in the decision reached in this case and we are working very closely with the state attorney general's office in determining the most appropriate steps to take. The trooper involved in case, who is now a corporal, is a nine-year officer with a solid reputation," said Maj. Jim Wolfinbarger, a State Patrol spokesman. Kristin Hubbell, spokeswoman for the state attorney general, said, "We're going to look at our options," Hubbell said. "However, we believe the trooper acted properly and we presented a strong case." Turner declined to comment.

Turner stopped Wilder in November of 2001 and said the judge smelled of alcohol and his eyes were watery. In court documents the judge said he had drunk one glass of wine 10 minutes before he was stopped. The judge told the trooper that he had a handgun in the car and that he had a license to carry it.

After Wilder refused a roadside sobriety test he was arrested. He also was charged with prohibited use of a weapon because state law bans carrying a gun while drunk.

When Drunk Driving Deterrence Becomes Neo-Prohibition

2005-10-31T10:04:00.000-06:00

Mothers Against Drunk Driving marks its 25th anniversary. The organization certainly has much to celebrate: Deaths from drunk driving are down more than 35 percent since the early 1980s. We no longer chuckle at the bumbling drunk who can barely get his key into the ignition — we scorn him.

Unfortunately, MADD has come to outlive and outgrow its original mission. By the mid-1990s, deaths from drunk driving began to level off, after 15 years of progress. The sensible conclusion to draw from this was that the occasional drunk driver had all but been eradicated. MADD's successes had boiled the problem down to a small group of hard-core alcoholics.

It was at about this time that MADD began to move in a different direction, one not so much aimed at reducing drunk driving fatalities but at stripping DWI defendants of basic criminal rights. MADD also seemed to expand its mission to one of discouraging the consumption of alcohol in general — what critics call "neo-prohibition."MADD's biggest victory on this front was a nationwide blood-alcohol threshold of .08, down from .10. But when two-thirds of alcohol-related traffic fatalities involve blood-alcohol levels of .14 and above, and the average fatal accident occurs at .17, this move doesn't make much sense. It's like lowering the speed limit from 65 to 60 to catch people who drive 100 miles per hour.

In fact, the U.S.Government Accountability Office reviewed all the statistical data and concluded "the evidence does not conclusively establish that .08 BAC laws by themselves result in reductions in the number and severity of crashes involving alcohol."Indeed, many critics of the .08 policy predicted that the new law could make matters worse by using up scarce law enforcement resources to go after these new "drunk" drivers who don't pose much of a threat to highway safety.

This is primarily done through the use of highly-publicized roadblock sobriety checkpoints, in which 12 to 20 police officers stop every passing car to make sure the driverhasn't been drinking.The Supreme Court gave its OK to the road blocks in 1992, despite conceding that they may violate the Fourth Amendment. Former Chief Justice William Rehnquist wrote that the threat to public health posed by drunk drivers was reason enough to set aside concerns about searches without probable cause. Given that they're usually publicized, the primary effect of these roadblocks is to deter socialdrinkers. The hard-drinkers, the real threats to highway safety, know to avoid them.

Sure enough, after former President Clinton signed .08 into law in 2000, drunk driving fatalities began to inch upward again — after two decades of decline — suggesting that the real drunk drivers were successfully avoiding the roadblocks. Thankfully, fatalities fell again last year, but that hardly proves MADD correct — deaths continued to go up in those states that employ sobriety roadblocks.The corresponding fall in fatalities in states that refuse to use the roadblocks more than made up the difference, suggesting that, freed from roadblock duty, law enforcement was able to work more effectively to catch drunk drivers.

Many local police departments have noted the inefficiency of roadblocks and given up the practice, despite the prodding from MADD and the federal funding that comes with them.Of course, many states and municipalities still use roadblocks. But they use them under the guise of looking for drunk drivers, then ticket motorists for a variety of infractions, only a small percentage of which involve driving while intoxicated. In other words, they've become revenue generators. A newspaper account of one recent North Carolina checkpoint, for example, found officers ticketing motorists for more than 45 infractions. Only three involved driving under the influence. That's actually high. Nationwide, less than .02 percent of motorists stopped at road blocks are arrested for DWI.MADD has also worked to undermine the criminal protections of accused drunk drivers — protections routinely granted to accused murderers, rapists and other felony crimes.

MADD, for example, has pushed to impose tougher penalties on motorists who refuse to take roadside breath tests than on those who take them and fail — effectively turning the Fifth Amendment on its ear. The organization alsofavors "administrative license revocation," which means the revocation of the driver's licenses and, in some cases, the confiscation of the vehicles, of those accused of drunken driving before they're ever given a trial.The organization is also pushing the widespread use of ignition interlock devices, in which a driver must blow into a tube to start his car, then blow again every 20 minutes or so while driving. Washington state recently passed a law allowing judges to mandate the devices in the cars of people merely accused of drunk driving, not convicted. And the states of New Mexico and New York have both considered legislation that would require the devices in every car sold in-state. The New Mexico bill is stalled in the state senate after being passed by the house. The New York bill was initially killed, but it gains more votes each time its determined sponsors reintroduce it.

MADD is also pushing its agenda onto family laws, including a zero tolerance policy for divorced parents. Under the bills MADD is trying to push through state legislatures, a parent caught consuming one beer or glass of wine before driving could face penalties that, according to MADD, "should include, but are not limited to" — "incarceration," "change of primary custody," or "termination ofparental rights." This means that if you take your kid to the game, have a beer in the third inning, then drive home, you could very well lose your rights as a father.

Even MADD's founder, Candy Lightner, has lamented that the organization has grown neo-prohibitionist in nature."[MADD has] become far more neo-prohibitionist than I had ever wanted or envisioned ...," Lightner is quoted as saying in an Aug. 6 story in the Washington Times. "I didn't start MADD to deal with alcohol. I started MADD to deal with the issue of drunk driving," she said.

Unfortunately, the tax-exempt organization has become so enmeshed with government it has nearly become a formal government agency. MADD gets millions of dollars in federal and state funding, and has a quasi-official relationship with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. In some jurisdictions, DWI defendants are sentenced to attend and pay for alcoholic-recovery groups sponsored byMADD. In many cities, MADD officials are even allowed to man sobriety checkpoints alongside police.

On the occasion of its 25th anniversary, perhaps its time Congress revisit the spigot of federal funding flowing to MADD, and consider revoking the organization's tax-exempt status. Clearly, MADD isn't the same organization it was 25 years ago. It has morphed into an anti-alcohol lobbying organization. There's nothing wrong with that — it's certainly within MADD's and its supporters' FirstAmendment rights.

But taxpayers shouldn't be forced to subsidize them.

Click here for the full story as reported by FoxNews.com

Zero Tolerance Policy leads to a terrible consequence

2005-10-17T14:51:00.000-05:00

Debra Bolton had a glass of red wine with dinner. That's what she told the police officer who pulled her over. That's what the Intoxilyzer 5000 breath test indicated -- .03, comfortably below the legal limit.

She had been pulled over in Georgetown about 12:30 a.m. for driving without headlights. She apologized and explained that the parking attendant must have turned off her vehicle's automatic-light feature.

Bolton thought she might get a ticket. Instead, she was handcuffed, searched, arrested, put in a jail cell until 4:30 a.m. and charged with driving under the influence of alcohol.

Bolton, 45, an energy lawyer and single mother of two who lives in Alexandria, had just run into a little-known piece of D.C. law: In the District, a driver can be arrested with as little as .01 blood-alcohol content.

As D.C. police officer Dennis Fair, who arrested Bolton on May 15, put it in an interview recently: "If you get behind the wheel of a car with any measurable amount of alcohol, you will be dealt with in D.C. We have zero tolerance. . . . Anything above .01, we can arrest."

Neither the police department nor the attorney general's office keeps detailed records of how many people with low blood alcohol levels are arrested. But last year, according to police records, 321 people were arrested for driving under the influence with blood alcohol levels below the legal limit of .08. In 2003, 409 people were arrested.

Although low blood alcohol arrests have been made in other states in conjunction with dangerous driving, lawyers, prosecutors and advocates of drunken driving prevention said they knew of no place besides the District that had such a low threshold for routine DUI arrests. In Maryland and Virginia, as in other states, drivers generally are presumed not to be intoxicated if they test below .05. Nationwide, .08 is the legal limit -- meaning a driver is automatically presumed to be intoxicated.

Fair acknowledged that many people aren't aware of the District's policy. "But it is our law," he said. "If you don't know about it, then you're a victim of your own ignorance."

Bolton said she didn't know. But defense lawyers who practice in the District do.

"Even one drink can get you in trouble in D.C.," said Thomas Key, a lawyer who successfully defended a client who had a blood alcohol level of .03. "They might not win a lot of these cases or prosecute them, but they're still arresting people."

Not many people fight the charge, said Richard Lebowitz, another defense lawyer.

Bolton didn't. She balked at the $400 fee and the 24 hours of class time required to attend the "social drinker" program.

"I think it would have been fine if I'd done something wrong, but I didn't," she said. "I had a glass of wine with dinner."

Instead, she hired a lawyer. In August, after Bolton made several fruitless appearances in D.C. Superior Court, prosecutors dropped the DUI charge. But then she had to battle the D.C.

Department of Motor Vehicles, which warned that it would suspend her driving privileges at the end of this month unless she went through an alcohol prevention program.

As Bolton remembers it, it was early morning May 15 and she had barely gone a few hundred yards before she was pulled over on K Street NW. The officer, Fair, asked her whether she realized the headlights on her Acura MDX sport-utility vehicle were off.

"Oh, man, am I going to get a ticket for this?" she remembers saying to him jokingly.

Then he asked her whether she'd had anything to drink.

"Not really," she said. And when he asked her again, more firmly, she answered that she'd had a glass of wine with dinner at Cafe Milano.

He asked her to recite the alphabet. In his report, Fair wrote that he had asked her to start at the letter D and stop at X. Bolton said she thought he had asked her to stop at S and tossed off the alphabet quickly and accurately to S.

As a result, Fair noted in his report that she had "jumbled" it.

Then he asked her to get out of the car.

Fair asked her to walk a straight line and then stand on one foot to the count of 30. He looked into her eyes to check for jerkiness. Bolton, dressed in black silk pants and a pink shirt, took off her pink high heels to be more sure-footed. She said she thought she had aced the tests. "All that yoga really paid off," she thought.

But in the police report, Fair wrote that she swayed as she walked and lost her balance -- which Bolton disputes. He told her she was under arrest.

"Why?" Bolton remembers saying. "I passed all your little tests."

On his report, Fair wrote that Bolton failed 10 indicators of sobriety. But James E. Klaunig, a toxicology expert at Indiana University's medical school who for 12 years oversaw the state's drunken driving testing, said that such a determination was scientifically improbable.

"There's no way possible she failed a test from impairment with a .03" blood alcohol level, Klaunig said. "And reciting the alphabet is not an acceptable way of measuring impairment, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration."

Fair, who said he does not comment on individual arrests, noted in his report that Bolton's attitude was "excited," "carefree" and "cocky."

"I was sort of laughing," Bolton said. "I look back and wonder, was I cocky? Did I have an attitude? Well, yeah, because I was sober, so I thought it was all so ridiculous."

Fair handcuffed her. Bolton said she was terrified. Until then, her only brush with the law had been a ticket for speeding in a 15-mph zone in 2002.

At 1:08 a.m., at the 2nd Police District station, Fair asked Bolton to blow into the Intoxilyzer 5000. It read .03.

"See?" she remembers saying.

He had her breathe into the machine one minute later. Again, .03.

"See?"

But Fair told her D.C. law was on his side.

On the department's Web site, D.C. police explain it this way: "Technically, according to the D.C. Code, the District of Columbia has a zero tolerance for driving under the influence. If a person 21 years of age or older has a blood alcohol concentration of .02 percent [to] .04 percent and extremely bad driving, this person can be placed under arrest for Driving Under the Influence of an alcoholic beverage."

At low levels of alcohol, an arrest comes down to an officer's discretion, said D.C. police Inspector Patrick Burke, former head of the traffic division.

Fair, he said, has 15 years of experience and averages more than 100 drunken driving arrests a year and is well qualified to make the call. In 1998, Fair arrested Marlene Cooke, wife of the late Washington Redskins owner Jack Kent Cooke, for drunken driving after she piloted her Land Rover through Dupont Circle without the headlights on. She refused a breath test but was later convicted.

"I always say the safe bet, if you drive, is not to drink at all," Burke said. "But even looking from a D.C. tourism standpoint, we'd be killing ourselves if we were saying you can't go out and have a glass of wine with dinner. That'd be ridiculous. So we tell people, you have to know your limits."

Bolton sat in a jail cell until 4:30 a.m. As she left, Fair told her he had given her a warning, not a ticket, for driving without headlights. She walked the few blocks to Wisconsin Avenue NW, caught a cab to her car on K Street and drove across the bridge to Virginia. There, she said, she pulled over and cried for 45 minutes.

Since what she refers to as her "unfortunate incarceration," Bolton has spent hours in D.C. Superior Court and at the DMV and $2,000 so far fighting the DUI charge. Her refusal to submit to the 12-week alcohol counseling diversion program has sent her on a "surreal" odyssey.

Twice, after hours of waiting, prosecutors told her that they had lost her file and that she would have to come back.
On Aug. 22, after four court appearances, prosecutors dropped the charge. But she spent all of September battling the DMV to keep her driving privileges from being suspended for three months.
Corey Buffo, the DMV's general counsel, explained that the agency drops its procedures only after a case goes to trial and is dismissed on its merits. "Our burden of proof is lower" than the Superior Court's, he said. "Not enough evidence for them may be enough evidence for us."

Yesterday, the DMV decided not to suspend her privileges and issued her a warning instead.

After so many months, Debra Bolton is just glad it's over. "It's lunacy," she said. "I'm all for limits on drinking and driving. Whatever the rules are, I will abide by them. I just didn't know these were the rules."

These days, Bolton goes out to eat in Virginia. And she keeps a yellow sticky note on her steering wheel to remind her to make sure her headlights are on.

Click here for the full story as reported in the Washington Post

Austin Humorist, John Kelso, pipes in on "Where did you have your last drink?"

2005-10-17T13:57:00.000-05:00

So a Sixth Street bar called The Chuggin' Monkey finished fourth among Austin bars when police asked suspected drunken drivers where they had their last drink.

This is a testimony to the lack of creative thinking among Austin's drunk community.

Tell me this much. What kind of a genius would admit to a cop that he'd just been sucking down suds at a place called the Chuggin' Monkey? Why would you say that out loud to a cop? Was the Pukin' Gorilla closed? How about the Vomiting Giraffe?

Hey, man, do yourself a favor next time you get pulled over and come up with a better story than that. If you tell a cop you've gotten sauced at a place called the Chuggin' Monkey, pal, you're goin' down. You may as well just lay on the ground and spread 'em.

Next time, be creative and tell the cop you've been drinking at the Headliners Club, or some swank place the cop might figure means you have an I.Q. and a job.

Say something like, "I've been drinking at the Hyatt with the mayor. Don't you know who I am?" And they'll Taser your butt anyway. But it sounds good.

Anyway, under a new program called Operation Last Call, Austin cops ask drivers they suspect

of being loaded where they had their last drink.

For starters, this is the wrong question to ask. The right question to ask would be, "Where did you have your first nine drinks?"

In a list compiled by the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission, the Dallas Nightclub led the league with 40 people admitting they had their last drink there. Dallas had a distinct home field advantage over the Chuggin' Monkey, since its capacity is 885 patrons and the Chuggin' Monkey will only hold 199 drunks.

This means regulars at the Chuggin' Monkey would have to get nearly five times as drunk just to keep up.

The tiny Cool River Cafe finished a surprising second at 27. I'm not sure I believe this statistic. How do we know that the people who were drinking at the Blind Pig Pub (No. 28 on the list) weren't lying and telling the cops that they were drinking at Cool River, to make themselves sound sophisticated?

Ever notice how the real bars like the Poodle Dog Lounge, the Horseshoe Lounge and Red's Scoot Inn never make these drunk lists? Pretty much all the bars on this list are amateur establishments.

The reason real bars don't make the cut is that the clientele are pros who know the side roads to take home to avoid the cops. Besides, a lot of these people have junker cars that won't start when they try to leave the bar. And they are too drunk to operate jumper cables.

It's tough to get busted for DWI when you're passed out on the hood.

Click here for John Kelso's full article as reported by the Austin American Statesman.

Former Austin Police Officer pleads guilty

2005-10-15T11:25:00.000-05:00

A former Austin police officer on Friday pleaded guilty to a state jail felony charge and two misdemeanors in connection with accusations that while on duty he touched the breasts of two women in his custody and enticed another to show her breasts to avoid legal trouble last year.

Jason Lockaby, 34, pleaded guilty before visiting state District Judge Sam Robertson to violation of civil rights, attempted violation of civil rights and official oppression charges, said Travis County Assistant District Attorney Patty Robertson.

Lockaby, who was fired in December after his arrest a month earlier, faces up to two years in a state jail on the first charge and up to one year in jail on the others.

Robertson said the plea was part of a deal with prosecutors, but she declined to say what they agreed to recommend at sentencing, scheduled for next month.

The final sentencing decision will be up to the judge.

Lockaby, who remains free pending sentencing, was accused of stopping the women in his patrol car on RM 620 in far North Austin.

Several of our "bad" DWIs went away because Lockaby was the arresting officer.

Click here for the full story in the Austin American Statesmen

Where did you have your last drink?

2005-10-14T11:06:00.000-05:00

About a year ago, Austin police began asking drunken driving suspects a new question as part of their roadside investigation: Where did you have your last drink?

Officers began logging the answers in their offense reports and compiling a list of the most frequently mentioned bars and restaurants. Then they started sending the information to the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission.

The agency began investigating establishments on the list. Since this spring, it has issued citations against at least five of them, and it is trying to yank the alcohol license of Dallas Nightclub on Burnet Road, which tops the list. Forty people arrested for DWI since January have said they consumed their last drink at Dallas.

Dallas, which says the statistics unfairly imply that they knowingly serve drunken patrons, is fighting the agency's attempt to revoke its license.

"We aren't naive enough to think that we are going to stop drunk driving," agency Lt. Robert Saenz said. "But if we can help reduce it, then we think we are contributing to this fight."

Austin is the first city to provide such statistics to the agency. Saenz and other officials said they hope to persuade police in other cities to do the same.

The list, obtained by the Austin American-Statesman this week, includes other well-known venues.

Some cater to mostly college students, others to young professionals. Some are on the city's outskirts, while others are in popular downtown entertainment zones such as Sixth Street and the Warehouse District.

According to the list, Dallas was most frequently named by drunken driving suspects, followed by Cool River Cafe on West Parmer Lane, where 27 motorists have reported consuming their last drink so far this year. A manager at Cool River said he had been told by company officials not to comment.

Sherlock's Baker St. Pub & Grill on Research Boulevard and Chuggin' Monkey at 219 E. Sixth St. were next on the list.

Some bar owners and managers say it is unfair to use anecdotal, easily skewed statistics to launch investigations.

For instance, they say statistics do not account for different club's sizes and seating capacities.

They also say a larger police presence in an area can push establishments up the list.

"Certainly if you concentrate enforcement on a certain location, you are going to get more DWIs than in an area where you have less enforcement," said attorney Charles Webb, who is representing Dallas. "I'm certain the number is not an accurate reflection. They are raw statistics."

TABC agents say their aggressive enforcement effort, which they are calling "Operation Last Call," is the result of a renewed partnership with the Austin Police Department and represents a shift in the way the agency investigates drunken driving.

In the past, agents often opened cases based on neighborhood complaints or tips from bar patrons who reported seeing intoxicated customers getting behind the wheel.

But after the Texas Sunset Advisory Commission — which regularly evaluates the performance of state agencies — expressed concern that Texas leads the nation in drunken driving fatalities, the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission decided to change tactics. The Legislature helped by approving money for 60 new agents statewide along with more support staff.

Saenz said Austin police statistics give the agency "a better starting point, a place to look." He said they follow up with investigations, including undercover operations.

Meanwhile, Austin police also have been working for months to help curtail drunken driving, which last year contributed to nearly half of the city's 73 traffic fatalities.

The department has added a citywide DWI enforcement team of 19 officers whose main responsibility is drunken driving arrests, although patrol officers continue to make DWI stops.

To decide where to deploy the DWI team, department leaders began requiring patrol officers to question motorists about where they last drank. Drivers are not legally obligated to answer.

"You want to attack the source of the problem," said Cmdr. David Carter, who heads the department's traffic enforcement division. "If I don't know where the problem is, then I don't know where to put my people.

He said officers wanted to talk to state agents this spring to learn such things as which parts of the city had the highest number of alcohol licenses.

That's when police told agency representatives about the statistics they had begun gathering.

"We ran with it," Saenz said. "We understand that it is not scientific data. But we also understand that where there is smoke, there is fire."

The TABC targeted Dallas — the first club they investigated based on the statistics — this spring.

Saenz said many of the DWI arrests citing the club as the driver's last stop happened late on Wednesdays or early on Thursdays and that the club, which bills itself as Austin's premier country and western dance venue, promoted Wednesdays as "ladies night." The club served beer for 69 cents and other drinks for $1.69.

In March, state agents conducted an undercover operation and made a couple of arrests for public intoxication, Saenz said. When the number of DWI arrests involving Dallas patrons continued, he said, the agency filed a motion in June to revoke the club's alcohol license.

Webb, the club's attorney, said the club has raised some of its drink prices, not as an admission that the promotion was leading to drunken driving, but "to be responsible and look at all the possible causes.

"We believe the club is performing in a professional manner and controlling its crowds in a very professional manner," he said.

Last week, officials invited owners and managers of more than 10 other establishments on the list to discuss concerns.

At the meeting, Saenz said, officials said their goal was not to suspend or revoke alcohol licenses but to work with the establishments to find ways to decrease the number of drunken drivers, including limiting drink-price promotions.

Dave Pantano, the manager of Rain, a club in the Warehouse District, said employees are trained to spot customers who may be intoxicated and are instructed to no longer serve them.

OPERATION LAST CALL

Dallas Nightclub - Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission officials have filed a motion to revoke the club's license after agents said the club failed to do enough to combat drunken driving. The nightclub is fighting the move.

Cool River Cafe - State agency officials said they contacted the restaurant on West Parmer Lane earlier this year, and it later ended a promotion that may have led to more drunken driving. No drunken driving suspects since August have cited it as the place they last drank.

Sherlock's Baker St. Pub & Grill - State agency officials have filed a case against the club for serving intoxicated customers. Since January, police say 23 DWI suspects have cited it this year as the place they had their last drink. I was informed several months ago that the Austin DWI Task Force would be targeting their enforcement on patrons of Sherlocks due to the high number of DWI arrests related to their club.

Chuggin' Monkey - Austin police say 14 drunken driving suspects have reported this year that they consumed their last drink at the popular Sixth Street club, which seats about 477 people. Managers could not be reached for comment.

Rain on 4th - A club manager said that he was surprised and concerned to learn where the club ranked on the list and that he will review the club's policy on intoxicated patrons with bartenders.

Click here for the full story as reported in the Austin American Statesman

Whether they admit it or not, Austin Police Department also has a "ZERO TOLERANCE" policy

2005-10-14T10:31:00.000-05:00

Washington Post - Washington D.C. Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey yesterday defended officers who arrest drivers with blood alcohol levels below the legal limit, and amid growing criticism of the department's "zero tolerance" policy, he insisted that officers continue to be able to use their discretion.

"We do have a policy that if a person is driving a motor vehicle and appears to be impaired in any way, then they can certainly be charged and tried for driving under the influence," Ramsey said. "It's in the judgment of the arresting officer."

Still, for the second day, some D.C. Council offices were swamped with angry calls and e-mails, aides said, about the police department's little-known zero tolerance policy for drinking and driving. Council staff members are investigating just what the policy is and what law gives the police the authority to enforce it. Some council members said they will look into ways to address the broad latitude the policy has given arresting officers.

One officers who has made such arrests, Dennis Fair, said D.C. law gave him the authority to arrest drivers with as little as a .01 blood alcohol level. "If you get behind the wheel of a car with any measurable amount of alcohol, you will be dealt with in D.C," Fair said in an interview. "We have zero tolerance."

In May, Fair arrested Debra Bolton, a 45-year-old energy lawyer and single mother of two who lives in Alexandria, after she said -- and a breath test later confirmed -- she'd had a glass of wine with dinner in Georgetown. Fair pulled her over after she left a parking garage without her headlights on.

But Ramsey said yesterday that Fair's characterization of the law was "inappropriate."

"He's wrong if he's saying that," Ramsey said yesterday. "It's not coming from me, and that's certainly no policy I've instituted. That's just incorrect."

Ramsey said he does not use the term "zero tolerance."

"I don't like it and I don't personally use it because I don't think it adequately describes much of anything," he said. But until a Washington Post article about Bolton's arrest appeared Tuesday, the D.C. police department's Web site said: "Technically, according to the D.C. Code, the District of Columbia has a zero tolerance for driving under the influence," and an adult driver with a blood alcohol level as low as .02 and "extremely bad driving" could be arrested. (Since when has forgetting to turn on your headlights become “extremely bad driving”?)

According to the D.C. Code, a driver with a blood alcohol level of .08 or more is considered legally intoxicated and can be arrested and charged with driving while intoxicated. A driver with a .05 blood alcohol level can be arrested and charged with driving under the influence.

But Bolton and a number of others who have come forward with similar stories have begun to question the judgment of some officers.

One Thursday night two years ago, computer software worker Lamon Lyles, then 27, remembers following a friend out of a parking garage next to Club U and into a gas station, going the wrong way on a one-way street. They were pulled over and asked if they'd had anything to drink. Lyles said he'd had one Heineken because the next day was a workday. The officer gave him and his friend field sobriety tests and then had them blow into breath machines. Both, he said, registered 0.0 blood alcohol.

But Lyles was not released. He said that the police officer told him about D.C.'s zero tolerance policy. You drank one, Lyles recalls the officer telling him, so you're over the limit.
Lyles and his friend were kept overnight in a D.C. jail and taken to court to be arraigned at 9 a.m. There, he said, within two minutes, both cases were dropped. Lyles, who said the arrest prevented him from getting a top clearance to work at the National Security Agency, spent a year trying to clear the incident from his record.

D.C. Council member Phil Mendelson (D-At Large), chairman of the committee with oversight of the police department, also questioned the officer's judgment.

"How can you flunk a sobriety test with no alcohol in your system -- unless the officer didn't know what he was doing or had another agenda," he said. "I certainly will make some inquiries."

Click here for the full story as it was reported in the Washington Post

Trouble in store for Bartlett Mayor as a result of a collision in Austin, Texas

2005-10-13T09:50:00.000-05:00

The Bartlett mayor, who denied having a role in an Austin hit-and-run collision last week was charged Wednesday in connection with the incident. Bartlett is a a small town in Williamson County.

While the Austin Police Department charged Bobby Hill, 61, with leaving the scene of a collision, there is much speculation that he left the scene to avoid another DWI charge.

Austin Municipal Court officials refused Wednesday to release a copy of the arrest warrant, citing a new policy under which they say the document is not public until an arrest is made.

Hill could not be reached for comment and was not in custody Wednesday evening. The Class B misdemeanor charge is punishable by a jail sentence of up to 180 days and a fine of up to $2,000, the same punishment range as a first time DWI.

In an unrelated matter, the Texas Rangers closed Bartlett City Hall for about an hour Wednesday and searched it.

Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley confirmed that the search took place but declined to comment on what authorities were investigating. The search warrant was sealed.

Hill said Friday that one of his children had the car at the time of the accident.

The hit-and-run happened about 5 p.m. Thursday when a white Cadillac Escalade, registered to Hill's wife, rear-ended a Toyota Tacoma on the upper deck of southbound Interstate 35.

The driver of the Cadillac fled the scene. Witnesses described him as a white man with short graying hair, police said. Coincidently, this description fits Hill as well.

In August, Hill was ticketed in Williamson County for speeding. During the traffic stop, he denied he was speeding, according to a video recording.

"I think you're harassing me," Hill told the deputy who stopped him. "You been wanting to do this a long time. I hope you stay out of Bartlett. If you don't, I'm calling the sheriff."

Hill was convicted of drunken driving in Travis County in 2003 and served 18 months' probation, according to public records.

Click here for the full story as reported in the Austin American Statesman

Bartlett Mayor seems to be headed for trouble.

2005-10-13T09:45:00.000-05:00

In a bold and unusual move, representatives from the Williamson County District Attorney's office along with the Texas Rangers raided Bartlett City Hall.

Bartlett is nestled in northern Williamson County -- northeast of Georgetown.

The small town's mayor is now facing arrest.

Around noon Wednesday, the Williamson County DA's office along with the Texas Rangers searched Bartlett's city hall seizing a computer along with several documents.

"They indicated it was part of an ongoing grand jury investigation, and that that's all that they could say. Certainly wouldn't want to make any speculation of what they were looking at or who they were looking at," Bartlett Police Chief Michael Lummus said.

A Williamson County judge sealed the search warrant. District Attorney John Bradley told KXAN he won't identify the targets of the investigation for fear that information will disappear.
But this all comes the same day that Bartlett Mayor Bobby Hill was charged with leaving the scene of an accident that happened in Austin last Thursday.

According to the Tribune Progress newspaper, firefighters tried to flag down the driver of a white Cadillac Escalade immediately following the accident. It's registered to Hill's wife.
Firefighters even went as far as knocking on the windows but the driver described as a man in his 60's with grey hair did not stop.

KXAN NBC Austin tried to get a comment from Bartlett Mayor Bobby Hill, but unfortunately, while someone was home, no one would answer the door.

No one returned their calls.

This isn't the first run in Hill has had with the law.

Public records indicate in August 2003, Hill was picked up for driving while intoxicated in Travis County. He was later convicted. In 2004, he was reportedly part of the city council that violated the state's open meetings act when three city employees were denied a public hearing before being fired.

The Williamson County District Attorney remains tight lipped about Wednesday's raid and won't tell us if there is any connection to Wednesday's charges and the removal of that computer and documents.

Anyone in law enforcement will tell you it's very unusual when a city hall is the subject of a raid.

Click here for the full story as reported by KXAN

Can Austin be far behind?

2005-10-12T11:33:00.000-05:00

Winnebago County, Wisconsin is starting a "Mobil Eyes" program, which gives money to people for calling in drunk drivers.

Winnebago County recently adopted the Mobil Eyes program, which gives a $50 reward to people who call the Sheriff’s Department and give information leading to the arrest of drunken or erratic drivers.

The county implemented the program on Sept. 16. Since then, police arrested one drunken driver on U.S. Highway 41 and have hopes of catching more people.

The Sheriff’s Department is hopeful that adding the program will help people make the decision to avoid drinking and driving. But, if people still choose to make poor decisions, police think that Mobil Eyes will greatly increase the number of arrests in connection with drunken driving.

However, people who call in do not receive their reward until they fill out a form, which an on-sight police officer has to sign, saying that their tips led to the conviction. Also, the caller may be asked to give a statement to police or testify against the driver convicted if they bring their case to court.

Since the Mobil Eyes Foundation received their 501-C status in Dec. 1997, which allows them to receive charitable contributions as a non-profit organization, it has helped police in Wisconsin make nearly 1,450 arrests, according to president of the foundation David Karner.

Despite all the success the program has had, the lack of funding has caused the original reward of $100 to fall to $50, and possibly down to $25 or nothing at all in the future according to Karner.

Click here for the full story as reported in the Advance Titan

Even Texas Congressmen aren't immune to DWI enforcement

2005-10-12T11:17:00.000-05:00

A Republican congressman from The Woodlands, near Houston, Texas, was arrested and charged with driving under the influence in South Dakota.

A state trooper pulled over U.S. Rep. Kevin Brady, 50, Friday night for a problem with the taillights of his vehicle, Clay County Sheriff Andy Howe said.

It was homecoming weekend at the University of South Dakota, so officers were on the alert for driving violations including manning sobriety checkpoints, Howe said.

Authorities are waiting for results of a blood test to determine Brady's blood-alcohol level at the time of the arrest.

The legal limit in South Dakota is .08.

Click here for the full story as reported on News 8 Austin

You may soon be able to smoke at the bars again

2005-10-12T10:41:00.000-05:00

A federal judge could decide Wednesday whether to temporarily invalidate part or all of the citywide smoking ban that took effect Sept. 1.

The ordinance prohibits smoking in Austin bars, restaurants and live music venues.

A group of bar and restaurant owners has sued the city, arguing, among other things, that the ban violates their constitutional rights relating to property and individual freedom. District Judge Sam Sparkswill decide whether to lift the ban while the lawsuit goes forward.

Even if the bar owners don't get their way, their testimony Tuesday revealed some embarrassing problems with the two-month-old ban.

Several bar owners said they've seen huge drops in revenue and have gotten no clear direction from city health officials about how to enforce the ban. A few bar owners hinted that they're defying the ban altogether.

Assistant City Attorney Lynn Carter said the city is interpreting the ban reasonably and has made every effort to help bars comply. Advocates for smoke-free venues say it's common for revenue to drop off initially when smoking bans begin but that revenue rebounds.

Bill Hardee, longtime owner of the Warehouse Saloon in South Austin, said that before the ban, 85 percent of his customers smoked. He said his liquor sales in September dropped 7 percent, and his revenue from billiards dropped 20 percent.

Carter asked Hardee whether he's tried to market to nonsmokers; Hardee retorted that he's not making enough money to advertise.

Asher Garber, owner of Room 710 downtown, said all the ban has done is dirty up sidewalks with cigarette butts and drive customers to bars with patios, where smokers can still light up.

And Sheena Semmler, a bartender at the Canary Hut Pub in North Austin, said she's considering selling her home because her tips are down 60 percent.

Lovejoy's bartender Leslie Jafarace said the ban has unfairly placed the burden on bar workers, not city officials, to stop smokers, who can become irate when told to snuff out.

"My job's hard enough. I don't need to be wrestling cigarettes out of people's hands," she said.

The ban requires bar owners to post no-smoking signs, remove ashtrays and tell patrons who start smoking to stop. If patrons refuse to comply, the city wants bar owners to handle the situation as they see fit: refuse to serve them, kick them out or call the police.

Enforcement is complaint-driven, and city inspectors have a few days to check out a bar. The inspectors must issue two lower-level violations — similar to warnings — before they can write a formal citation or take a bar owner to court.

So far the city has received only 49 complaints, according to David Lurie, director of Austin/Travis County Health and Human Services. None has risen to the level of a formal citation, he said.

Beerland owner Randall Stockton said he's gotten mixed messages about how to enforce the ban.

He said he was initially told to call police or 911, then told not to. He said that he's resorted to telling patrons that he's required to tell them not to smoke, but he said that some still light up.

Carter indicated that at least a few bars, including strip club the Yellow Rose, are brazenly defying the ban.

City inspectors have issued two "notices of violation" at that North Austin club, one for finding cigarette butts in a drinking cup in the trash, another for finding cigarette butts in empty candleholders.

Yellow Rose manager Tom West said he plans to leave the empty candleholders on tables because they're decorative. He said he still isn't sure whether the city considers those holders "smoking accessories," which are prohibited under the ban.

Click here for the full story as reported by the Austin American Statesman

Often, Good Medical Records Can Make The Difference Between A Guilty And A Dismissal

2005-10-03T16:15:00.000-05:00

The special prosecutor in the drunken driving case against Travis County Judge Sam Biscoe announced Friday that he will file a motion to dismiss the charge.

Special Prosecutor, Allan Williams, said Biscoe presented evidence, including medical records, that his diabetes could have caused the symptoms, such as poor coordination and weakness in his legs, that led to his arrest on Manor Road last year.

The prosecution's medical expert reviewed the evidence and agreed with Biscoe's doctor, Williams said.

"Because of the opinion of all of the medical experts, I have serious doubts as to whether Mr. Biscoe was intoxicated," Williams said.

"The system worked as it's supposed to," Biscoe said, "and I'm pleased with the result."
Biscoe, 58, has served on the Commissioners Court since 1988 and was elected county judge, the head of the court, a decade later. He plans to seek one more term in next year's elections.

He was arrested by Austin police at 10:47 p.m. Aug. 11, 2004, and charged with driving while intoxicated after an officer saw drifting within a lane and failing to signal a lane change. An arrest affidavit said Biscoe had a faint odor of alcohol and bloodshot eyes when the officer stopped him.

The affidavit said Biscoe swayed, lost his balance and took the wrong number of steps when asked to walk and turn. Biscoe, who declined to take a blood alcohol test, told the officer that he was on medication for diabetes and high cholesterol, the affidavit says. A police videotape of Biscoe's arrest showed him having difficulty walking heel-to-toe and standing on one leg.

Since his arrest, Biscoe has maintained that he was not intoxicated.

A lawyer for Austin police officer Ryan Herring, who arrested Biscoe, said in a statement that after reviewing the medical information Herring agrees that the "case is not right for prosecution."

After watching the police videotape, Biscoe's doctor, Jeffree James, wrote in a letter that was filed in court that Biscoe's coordination problem was caused by a complication of diabetes called peripheral neuropathy that affects the nerves in the legs.

Williams enlisted another medical expert to review the evidence in the case, including the videotape and Biscoe's medical records. That doctor, James Pohl, noted in his analysis that

Biscoe's behavior was consistent with diabetic complications because it affected his lower extremities and not his mental state or level of consciousness.

Williams was appointed to handle the case because County Attorney David Escamilla's office, which typically prosecutes misdemeanor drunken driving cases, serves as legal counsel for the Commissioners Court, which sets the budget for Escamilla's office.

Escamilla said Friday that it is not unheard of to dismiss charges in a drunken driving case based on a medical condition, including diabetes. He did not have statistics on how many of the approximately 5,000 drunken driving cases his office handles annually are dismissed for medical reasons.

In March 2004, Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle's office dismissed a felony drunken driving charge against an Austin school bus driver who had been arrested after stopping at a fast food restaurant because some of the 10 students on the bus wanted something to eat. The driver's husband said she had a condition that made her tremble, and her lawyer said she was having a panic attack after being grabbed by the father of a student at the restaurant.

Biscoe said memories of being hauled to jail, having his car towed and having his arrest covered by the media will not immediately dissipate.

Click here for the full story as reported in the Austin American Statesman

Automated Probation System Used in Dallas

2005-10-03T16:07:00.000-05:00

A pilot program permitting allegedly low-risk offenders to check in with an automated system rather than Dallas County probation officers has been set up in Dallas.

The probation kiosk program was instituted last year with the goal of using machines, not personnel, to monitor offenders considered small threats to society — leaving more officers free to supervise high-risk probationers. The system could save labor costs while also giving the department increased funds to hire additional officers for higher-risk individuals, said Jim Mills, the probation department's interim director.

But a probation office database showed that, of the 900 offenders who have used the system so far, nearly half were on probation for driving while intoxicated, and 20 had been convicted of drunken driving at least three times, making them felons. The Dallas Morning-News reported Sunday that about half of the offenders using the kiosk also were on probation for other felonies, including drug dealing, burglary, engaging in organized crime and robbery.

The officers' union said in a statement that it worried about the system's use, despite the potential benefits.

"The department's risk assessment instrument is statistically unreliable and woefully inadequate in determining which offenders are appropriate for kiosk," the statement said.

Judge Don Adams, the newest member of Dallas County's 15-member felony court judiciary, said he was skeptical of the system's methods and asked probation officers not to allow any offenders he sentenced to use the kiosk.

"I didn't think it was good from a public safety perspective," Adams said.

A consultant hired to evaluate the probation department recommended that probationers such as repeat DWI offenders be ineligible for the kiosk system. Sex offenders, arsonists and individuals convicted of any aggravated offense are already ineligible.

But despite his own suggestion, Dr. Tony Fabelo said he doubted the county had the capacity to efficiently categorize offenders.

"They have no quality control," Fabelo said.

But Mills said that, despite the early stage of the program and the lack of solid statistics, he hoped to purchase additional machines and enroll more probationers to save time for more grave cases. While the system eliminates human contact, he noted that there is no guarantee offenders will not repeat their crimes even when they are meeting with a probation officer.

Similar automated systems are in use in California and Indiana.

Click here for the full story as reported in the Austin American Statesman

Another Bad Apple - In Williamson County This Time

2005-09-28T11:19:00.000-05:00

Williamson County Deputy Richard "Monty" Cline was prepared to testify against 37-year-old Anna Berry at a felony drunken driving trial when Berry's lawyer discovered that Cline had something in common with his client: at least two misdemeanor convictions, one for drunken driving.

The news heralded the downward spiral of Cline's credibility and prosecutors' case against Berry, who could have gotten 10 years in prison.

In a deal with prosecutors, Berry pleaded no contest Thursday to obstructing a passageway, a Class B misdemeanor. She received one year deferred adjudication, a type of probation.
Cline is on paid leave from the sheriff's department pending the outcome of an internal investigation.

Revelations about his background raise questions about law enforcement hiring standards and whether other officers have pasts that can't withstand scrutiny in a courtroom.

Sheriff James Wilson, who took office in January, called Cline's 2002 hiring a "bureaucratic snafu." He said the department does its own background checks.

The case began unraveling last month, when Berry’s attorney subpoenaed Cline's personnel file from the sheriff's department.

What the attorney found was a 1991 conviction for drunken driving and a 1996 conviction for hindering a secured creditor, a Class A misdemeanor. Cline received probation in Travis County for both crimes, according to court records.

In August 1999, three years after the last conviction, Cline submitted a false document to the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement that stated he had not been convicted of anything above a Class C misdemeanor within the past five years, according to commission documents.

Cline reported the error to the commission the next month and agreed to a temporary suspension of his peace officer license. He was allowed to reapply in July 2001. The Williamson County sheriff's department hired him in May 2002.

Since 1999, the commission has raised its standards, Director Cynthia Martinez said, and Cline's past would bar him from obtaining a license today.

The new rules block candidates with felony or Class A misdemeanor convictions, she said.

Martinez said applicants' statements regarding criminal history are accepted "on the honors system" unless agency workers have reason to suspect otherwise.

Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley said conversations with Cline about his past caused prosecutors to lose faith in him as a witness, Bradley said.

"The officer was not candid with us," he said.

Click here for the full story as reported in the Austin American Statesman

Watch out for TABC

2005-09-20T09:30:00.000-05:00

Bartenders won't be the only ones watching what you drink. It's part of TABC's "SIPS" effort or Sales to Intoxicated Persons Stings.

It will be happening on Sixth Street and all around Austin.

"Don't be surprised if the guy in the Hawaiian shirt sitting next you is a TABC agent kind of watching," Lt. Robert Saenz with the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission said.

"What APD has done for us is not only given us top bars but the nights of the week when arrests have been made," Saenz said.

They call it the Top 30 list. That's where they're focusing their efforts to catch folks who have had too much to drink and the folks selling it to them.

"We understand it's a difficult venture. We understand it's an unpopular venture that we're taking on here, but it's something that needs to be done," Saenz said.

Bars aren't the only place you'll find undercover TABC officers these days.

They'll also be at the Austin City Limits Music Festival all this weekend.

Click here for the full story as reported on the KXAN website

Another Bad Apple on the Austin Police Department

2005-09-16T11:08:00.000-05:00

A former Austin police detective pleaded guilty to seven counts of child pornography in federal court Thursday, admitting that he possessed on his personal computer hundreds of pornographic images of children.

Lance McConnell, 34, faces five to 120 years in federal prison and up to $1.75 million in fines when he is sentenced by U.S. District Judge Sam Sparks. The sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 18.

In a statement, U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton called Thursday a "sad day for Austin because we now know that one who was sworn to protect and serve the innocent instead committed a terrible crime."

McConnell was on the Austin police force for seven years before he was fired in May after a federal grand jury handed up the indictment against him. He was assigned to investigate illegal alcohol sales.

Investigators with the Texas attorney general's office began to investigate McConnell after they received a tip from America Online officials that a subscriber had attempted last year to send e-mails with child pornography images attached, court documents show.

McConnell pleaded guilty to two counts of possessing child pornography, three counts of receiving child pornography and two counts of transporting child pornography.

Click here for the full story in the Austin American Statesman

Fewer people dying in alcohol-related crashes

2005-09-13T21:10:00.000-05:00

Compared to just two years ago, fewer people are dying on Texas roads in alcohol-related crashes. Those statistics come from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

"Drunk driving fatalities are down. Between 2003 and 2004, alcohol-related traffic deaths fell by 7.3 percent - which translates to 129 fewer fatalities. When you add that to the six percent between 2002 and 2003, alcohol related traffic fatalities have fallen by 13 percent," said Carlos Lopez, Texas Department of Transportation.

Despite the decrease, Texas still leads the country in the number of traffic fatalities.

In Travis County, the drop was even more significant. In 2002, 19 cases were filed for intoxication manslaughter. In 2004, 9 cases were filed for intoxication manslaughter. Law enforcement officials attribute much of the drop in those numbers to enforcement.

Click here for the full story on the KVUE website

The Sheriff's Department had a busy weekend

2005-09-12T21:37:00.000-05:00

The Travis County Sheriff's Office calls a recent crackdown on drunk driving "a success."

From Aug. 19 to Sept. 5, deputies made 43 DWI arrests, compared to 38 DWI's in the entire month of May. That's the last month the sheriff's office has stats for.

A $25,000 grant from the national "You Drink, You Drive, You Lose" program funded the crackdown.

Click here for the full story on News 8's website

Police are going to be out in force this weekend!

2005-09-02T16:34:00.000-05:00

The Police Department is stepping up its efforts to prevent drunken driving this weekend in the downtown entertainment district as the return of University of Texas students, Longhorn football and the holiday attracts more people.

After finding that nine of the past 10 fatal crashes in Austin involved drug or alcohol impairment by the driver, the department decided to launch "Operation Summer's End."

Starting this weekend, specialized police units -- including the mobile alcohol Breathalyzer and the Air One traffic helicopter -- will team up with the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission to target aggressive driving and underage drinking.

By raising awareness of the crackdown on drunken driving, police hope for more compliance from people who are out and about this weekend, he said. "Alcohol and aggressive driving add up to people getting hurt, and we don't want that," said Lt. Kenneth Cannaday.

Click here for the full story in the Austin American Statesman

Do Smokers Drink More.....We Shall See.

2005-09-02T16:31:00.000-05:00

As smoking ban becomes law, bar owners cope

At 11:58 p.m. Wednesday at the Dizzy Rooster, Brian Short took a long drag on a Camel, his last legal one in an Austin bar.

"I'm exercising my rights while I still can," the 30-year-old drummer with Dorkstar said.
Austin's smoking ban, passed in May by 51.8 percent of voters, got its official, if rocky, start at 12:01 a.m. Thursday.

At least one bar owner said he would not enforce the ban until pressed by the city. Another bar owner, vowing to enforce the ordinance to its hilt, phoned 911 to report a smoker.

"A lot of people are getting in their last smokes," said Jessica Davoust, a bartender at the Dizzy Rooster.

Nearby on Sixth Street, a sign outside the Mooseknuckle Pub urged patrons to "Smoke 'Em While Got 'Em!!!"

But owner David Snowberger said he had not received official word from the city about how to enforce the ban and would not until he had been given instructions.

The prospect last spring of the smoking ban had unified some bar owners, who complained that it would lead to a devastating downturn in business. They argued the city should not prosecute proprietors for an offense committed by a patron.

Early Thursday, they coped with enforcing the ban.

Randall Stockton, who owns Beerland on Red River Street and who had campaigned against the ban, called 911 shortly after midnight to report a customer who did not extinguish a cigarette.

"These are my valued customers," he said. "At 11:58, I'm friends with them, and then a couple of minutes later I'm calling the cops."

One person by the bar said the call was excessive.

The ban became the subject of downtown regulars and employees at the stroke of midnight.

"Ownership should regulate the place," said Alpha Ball, who mans the door at Plush, where ashtrays had been removed just before midnight, on Red River Street. "Why would they have laws for your own property?"

Click here for the full story in the Austin American Statesman.

Travis County Alcohol-related accidents increase this year

2005-08-30T18:35:00.000-05:00

Sheriff's office says increase largest in eastern part of county.

Alcohol-related traffic crashes are up 53 percent in Travis County from this time last year, according to the sheriff's office.

The increase is sharpest in the eastern part of the county, which is growing quickly as subdivisions and industry move onto relatively inexpensive land. There, alcohol-related wrecks are up 111 percent, according to the sheriff's office, increasing from 44 incidents a year ago to 93 this year.

Sheriff's office spokesman Roger Wade said no detailed studies of the increase have been done, but he said the likely reason for it is a growing population and more drivers.

"In the old days, you'd be driving down the road at 2 a.m., and it'd be empty, so there wouldn't be much chance of hitting someone," Wade said.

The statistics come as the sheriff's office is asking for more patrol officers.

In his annual budget request, Sheriff Greg Hamilton has asked county commissioners for 10 more officers. That would cost about $800,000 the first year, including vehicles and equipment, and about $650,000 a year after that, Wade said.

The office has about 130 patrol officers who cover about 750 square miles, Wade said.

Hamilton told the commissioners that additional officers would help not only with the documented increase in alcohol-related crashes but also with an increase in aggressive driving that he and his officers have observed.

Click here for the Full Story in the Austin American Statesman

It's last call for smokers

2005-08-29T18:49:00.000-05:00

At 12:01 a.m. Thursday, city's ban will apply to almost all establishments.

Across Austin this week — and just outside it — restaurants and bars, bowling alleys and pool halls are bracing for the impact of the smoking ban that voters narrowly approved in May.

"We are going to do our best to obey the spirit of the law," said Joseph Tait, the owner of Lovejoy's Tap Room and Brewery, a downtown bar.

He said he would post no-smoking signs and remove ashtrays. At a staff meeting Wednesday, he instructed workers to ask patrons who light up to put out their cigarettes; if they persist, they won't be served; if they get belligerent, the staff will call 911.

However, the National Restaurant Association, in a 2004 study partly funded by the Philip Morris company, found that restaurant sales decline significantly when counties implement 100 percent smoking bans in dining and bar areas.

The Austin ban, which passed in May with 51.8 percent of the vote, extends current smoking restrictions to about 225 establishments. Depending on whom you ask, it's either a fascistic exercise or a sensible public health maneuver.

The current rules, which took effect in June 2004, say that only bars and restaurants that make most of their revenue from alcohol or have separate smoking sections can allow smoking. Pool halls and bowling alleys also can allow smoking.

Of Austin's 5,000 or so establishments that serve food and drink, 219 had received special permits that allowed smoking, according to David Lurie, director of the Austin-Travis County Health and Human Services Department. On Thursday, the smoking permits will become worthless.

"We're not going to be patrolling the streets," Lurie said. The process will be "complaint-driven" by calls to the environmental and consumer health services line, 972-5600. He said people should not call 911 to report smoking violations.

"As we get complaints we'll be reviewing those," Lurie said. "If we have patterns of noncompliance, we'll take further action."

He said establishments and proprietors are more likely to be the subject of enforcement action than individual smokers. Since June 2004, 126 citizen complaints and 51 cases of misdemeanor ordinance violations (involving signage, permitting or use of ashtrays) have been filed with the Municipal Court. Nineteen of those cases have been resolved, with fines totaling about $7,700.

About the only places left for smokers are bingo halls and fraternal organizations, which were left off the ballot, and a handful of restaurants whose permits were grandfathered in because of their special filtration systems.

At the Iron Cactus in North Austin, one of the grandfathered restaurants, General Manager Chris Donner has been putting up signs letting people know the restaurant is exempt from the smoking ban and has told bartenders and the wait staff to clue in customers.

"You see a little bell go off in their heads," he said. "We're hoping to see a lot of smokers line up to take a smoke or get a drink."

Some people worried that banning smoking would change the very nature of live music in Austin.

Keep Austin Free is not ready to stub out its butts just yet. Marc Levin, a lawyer for the group, said it might file a suit. (A challenge to the ballot measure by the same group was dismissed in the spring by a federal judge.)

"We're definitely taking a look at some legal action," he said. "There's no necessity to do something before Sept. 1, but many businesses may close down before legal relief comes."

On Thursday, the mayor declared September to be Support Austin's Nightlife Month. It might be the one thing all sides can agree on.

Smoke here

The current city smoking ordinance permits smoking in bars and some restaurants. The smoking ban that will go into effect on Thursday restricts smoking to bingo halls, fraternal organizations and only this handful of Austin restaurants that have special filtration systems:

IHOP No. 1421, 707 E. Cesar Chavez St.

Trudy's, 8820 Burnet Road

Bennigan's, 13995 U.S. 183 North

Cool River, 4001 West Parmer Lane

Hooters, 13701 U.S. 183 North

Shoal Creek Saloon, 909 N. Lamar Blvd.

Trudy's, 4141 Capital of Texas Highway (Loop 360)

Iron Cactus, 10001 Stonelake Blvd.

The health department will investigate all complaints and issue a citation only after the third offense, said Bob Flocke, a spokesman for the city's health and human services department. The establishment, not the smoker, will face a fine of up to $2,000 for noncompliance.

Click Here for the full story in the Austin American Stateman

Texas Joins the Nation in Crackdown on Drunk Driving; Law Enforcement Agencies Statewide To Participate

2005-08-18T09:55:00.000-05:00

With Labor Day and the last surge of summer road trips just two weeks away, the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) announced today that Texas will be part of a coast-to-coast effort to remove drunk drivers from the nation's streets and highways. Between August 19 and September 5, state troopers and thousands of local law enforcement officers will be stepping up enforcement of the state's DWI laws.

"We're putting drivers on notice: if you drink and drive during the upcoming Labor Day holiday, you're asking for trouble," said Steve Simmons, TxDOT's Deputy Executive Director. "TxDOT is joining the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the Texas Department of Public Safety and local law enforcement organizations statewide to get drunk drivers off the road."

"The national crackdown is a comprehensive impaired driving prevention effort focused on highly visible enforcement, public awareness, and paid media to deter impaired driving," said Georgia S. Chakiris, regional administrator for NHTSA. "Travelers in Texas and across the nation will see plenty of officers getting impaired drivers out from behind the wheel and into jail."

Click here for the Full Story in the Business Wire

Travis County Sheriff's Office Gets a $25K Grant

2005-08-16T14:49:00.000-05:00

The Travis County sheriff's office recently received a $25,000 grant from the Texas Department of Transportation to arrest more DWI drivers.

The grant, part of the "You Drink & Drive. You Lose" program, will pay overtime wages so officials can put more deputies on patrol from Friday through Sept. 5.

Click here for the full story in the Austin American Statesman

Boating While Intoxicated (BWI) in Austin, Texas

2005-07-19T21:49:00.000-05:00

Texas has more square miles of inland water than any other state and more than 620,000 boats registered to travel Texas waters. While most people are at least somewhat familiar with Driving While Intoxicated (DWI), many are not familiar with Boating While Intoxicated (BWI).

Although the two offenses are similar, the Texas Penal Code distinguishes between “driving while intoxicated” (DWI) and “boating while intoxicated” (BWI). The Texas Penal Code provides that a person commits the offense of “driving while intoxicated” when he or she operates a motor vehicle in a public place while intoxicated.

The offense of “boating while intoxicated” occurs when a person operates a watercraft while intoxicated. Both offenses are Class B misdemeanors and require a minimum confinement term of 72 hours. In addition, for the commission of both DWI and BWI, the “operator” of the vehicle must have been proven intoxicated. Police generally administer many of the same tests in attempting to detect whether a BWI or DWI violation has occurred. These may include field sobriety and blood alcohol level tests.

To commit BWI, a person must operate a watercraft while intoxicated. “Intoxicated” means either “not having the normal use of mental or physical faculties by reason of the introduction of alcohol, a controlled substance, a drug, a dangerous drug, a combination of two or more of those substances, or any other substance into the body; or having an alcohol concentration of 0.08 or more.”

One thing is clear, a person being investigated for DWI or BWI needs to know their rights, and if arrested for BWI, they need an attorney that understands BWI. I am such a lawyer.

The Texas Open Container Law, which makes it illegal to have an open container of alcohol in a car on a public roadway, does not apply to boats. Therefore, it is not illegal to have an open container of alcohol on a boat in Texas.

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If you are arrested for BWI in Austin, please click here. We can help.

The University of Texas in Austin may soon have a new tool to help combat drunk driving.

2005-07-14T09:26:00.000-05:00

It's roughly a 13-block hike from the UT campus down to the entertainment district of Sixth Street in Austin, Texas, something many students do every weekend.

Now they may have a safer and more convenient way to get home not only from Sixth Street but anywhere in the Capital City.

UT student Omar Ochoa likes the convenience of using his pre-paid BEVO Bucks card when he doesn't have cash to buy a drink.

It's an option that may soon translate to a cab ride home for UT students this fall.

"We could either do it on the student ID, or it could possibly even be on another card. It would have the cab number on it. It would say what it was for," UT Student Government Vice President Elizabeth Brummett said.

Right now it's being dubbed "cab cash."

"You would have to prepay of course, but we would hopefully get it as an optional student fee. When students register, they have a list of fees they can buy like a parking permit or a performing arts pass," Brummett said.

The Yellow Cab Company already has a similar system in place for daily customers called taxi cards.

"Anything to keep people who have been drinking off the road is a good idea, and people seem to be reluctant sometimes to spend their money on a cab. It just seems to be easier when they have these cards," Michelle Moore with the Yellow Cab Company said.

UT's Legal Affairs must approve this before the program goes into effect.

If everything goes as planned, cab cash could be an option for students as early as next month.

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TABC is trying to justify their existence by going after Austin's Dallas Nite Club

2005-07-09T21:45:00.000-05:00

KVUE reported that there are new troubles for the popular Dallas Nite Club after accusations that the Austin club puts more drunken drivers on the streets than any other Austin bar.

Undercover agents went back and allegedly found more problems.

An undercover operation Wednesday found an employee serving a person the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission says was already drunk.

The attorney for the club says that's something police could find at any establishment.

"We found another intoxicated person who by his own admission had shown up 45 minutes earlier and in that short time frame had consumed four alcoholic beverages, four beers and was purchasing his fifth when he was intercepted by the agents," TABC Lt. Robert Saenz said.

The server was written a ticket for serving an intoxicated person. The person he served was arrested on the spot for public intoxication.

Of all the people stopped for drunken driving (DWIs) this year, 28 of them say they were coming from the Dallas Nite Club.

That's more than any other club in Austin; consequently, they want to revoke the club's liquor license.

Charles Webb, the attorney for the Austin club, says he is currently in negotiations with the TABC on behalf of his clients.

"No responsible business owner wants to have intoxicated people leaving their club, particularly not my client who's been in business for 25 years and has never been sued for any injury from anyone leaving the club," Webb said. "I think that's a very important statistic."

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A videotape never exaggerates or embellishes the truth

2005-07-06T11:25:00.000-05:00

Police will inspect for proper patrol car camera use

The Austin American Statesman reported that Austin police supervisors will begin conducting periodic inspections of videotapes from patrol cars to make sure officers are properly recording traffic and pedestrian stops, Police Chief Stan Knee announced to his staff Tuesday.

Knee's two-page e-mail memo to the city's 1,300 officers comes less than a month after an officer fatally shot a teenager in an incident that was not captured on tape, despite department policy.

Knee said in the memo that he and other department leaders are trying to develop a system for inspections. He said that failure to follow the rules to record traffic and pedestrian stops could lead to "significant disciplinary action."

However, the memo is not specific about what punishment officers would face.

"The community's expectations are that officers will consistently utilize the cameras to record stops," Knee wrote. "This process builds trust between the department and the community and provides an unbiased account.

"Recent events remind us of the importance in properly using in-car video and audio equipment."

According to Knee's memo, officers must immediately begin making a test recording at the beginning of each shift by saying their name, date and time. Officers must review the recording to make sure in-car cameras and the microphones clipped to their uniform are working.

Knee, who could not be reached for comment, said in the memo that videotapes have "numerous benefits" for officers.

They can be used to bolster testimony in court proceedings, as a reference source for completing reports and to protect officers from false allegations of misconduct, according to the memo.

He also wrote that they can be used as a training tool to evaluate officers' performances.

The department began installing cameras in its patrol cars in 1999 as part of a national movement in law enforcement to tape traffic stops.

By July 2003, officials had installed 156 cameras in patrol cars, about half of its fleet, when they asked the City Council to spend $342,000 on cameras for remaining cars.

The department has punished two officers with written reprimands since July 2003, when it updated its policy for recording stops, for failing to use videocameras.

There is no better piece of evidence for a DWI than the in-car video. I cannot tell you the number of times we have proven that the police officer exaggerated the truth by showing the video.

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TABC wants to shut down the Dallas Nite Club

2005-06-29T09:29:00.000-05:00

Police arrested 21 people who drank at the Dallas Nite Club were arrested for DWI, an official says.

The Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission is trying to revoke the license of Austin’s popular Dallas Nightclub because the agency says the club sells drinks to intoxicated customers and has a weekly promotion that encourages people to get drunk.

Lt. Robert Saenz, who works in the TABC's Austin office, said more people have been arrested for drunken driving after leaving the Dallas club than any other establishment in the city since January. As of May 6, he said, 21 people arrested for DWI told police that the club was the last place they consumed alcohol.

To keep its license to sell alcohol, Dallas' management must prove to a state administrative judge that its employees are trained to spot drunken customers and that it is not encouraging staff members to serve alcohol to intoxicated patrons. TABC must show that the club is promoting drunkenness. The hearing will take place in a couple of weeks, Saenz said.

The crackdown on Dallas may soon extend to other bars and nightclubs throughout Central Texas, Saenz said. TABC officials are being aided in their efforts by police department statistics showing locations where drunken drivers bought their last drink — a question officers ask before making arrests.

Dallas, which has been on Burnet Road for more than 20 years, bills itself as Austin's premier country and western dance club.

Wednesday night is promoted as "ladies night," when Saenz said the club offers beer for 69 cents and all other drinks for $1.69. TABC officials said more than half of the 21 arrests happened on late Wednesday night or early Thursday morning.

However, police officers may be more aggressively patrolling Burnet Road than streets leading to other bars and nightclubs.

Dallas’ attorney said the club has worked to discourage patrons from drinking and driving. According to Dallas' Web site, designated drivers are given free nonalcoholic beverages and are eligible to win prizes.

Saenz said that Austin police began giving TABC investigators statistics earlier this year and that the numbers led them to look at Dallas' alcohol-serving practices. TABC officials met with club managers earlier this year.

In March, TABC officials conducted an undercover operation at Dallas and made a couple of arrests for public intoxication. They met again with club attorneys, who he said did not think the

Wednesday night promotion was leading to the DWI arrests. The attorneys said club staff would be more vigilant, Saenz said.

He said the effort was initially successful — only two people were arrested for DWI in March after leaving the club. But the numbers began swelling again.

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TABC is picking on Dallas Nite Club

2005-06-28T15:53:00.000-05:00

According to numbers from the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission, more people arrested for drinking and driving come from the Austin’s Dallas Nite Club than any other club in the city.

Since 1980, the club has been a popular spot for country and western and a cold beverage.

But the club's 69 cent drink specials on certain nights are landing them in hot water with the TABC. Lt. Robert Saenz of the TABC says the state agency has asked the owners to raise drink prices more than once.

"It was our belief all along that the biggest part of the problem was the drink special," Saenz said.

In April, the club announced it was working with local and state police to come up with a designated driving program of its own.

The club offered free soft drinks to designated drivers and set up a cab stand right in front of the club.

But since January, 21 people stopped for drunken driving told police they were drinking at the Dallas Nite Club -- the most in Austin, Texas.

That's five more than Cool River, fourteen more than the Chugging Monkey, and fifteen more than The Library.

"Just because they arrest someone on Burnet Road with a DWI doesn't mean they came out of the Dallas Nite Club either," Dallas’ attorney Charles Webb said.

Webb has been the Dallas Nite Club's attorney since it opened 25 years ago.

He believes the drunken driving numbers are misleading.

"I know from my management's perspective, they've seen and witnessed a number of times when people have pulled into the Dallas Nite Club as an example of skewed statistics, coming from another night club and being intoxicated and being arrested in the parking lot," Webb said.

State lawmakers just approved the addition of 60 more TABC agents in Texas.

Four of them will work in the Austin area solely to cut down on drinking and driving.

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Austin police get donated helicopter from Army to be used for highway patrols

2005-06-25T09:35:00.000-05:00

The Austin Police Department's newest crime-fighting tool, a U.S. Army OH-58 helicopter, arrived at its new home Friday afternoon after a several-hour flight from Fort Rucker, Ala.

Beginning in a couple of months, the reconnaissance chopper will be used to patrol Interstate 35 and other major highways in Austin, Texas, help find fugitives and provide aerial views of crowds at large events.

More than three years after the city bought its first police helicopter, department officials accepted the chopper from the Army, which is replacing its fleet with new helicopters.

The Army is awarding about 150 of the used helicopters to law enforcement agencies across the United States.

"They are very serviceable, very fit for police work," said Cmdr. David Carter, who supervises the department's air enforcement unit.

Officers assigned to the aviation unit have long said that they would like a second helicopter, but it hasn't been a priority in the department's budget requests.

The OH-58 is a single-engine, two-bladed helicopter with state-of-the-art navigation and vision equipment.

The helicopter, to be called Air 2, will team up with the department's Eurocopter EC 120B chopper, which the department bought for $1.6 million in late 2001 and calls Air 1.

Carter said the OH-58 will allow officers to split flying time between the two aircraft to put less wear on each.

It also will give the department a backup if the other helicopter is being serviced or is performing another mission.

Carter said operating costs will be about the same for both helicopters: about $225 per flight-hour for gas, oil and maintenance.

He said the department will spend the next few weeks adding police radios and other equipment to the aircraft.

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This is part of Austin Police Department's efforts to beef up it's tools for DWI Enforcement.

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Jail is Overcrowded, So They Are Sending Folks to Frio County

2005-06-22T22:12:00.000-05:00

To ease crowding in the Travis County jail system, the Travis County Commissioners Court voted Tuesday to immediately move 100 inmates to Frio County and add staff to help the district attorney's office prosecute cases more quickly.

The commissioners also voted to ask the Texas Commission on Jail Standards for permission to use more temporary beds.

Longer-term solutions, such as a new district court and upgraded jail facilities, are scheduled for discussion July 12.

The Travis County's jail population has averaged 2,756 inmates per day in June, said Maj. David Balagia, who runs the jails.

That's 500 more than the system is designed and staffed to handle, Sheriff Greg Hamilton said, and 400 more than were incarcerated at this time last year.

That will not solve the crowding, but it will provide a little relief, Hamilton said. County officials say the concern about crowding is based on the safety of inmates and jail staff, as well as the taxpayer-funded staff overtime required to monitor a population that size.

Last week, Hamilton told commissioners that unexpected jail crowding would put the sheriff's office almost $1 million over budget — and maybe even deeper in the red, depending on how much the population swells during summer.

The commissioners tentatively approved money from the county reserves to cover the shortfall.
The population shot up sharply over the past year, after efforts by the county and district attorney's office had reduced it.

For instance, in July 2002, the inmate population averaged 2,814. In September of that year, the district attorney's office introduced a "rocket docket" designed to quickly move low-level drug cases from booking to court date. This helped drop the July 2003 average population to 2,186 inmates.

A "missile docket," designed to do the same for low-level felonies such as burglary and forgery, was introduced in August 2004.

Balagia said efforts to reduce crowding are working, but the system can't keep up with the sheer number of cases, particularly violent crimes and serious drug offenses.
In 2002, about 7,400 cases were filed in District Court, District Attorney Ronnie Earle told the Commissioners Court on Tuesday. In 2003 and 2004, about 9,000 indictments were filed, Earle said.

At his request, the commissioners unanimously approved hiring three more lawyers as well as support staff for them.

Earle's office estimates the added staff will result in 65 fewer inmates on any given day.
Inmates in Travis County jails cost taxpayers about $26 a day, said Travis County Judge Sam Biscoe.

But, given the staff the county now has, that estimate is accurate only if the jail population holds to about 2,750 inmates, Biscoe said. Beyond that, the costs go up considerably.
Frio County is charging about $37 a day per inmate, although that will probably go up when the costs for medications are taken into account, Biscoe said.

Moving inmates to the detention facility, which is in Pearsall, southwest of San Antonio and about 134 miles from Central Austin, is temporary, Biscoe said.

On July 12, commissioners will consider adding staff, jail space or a district court (estimated price tag: $1.6 million).

The calculus gets more complicated because the county is putting together a list of bond projects to send to voters in November. That package could include jail upgrades.

The list of projects now tops $440 million, with $80.7 million in jail projects. The commissioners say they don't want the list to exceed $100 million.

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Another example of favoritism, when it comes to police officers dealing with one of their own

2005-06-18T09:57:00.000-05:00

An Austin police sergeant was cited for public intoxication early Wednesday after Cedar Park police found him asleep in his truck at a post office parking lot, said Capt. Jeff Hayes, Cedar Park police spokesman.
Daniel Ray Armstrong, 40, faces a $500 fine for the Class C misdemeanor and possible disciplinary action.

"The department has been notified about the incident, and we are looking into the circumstances surrounding it," Austin police spokesman Kevin Buchman said. "We will take appropriate action."

According to a police report, Armstrong smelled of alcohol and had an open six-pack of beer in the passenger seat when officer Chris Joost approached his green Ford F-150 truck around 4:30 a.m.

The truck was parked at the post office on 500 E. Whitestone Blvd. with the engine running, according to the report.

Joost noticed an Austin police uniform shirt in the truck and called his Cedar Park supervisor, according to the report. Joost woke Armstrong, who was incoherent and did not know where he was, according to the report.

Armstrong's speech was slurred, and his eyes were watery and bloodshot, according to the report.

When Joost asked how much he had had to drink, Armstrong replied "Not enough," according to the report.

Joost called Armstrong's wife, who came and drove him home. Armstrong cooperated with Joost, according to the report, and Armstrong said he had "put himself in this situation."

Hayes said officers generally try to find a sober adult to take care of someone who has been cited for public intoxication. If no one is available, or if the suspect is uncooperative, police will make an arrest.

Policy is more strict when it comes to drunken driving, which is a more serious offense, Hayes said.

(I guess this only applies to folks that are not police officers)

Armstrong has been at the Austin Police Department since 1994 and is a patrol sergeant for the northwest area command.

I have had plenty of clients that have been arrested for DWI by the Austin Police Department when found asleep behind the wheel. Even though the car is stopped, since the engine was running, the prosecutors always argue that the running engine is enough to satisfy the “operating” element of the statute….and the Judges always seem to buy this argument.

I hope you see that this is just another example of a double standard that police officers use when dealing with one of their own.

I assure you that if this person had not been a police officer, he would have gone straight to jail. His wife would not have been called.

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Police Officers Need Love Too...

2005-06-18T09:40:00.000-05:00

A Texas Department of Public Safety sergeant was arrested Thursday night in Austin, Texas and charged with solicitation of prostitution, a misdemeanor.

Leon Derrill Yawn Jr., 40, who has worked at DPS for 18 years, was suspended pending an internal investigation.

Yawn was arrested by Austin police at 10:22 p.m. Thursday at 9120 Interstate 35 N., according to the Travis County district clerk's office. Yawn was released from the Travis County Jail on Friday morning without having to post bail.

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Georgetown detective arrested, fired in drunken driving case

2005-06-15T18:35:00.000-05:00

The Austin American Statesman reported that a Georgetown police detective accused of drunken driving was arrested and fired Wednesday, and a Georgetown police commander was suspended without pay for having the detective driven home instead of conducting an investigation.

Georgetown Assistant Police Chief Kevin Stofle said Detective Lamont Navarrette, a 10-year-veteran of the department, was charged with driving while intoxicated on Wednesday in a June 5 incident in which the off-duty detective was allegedly driving drunk.

Stofle said a Texas Department of Public Safety trooper stopped to check on the car, which was stopped on Leander Road at the southbound exit ramp of Interstate 35, in Williamson County, at 2:30 a.m. Trooper Chris Hughes thought Navarrette was drunk and called Georgetown police to assist.

When Cmdr. Wayne Hilgenberg and Sgt. Jimmy Fennell arrived, Hughes left them to deal with Navarrette and continued on to the hospital.

Hilgenberg decided that Fennell should drive Navarrette home, Stofle said.

An internal investigation found that the two officers failed to properly discharge their duties.

Hilgenberg was suspended without pay, and Fennell received a written reprimand, Stofle said.

This, plus the prior Williamson County Deputy released after failing to do the Field Sobriety Tests, shows that there is a serious problem with preferential treatment with regards to police officers in Williamson County. Trooper Hughes would have NEVER let this person go, if he had not been a detective.

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Officials Increasing Enforcement On The Lakes

2005-05-29T19:48:00.000-05:00

With boating season right around the corner, authorities have plans to step up enforcement on the lakes soon.

The lakes are full, which is good news for boaters.

However, it's bad news for authorities who anticipate crowded waterways.

By Memorial weekend, Jet Skis, boaters and others may crowd the lakes even more.A number of agencies will launch a Lake Safety Task Force to catch violations.

"We're going to be concentrating on drinking, especially the operator. We're going to be looking for BWIs, Boating While Intoxicated," Andy Azuna with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Lake Patrol said, "and any kind of wreckless operation.

We're going to make sure everybody has a lifejacket on the boat."

LCRA public safety officials met Wednesday in Austin to map strategy for enforcement as well. They worry about more accidents because of packed waterways.

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Travis County Judge Suggests Confiscating The Car Of Repeat DWI Offenders

2005-05-27T06:25:00.000-05:00

Memorial Day is notorious for the amount of drunk drivers on the road. Some are repeat offenders.

Now one Travis County judge says taking away their license isn't enough. What about taking away their car forever?

There is a law that reads your car can be forfeited on a third DWI conviction.

A first time DWI offense carries a punishment of up to six months in county jail and up to $2,000 fine. A second DWI is double the punishment and the fine.

A third DWI conviction is a felony costing you $10,000 and two to 10 years in prison.

"I've sent hundreds of people to prison for DWI," Judge Jon Wisser said.

Wisser has seen habitual drunk drivers with double-digit arrests. It's so common it doesn't surprise him.

"It would take above 20 to really surprise me. It's sad. It's unfortunate. I think the worst I've seen is 21," Wisser said.

A man with 21 DWI arrests was so shocking the judge kept the newspaper clipping for proof.

After 23 years as a felony judge, Wisser says we definitely need tougher penalties for repeat offenders.

"We need to take away their vehicles and make it to where they can't drive," Wisser said.

"I don't have much hope we can stop them from drinking, but you'd think we could stop them from driving," Wisser said.

The district attorney's office says it rarely makes felony drunk drivers forfeit their car because of some legal issues, but admits it could curb Austin's drunk driving problem.

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8th DWI Conviction Results In A Life Sentence

2005-05-26T21:47:00.000-05:00

A Williamson County jury sentenced a Marshall man to life in prison today, a day after he received his eighth drunk driving conviction since 1986.

Gary Gibbs, a 49-year-old country and western singer, will not be eligible for parole for 30 years. Jurors deliberated for more than an hour before bringing back the life sentence about noon.

On Wednesday, the jury convicted Gibbs for the Dec. 5, 2003, incident in Georgetown, in which Gibbs was seen swerving and cutting across several lanes of traffic on Interstate 35. Tuesday, Georgetown police officer Jason Jones testified that Gibbs' breath smelled of alcohol and his speech was slurred.

Jurors also watched a videotape of Gibbs performing field sobriety tests, such as walking nine steps heel to toe and balancing on one leg.

Click here to actually watch the video

"That's enough — I've seen enough," Jones said on the tape after watching Gibbs stumble repeatedly and stray into the road while attempting to stand and walk heel to toe.

Gibbs completed a four-year prison sentence in 2001 and was not arrested again until 2003.

Gibbs is one of a small group of DWI offenders who have a large number of DWI convictions, statistics show. In 2002, about 35,359 drivers had four or more DWI convictions, compared with more than 800,000 drivers who had one DWI conviction on their record, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety.

In 2002, about 750 Texas drivers had amassed eight DWI convictions, Texas Department of Public Safety statistics show. One person had 23 convictions.

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8th DWI May Be His Last

2005-05-24T22:04:00.000-05:00

One drunken driving conviction is enough to scare most people into thinking twice about drinking before they get behind the wheel, said Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley.

But some folks just don’t seem to learn their lesson.

Gibbs, a 49-year-old country and western musician from Marshall, is on trial this week in District Court in Williamson County for his eighth drunken driving arrest since 1986. He has seven convictions in five counties and has spent years in prison.

He could face 25 years to life in prison if convicted.

Prosecutors are asking for a life sentence. Gibbs' lawyers, who have yet to present their case, have hinted that alcohol wasn't fully to blame for Gibbs' most recent arrest.

A charge of felony drunken driving allows disclosure of only two prior convictions. Jurors wouldn't hear about Gibbs' five other convictions until the sentencing phase of the trial, prosecutors said.

On Tuesday, truck driver Steve Black testified that Gibbs was weaving across lanes of traffic on Interstate 35 near Georgetown about 1 a.m. on Dec. 5, 2003. Black, who drives a route from Dallas to San Antonio five times a week, said Gibbs' driving was so erratic it warranted one of six phone calls to 911 that he has made regarding reckless driving in 10 years.

Black said he and the white van Gibbs was driving were the only cars on the road, but Gibbs cut into his lane only a few feet in front of his rig. A few minutes later, Gibbs exited the highway, he said.

Georgetown police officer Jason Jones caught up to Gibbs just as he was pulling onto the shoulder near Texas 29. When Jones approached, Gibbs was talking on his cell phone and said he was lost, Jones testified. Jones said Gibbs' breath smelled of alcohol and his speech was slurred.

Jurors watched a videotape of Gibbs performing field sobriety tests, such as walking nine steps heel to toe and balancing on one leg.

"That's enough -- I've seen enough," Jones said on the tape after watching Gibbs stumble repeatedly attempting to stand and walk heel to toe and straying out into the roadway.

Gibb’s defense lawyer hinted in questioning that a foot injury and prescription medication may have hindered Gibbs' performance on the field sobriety tests.

Prosecutors said that if the jury finds Gibbs guilty and decides he used his car as a deadly weapon, he would not be eligible for parole until he has served half of his sentence.

Department of Public Safety records show that Gibbs' license has been suspended several times since 1986.

Gibbs completed a four-year prison sentence in 2001 and was not arrested again until 2003.
Keith Hampton, a lobbyist for the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association, said Gibbs' history is an indication that the system does not do enough to rehabilitate repeat offenders.

"That guy is more of a symbol of what we did wrong to remedy people who are hooked on alcohol," Hampton said.

Prosecutors said Gibbs' treatment history would be introduced in the sentencing phase of the trial.

Driving while intoxicated
In Texas, the legal limit for intoxication is a blood alcohol concentration of 0.08 percent. Punishment for DWI varies depending on the number of convictions:
First offense
* Up to $2,000 fine
* Three to 180 days in jail
* Driver's license suspended for 90 days to one year

Second offense
* Up to $4,000 fine
* 30 days to one year in jail
* Driver's license suspended for 180 days to two years

Third offense
* Up to $10,000 fine
* Two to 10 years in prison
* Driver's license suspended for 180 days to two years
Source: Texas Department of Transportation

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Vine Compound May Help Curb Binge Drinking

2005-05-17T17:39:00.000-05:00

An Associated Press article stated that the hardy, invasive kudzu vine, introduced to this country decades ago to control soil erosion, could have what it takes to curb binge drinking, new research suggests.

Kudzu, an ever-expanding plant considered a pest in much of the South, appears to contain a compound that can be effective in reducing alcohol intake among humans.

Researcher Scott Lukas did not have any trouble rounding up volunteers for his study, published in this month's issue of Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.

Findings show that subjects who took kudzu drank an average of 1.8 beers per session, compared with the 3.5 beers consumed by those who took a placebo.

Lukas was not certain why but speculated that kudzu increases blood alcohol levels and speeds up its effects. More simply put, the subjects needed fewer beers to feel drunk.

"That rapid infusion of alcohol is satisfying them and taking away their desire for more drinks," Lukas said. "That's only a theory. It's the best we've got so far."

In 2003, David Overstreet and other scientists found the herb to be effective in reducing alcohol intake on rats.

"There's a lot of anecdotal evidence from China that kudzu could be useful, but this is the first documented evidence that it could reduce drinking in humans," said Overstreet, who described Lukas' work "groundbreaking."

Though kudzu won't turn drinkers into teetotalers, Lukas said, he hopes it can help heavy drinkers to cut back.

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Hispanic Officers Target Drunk Drivers

2005-05-15T21:43:00.000-05:00

44 percent of those arrested for DWI last year were Hispanics, police statistics show

As an Austin police lieutenant, Ernie Pedraza has watched over the years as Hispanics in the community have been arrested for drunken driving or have been killed or seriously injured in alcohol-related crashes.

Now he and other Hispanic police officers are taking action.

This month, members of Amigos en Azul, a Hispanic police officers association, are launching a campaign to educate Hispanics about the dangers of drunken driving. They are visiting Hispanic community leaders, encouraging them to help spread the word at church services, festivals and other events.

In 2004, 44 percent of those arrested for drunken driving in Austin were Hispanic, and about 30 percent of people killed in traffic accidents last year -- whether alcohol was involved or not -- were Hispanic, according to Police Department statistics.

A 2003 Austin American-Statesman analysis showed that of 3,007 drunken driving arrests in 2002, 43 percent involved Hispanic men, even though they made up only about 11 percent of Austin's driving population.

Experts and police have cited a number of factors for that disparity, including unfamiliarity with U.S. laws among immigrants. Others say Latinos tend to drink less often than Anglos but consume larger amounts when they do.

Several years ago, Mothers Against Drunk Driving started a campaign focusing on Hispanic drivers called Pasa las Llaves, or Pass the Keys.

Pedraza and other Hispanic officers are calling their effort Corazon de Azul, or Blue Heart. Blue represents the officers' uniforms; the heart stands for courage to help foster change.
They also hope to set up task forces in coming months to study the culture of drunken driving in their community.

Hispanic officers have spent years visiting schools and civic groups talking about drunken driving. But Pedraza said many audiences have heard the spiel from police officers before and are quick to tune out.

In Corazon de Azul, they are seeking the help of Hispanic community leaders who they think could have a greater impact. Pedraza is asking them to mention the dangers of drunken driving at every social event they attend.

For example, Assistant City Manager Rudy Garza, who recently spoke at a breakfast meeting with about 200 Hispanic community members, mentioned statistics about Hispanics and drunken driving.

Former Mayor Gus Garcia is among those who have offered to help.

"We can no longer ignore it and say that it doesn't exist," Garcia said. "The fact of the matter is that among Latinos, the culture encourages alcoholism.

"It's a real critical issue."

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Hispanic traffic safety outreach effort launched

2005-05-11T22:34:00.000-05:00

The City of Austin and the Austin Police Department's Hispanic police association, Amigos en Azul (Friends in Blue), are teaming up in an effort to increase awareness about drunk driving and traffic safety.

Last year's statistics have moved officers into action. Fourty-four percent of DWI arrests in 2004 were Hispanics. Hispanics made up a third of all traffic deaths as well.

This year, 12 out of the 19 traffic deaths in Austin were Hispanic. Traffic accidents are the leading cause of death for Hispanics ages 0-24 years old.

A new awareness and outreach campaign effort is called "Corazon de Azul" (Blue Heart). It's designed to get Hispanic leaders into churches and civic groups to get the Hispanic community thinking about safer driving.

The effort effort aims to increase awareness about drunk driving and traffic safety for Austin's Hispanic population.

"I'm very excited about. I'm very passionate about the issue because it's having such a tremendous impact on Hispanic community. I live in the city of Austin. My kids live in the city of Austin. They drive in the city of Austin. And, I just want to make the city safer for everybody," Lt. Ernest Pedraza, APD and member of Amigos en Azul, said.

Pedraza calls it a re-education process, changing behavior and the preconceived notions about driving.

"A lot of immigrants are coming into this country, and they're coming from countries where the traffic laws are very different from what we have in the United States," Pedraza said.

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MADD Opposses Senate Bill 1266

2005-05-11T22:24:00.000-05:00

The Texas Office of Mothers Against Drunk Driving is asking the Texas Senate to reject Senate Bill 1266 by John Whitmire (D-Houston) because, the group says, the bill makes drunk driving offenders, including repeat DWI offenders as well as intoxication assault and intoxication manslaughter offenders, eligible for deferred adjudication. Unlike nearly all other crimes, DWI offenders have not been eligible for deferred adjudication in Texas for over 20 years.

"MADD opposes making DWI offenders eligible for deferred adjudication because no evidence has been presented that shows deferred adjudication helps stop drunk driving," said Bill Lewis, the Public Policy Liaison for MADD Texas.

SB 1266 further reduces DWI punishments by reducing the length of time DWI offenders may by placed on probation and providing for early release from probation for DWI offenders.

While highway funding issues are secondary to MADD’s mission to stop drunk driving, MADD asked the Senate to keep in mind that the Fiscal Note for the bill warns that some of the changes proposed in the bill on how repeat drunken drivers are punished will put Texas out of compliance with federal law and could force the state to transfer up $59.8 million annually in federal highway funds away from congestion relief and mobility projects.

"The legislature can calculate with a fair amount of precision the cost of law enforcement," Lewis said. "What is more difficult to measure is the cost of lawlessness."

MADD supports the provisions in the bill regarding driver license suspensions, but Lewis said it objects to rushing to pass a massive overhaul of the system of community supervision in the waning days of the legislative session.

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I handle the following types of cases:

2005-05-06T23:21:00.000-05:00

Austin Texas DWI
Travis County DWI
Williamson County DWI
Hays County DWI
Bastrop County DWI
Texas Drunk Driving Defense Information
Driving While Intoxicated
Driving Under the Influence
DWI w/Child In The Car
Drivers License Hearing
Boating While Intoxicated
Administrative License Revocation (ALR)

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Austin Police Department Launches Corazon Azul

2005-05-05T17:41:00.000-05:00

Austin Police Officer are taking aim at a certain group, and they freely admit doing so.

The Hispanic Police Officers Association says traffic fatalities are the leading cause of death for Hispanics under the age of 24.

It's why police are promoting Corazon Azul, a DWI-awareness initiative which focuses on the Hispanic community.

The officers are collaborating with Hispanic organizations and others to make sure people are educated about traffic safety.

Austin Police say 2004 was a deadly year for Hispanic drivers.

"Forty-four percent of those arrested for DWI were Hispanic. Also 30 percent of those who died in traffic collisions were Hispanic. We see that as a big problem the community, and we're stepping forward to do our part," APD Lt. Ernest Pedraza said.

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Austin DWI Blog Has Joined Technorati

2005-05-01T14:05:00.000-05:00

a href="http://www.technorati.com/claim/kdkwpfwks8"

http://technorati.com/tag/dwi rel="tag">dwi

Another Police Officer Refuses The Voluntary Field Sobriety Tests

2005-04-19T22:44:00.000-05:00

The La Villa police chief suspected of drunken driving refused the voluntary field sobriety tests and then smacked the hands of a nurse who tried to give him a blood test, police said Monday.

Alonzo Garcia, acting chief in the 1,300-resident border town of La Villa, veered off the road and hit a fence in San Juan late Saturday, San Juan police investigator Jose Flores said. A witness called police, who detected alcohol on Garcia's breath, Flores said.

Garcia refused a breath test but consented to a hospital blood test, Flores said.

"I don't know how far that went because he ended up assaulting a nurse," Flores said. With his handcuffed hands, "he forced her hands down and hit her, striking her hands," he said.

Garcia was charged with driving while intoxicated. He posted $10,000 bail and was released from Hidalgo County Jail on Sunday.

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Bill would add to DWI penalty

2005-04-19T22:35:00.000-05:00

DWI can cost a lot of money if you're convicted of it.

And soon, a drunken driving conviction may become even more expensive for people who wisely refuse to take a breath test after being pulled over by police.

State Rep. Todd Smith, R-Euless, is sponsoring legislation aimed at curbing the state's high rate of breath test refusals, while at the same time making it easier to convict people who have two or more previous DWI convictions.

The bill would tack on an additional $2,000 fine if someone convicted of driving drunk refused to take a test at the time of the arrest. The tests are administered in attempt to measure the level of alcohol in a person's system.

"This bill gives us new tools to go after habitual drunk drivers and gives positive incentives for people to take a breath test as opposed to purely punitive," said J.D. Granger, a Tarrant County prosecutor working with Smith on the measure.

About 40,000 Texans wisely refused to take breath tests last year, making the state one of highest in the nation for test refusals.

Many defense attorneys advise their clients not to take the breath tests because it potentially gives prosecutors strong evidence of intoxication.

Lawmakers should not try to criminalize people for refusing to take a breath test.

A fine for refusing to blow is extreme because you have the right to refuse. They are attempting to take away your right.

However, prosecutors argue that when people obtain driver's licenses they have consented to providing a breath sample when asked to.

Unfortunately, the $2,000 fine for those who refuse the test unfairly targets the poor.

A lot of people who get pulled over for DWI are poor. By increasing their fines you're making their impoverishment worse and driving up their desperation, which could lead to them committing more crimes.

People now convicted of driving while intoxicated pay an average of about $1,200 in fines as well as $1,000 a year for three years. A person whose blood alcohol level is greater than a .16 on a breath test (twice the legal limit) is fined $2,000.

Organizers for MADD believe that the legislation is overdue.

"Maybe so many people in this state continue to drink and drive because they know they can refuse the breath test and deprive the state of evidence that can be used to convict them of DWI," MADD said.

MADD is also excited about a section of the bill that would allow a drunken driving conviction to be used to upgrade the level of punishment for future convictions for a lifetime instead of the current 10 years.

Defense attorney George Scharmen, who handles many drunken driving cases in San Antonio, said he didn't understand why lawmakers were putting so much emphasis on breath tests, which he said can be inaccurate. He said video taken at the scene of a drunken driving traffic stop is much more damaging.

"Breath tests alone are not as accurate as these videos," he said. "You can see for yourself if they can walk a straight line or say their ABCs."

He said penalizing people who refuse to give breath samples violates the Fifth Amendment, which prevents people from self-incrimination, adding that people who cause a wreck and are suspected of drunken driving are required to take the test.

But Granger believes that the breath test is one of the best ways to tell if someone is drunk.

"We have a real problem here, and we don't have the tools to prevent the problem," he said. "A breath test is the best way to determine whether someone is guilty or innocent."

Criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor Andrew del Cueto said he supports some aspects of the bill, but disagrees with others.

He tells his clients to never take a breath test or field sobriety test because it will cost them more in fees if they are convicted than it would to go to trial and take the chance of being found not guilty. But if the additional $2,000 fine is approved, he said, he didn't know what advice to give his clients.

"I guess I'm going to tell them that if they're poor, go ahead and give the breath test, but you're going to be convicted," he said. "If they are upwardly mobile, I would say don't blow because the conviction is going to be with you for the rest of your life."

For Full Story

Austin DWI Defense

Austin Police Department And Austin Club Combine Forces To Reduce DWIs

2005-04-15T23:00:00.000-05:00

The Austin Police Department Central West Area Command (CWAC) District Representative Unit has been working with Austin's Dallas Night Club since the first of the year to help reduce DWI arrests in Austin. To reduce DWIs in the Burnet Road area, the CWAC District Representative Unit have been working with TABC, Yellow Checker Cab, Brown Distributing and Mr. Bill Thompson of the Dallas Night Club to develop solutions to reduce DWIs and DWI arrests.

On Wednesday night Dallas Night Club will launch the "Sound Attitude" program to recognize and reward the designated driver. Designated drivers who identify themselves at the door will be given a good sport wristband and a free soft drink or non-alcoholic O'Doul's. Designated drivers will also have the opportunity to receive prizes through a drawing. In addition, Yellow Checker Cab will have cabs readily available at cab stands to drive individuals home that do not have a designated driver.

The "Sound Attitude" program will kick-off on Wednesday, April 13th, from 8:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. at the Dallas Night Club, 7113. Burnet Road. KASE 101 and other business community members will also be at the kick-off.

APD hopes this program will serve as a model for other nightclubs in and bars in the Austin area.

Austin DWI Defense

Full Story

Austin Police Department Restructures Highway Enforcement Command

2005-04-13T21:59:00.000-05:00

The Austin Police Department Highway Enforcement Command is being divided into four specialized units that will be used to enhance enforcement efforts on Austin roadways.

The sections are Highway Patrol and Response, DWI Enforcement, Vehicular Homicide and Air Enforcement. Each section brings uniquely trained officers together to provide support for each unit and to meet the growing challenges of traffic issues within the city.

Highway Patrol and Response Section: This section will provide rush hour collision and stalled vehicle coverage on major highways as well enforcing commercial motor vehicle carrier laws and responding to collisions during regular duty hours and after hours. The Highway Response Team will respond to traffic problems on highways and major roadways based on statistical data that includes collisions. The team will work in conjunction with the other command sections and outside agencies.

DWI Enforcement Section: Officers will enforce DWI laws throughout the city.

Vehicular Homicide Unit (formerly Major Traffic Investigations): This unit will investigate fatality and serious injury collisions. The Wrecker Unit and Vehicle Abatement are also included in this unit.

Air Enforcement Section: Utilizes the department's helicopter, Air 1, to expand the role of traffic enforcement.

Seventy officers have been assigned to the command. The Highway Patrol Units will be utilized to help clear freeways following collisions to improve the flow of traffic and to relieve patrol officers so they may return to their duties in their area commands.

Click here for the full story

If you, or a friend have been charge with a DWI, please click here

What You Need To Know About Checkpoints

2005-04-09T20:15:00.000-05:00

There are over 20 new bills that have been filed that relate directly or indirectly with DWI.

Three of the more dangerous bills gives the police the right to set up checkpoints (road blocks) on Texas highways and streets and stop all cars to check the drivers for DWI.

The three Bills to watch out for are House Bill 50, House Bill 309, as well as Senate Bill 25.

Why should YOU care about being stopped at a Checkpoint, You've got nothing to hide, Right?
WRONG!

That's what Checkpoints advocates would like you to believe. Here is the TRUTH about Checkpoints.

What you need to know About Checkpoints:

These bills would authorize police to randomly set up checkpoints in areas they suspect people to have been drinking.

They will make you wait in line to be questioned about your identity, where you have been and where you are going.

At the officer’s discretion they could remove you to a designated area and administer agility tests.

If you can't perform the VOLUNTARY agility exercises to the officer's satisfaction, which no one does, you will be arrested and prosecuted!

If the officer wishes he may request a breath, urine, or blood sample, which will remain permanently on file.

Representatives from M.A.D.D. want you to believe that these bills contain provisions limiting police to searching for DRUNKS ONLY . Read the bills. Nowhere does it say that!!!

Why is this a bad idea?

It violates the Cornerstone of our Legal System: INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY!

These bills pull police away from their normal duties and strain police resources.

These checkpoints clearly destroy our Fourth Amendment Right against unreasonable searches!

Innocent people will be forced to show police identification and be subjected to questioning!

Sobriety Checkpoints go against everything our founding father’s intended by trampling on our liberties as free people!

How this will affect Restaurant and Bar Owners.

Legislation like this is designed to scare the public into not drinking.

It does so by increasing the perceived risk of danger even for responsible use.

Customers that would normally have a beer with their meal become afraid that they will be hassled by police so they choose not to drink.

Business owners can be targeted as legally responsible for inebriated people leaving their establishment and SHUT DOWN! Just ask Sam's Boat about that.

These Neo-prohibition policies fail to target the root of the problem and instead cost small businesses big bucks!

Who will be affected?

People who want efficient and effective use of police resources and energy (statistics show that sobriety checkpoints actually catch less drunks than the current method of roving patrol).

Business owners who are aware that this neo-prohibitionist type legislation is targeting them.

Musicians who rely on local venues to sustain their vulnerable careers.

Individuals whose time is precious, and cannot accept one more unnecessary inconvenience or delay

People who have a moral issue with submitting any type of fluid sample.

Individuals who are responsible drinkers, but can't perform the VOLUNTARY agility tests to the officer's satisfaction.

People who refuse to be treated like criminals by being interrogated and searched without cause.

Peace officers who realize this will have an unnecessary negative affect on their relationship with the public.

Commercial Drivers whose shipments will be delayed (this issue could be potentially life threatening, depending on the shipment).

What can you do to stop this?

Call, email, or write your legislative representative RIGHT NOW and tell them you oppose any legislation that would permit police to set up sobriety checkpoints and that you will be watching them to ensure they protect your liberty!

You can get your representative’s contact info at Who Represents Me?

If you or a love one has been arrest for DWI, please check out our DWI website.

Field Tests Can Make You Look Drunk Even If You Haven't Had Anything To Drink!

2005-04-06T22:58:00.000-05:00

Would you believe there's a disease that can cause some people to fail a field sobriety test... even when they're sober?

It's true.

But an Austin man tells a TV Station in Austin the police wouldn't listen to him.

Walking a straight line is difficult for Daniel Norton. He suffers from a condition called Meniere's Disease. It affects the inner ear, and is typically characterized by episodes violent dizziness. The kind of dizziness you feel after riding on a merry-go-round. The disease throws Daniel off balance.

Which is why he says he failed a field sobriety test last November.

According to police records... " Daniel was clocked going 50 miles per hour in a posted 35 mile-per-hour speed zone.

But he was arrested for "driving while intoxicated"... because he failed a field sobriety test.
According to police reports... Daniel "lost balance" and "swayed" during the test. Daniel says after the arrest... he tried to tell the officer about his medical condition... but it fell on deaf ears.

He took a breathalyzer test.
But it didn't matter that the test reported a blood alcohol level of zero. Daniel went to jail anyway.

An Austin ear, nose, and throat specialist confirmed Daniel's claim that he has Meniere's Disease.

Well, as you see this poor gentleman provided a sample of his breath, It showed NO ALCOHOL in his system, yet, he was still charged with a DWI.

So I say again, I just can't see a benefit of providing a sample of your blood or breath.

Providing a sample below .08 doesn't mean you get to go home. You will still be charged with a DWI! And, heaven forbid it is above .16, you could be faced with a bill from DPS of $6,000 just to keep your driver's license.

If you or a friend or family member is charged with a DWI, please call me. We can help.

Click here to find out more about Austin DWI Defense

The ABA recognizes that defending clients charged with drunken driving has evolved into a more complex and specialized field.

2005-03-11T10:22:00.000-06:00

The changes in the DWI practice track the ever-more sophisticated technology used to detect impaired drivers and a cultural shift that has raised the severtity of punishment and imposed a stigma on those arrested.

As the stakes increase, defense attorneys need detailed knowledge of how Breathalyzers work, about the physiology of the human body, and about the intricacies of field sobriety tests.

"The DUI bar today is much more specialized. Now, it’s all about physics, chemistry, biophysics—scientific evidence that most lawyers aren’t very good at naturally until they’re well-trained in it," says Lawrence Taylor, principal of a Southern California DUI defense firm that bears his name.

But Taylor believes the public’s rush to fix the country’s drunken driving problem has created what he calls a "DUI exception to the Constitution." He argues that in as many as a third of all DUI arrests, the driver is innocent of the charge.

He notes the stigma of merely being arrested for DUI can be severe. The defendant may face loss of a job, loss of status in the community and even loss of child custody if in the midst of a divorce or custody fight.

Whether attacking the evidence or supporting it, attorneys must have an understanding of it. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, an arm of the Transportation Department, has adopted three standard field sobriety tests. Some states now use the NHTSA tests, while others allow police officers to use whatever tests they see fit to measure whether someone stopped for suspicion of DUI is intoxicated

Now, more than ever, it is important to ask if your lawyer has had any specialized training in the proper administration of the Standardized Field Sobriety Tests. If he has, he can better evaluate your performance and the performance of the officer administering the tests.

I have had such training.

Full Article

DWI in Williamson County

2005-03-11T07:53:00.000-06:00

KXAN reported that Williamson County law enforcement wants to be known for being tough on those who drink and drive. But when it comes to gaining enough evidence to convict repeat drunk drivers, that's where they say the problem lies.

"You can't obviously force someone to blow into a tube," said Jana McCown, First Assistant District Attorney. "So if they refuse, then what we're doing is giving the police agency the ability to get blood results without having have them blow into the breath test."

To get that blood sample, the district attorney's office has created a new kind of search warrant. And when signed by a district judge, the officer is then allowed to take a repeat drunk driver to the hospital for a blood sample.

The fact that law enforcement officers can obtain a search warrant within minutes after stopping a repeat DWI offender means that they have the tool they say they need to prosecute and convict drunk drivers.

"We try to look for other ways to provide evidence to jury because jurors are suffering from watching TV and movies and expecting more and more," McCown said. "If they can't be there to actually see the crime, then we need to provide more to help them."
Foster says the process complicates an officer's job but is needed.

"This is not the most ideal situation," Foster said. "I think it's extreme when someone takes it upon themselves and endangers the public's safety by driving and drinking."

And if this will get drunk drivers off the street, those involved say it's worth the extra work.

Aggressive DWI Defense

Is There An Advantage To Not Providing A Sample Of Your Blood Or Breath?

2005-03-10T11:20:00.000-06:00

As reported in the Ft. Worth Star Telegram

Texans who drink and drive and then refuse to take a test measuring their blood-alcohol level may be getting a lesser punishment than those who agree to the test.

According to the most recent statistics, 43 percent of Texans arrested on suspicion of drunken driving or boating in 2003 refused such tests and, in many of those cases, had their licenses suspended for six months instead of getting a misdemeanor drunken-driving conviction, the Austin American-Statesman reported Sunday.

Law enforcement groups have complained about the law. The Texas District and County Attorneys Association and the Texas Municipal Police Association are calling for legislation that would make refusing a blood-alcohol test a crime.

But lawmakers haven't embraced the legislation this session. Similar bills filed before also received "a chilly reception," said Keith Hampton, a lobbyist for the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association.

"Criminalizing it doesn't make any sense," Hampton said. "It is your constitutional right not to incriminate yourself or be subject to unreasonable search and seizure."

But Shannon Edmonds, a lobbyist for the county attorneys association, said courts have upheld the state's right to collect blood and breath samples from people suspected of drunken driving.

The penalty for refusing is suspension of the driver's license for six months, and it can be used against the driver in court.

In first-time cases, the consequences for taking the test and having a blood-alcohol content above the legal limit of 0.08 is a three-month license suspension and a misdemeanor drunken-driving conviction, which carries a maximum punishment of six months in jail and a fine of $2,000. And, based on the blood-alcohol content, you could be exposed to a $2,000 per year charge by DPS just to keep your license.

The choice is yours, just make sure you know your rights!

For information on DWIs in Austin Texas, click here

Authorities look for ways to fight drunken driving suspects' refusal to take tests

2005-03-06T16:04:00.001-06:00

If you're stopped for drunken driving, most defense lawyers say, it's not wise to take a test measuring the body's blood alcohol level.

Just ask the 44,357 drivers -- 43 percent of all Texans arrested for drunken driving or boating in 2003 -- who refused to take the test, depriving prosecutors of scientific evidence of their guilt. In some, but not all cases, those drivers received a six-month driver's license suspension instead of a misdemeanor drunken driving conviction.

Exploring other methods of combating driver refusal, officers in Williamson Countybegan training this week to use search warrants to force suspected drunken drivers to submit blood samples. Statewide, the Texas District and County Attorneys Association and the Texas Municipal Police Association are lobbying for new laws that would make refusing a breath test a crime, but interest among lawmakers is tepid as the deadline for filing bills approaches.

Similar bills have been filed before, getting ”a chilly reception," said Keith Hampton, a lobbyist for the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association.

"Criminalizing it doesn't make any sense," Hampton said. "It is your constitutional right not to incriminate yourself or be subject to unreasonable search and seizure."

Shannon Edmonds, a lobbyist for the attorneys association, disagrees. He said courts have upheld the state's right to collect blood and breath samples from people arrested for drunken driving and suspects a personal interest is in play.

In recent years, Travis County Judge Sam Biscoe, former Travis County Court-at-Law Judge Wilfred Aguilar, and state Sen. Gonzalo Barrientos of Austin all refused to take a breath test when they were stopped on suspicion of drunken driving.

Last month, Williamson County Deputy Craig Ferguson was suspected of drunken driving by Round Rock police but was released after he refused to take field sobriety tests. Because the officer did not think he had enough proof to arrest Ferguson, he felt he could not legally request a blood alcohol test.

"If you are a legislator, you are thinking, 'Boy, that could be me,' " Edmonds said. "We are all kind of fed up with it. Why should the rest of the populace do it if the people who write, enforce and judge the law don't do it, either?"

In first-time cases, the consequences for taking the test and having a blood alcohol content above the legal limit of .08 is a potential three-month license suspension and a misdemeanor drunken driving conviction, which carries a maximum punishment of six months in jail and a fine of $2,000.

"We play this little game and tell people that by getting a license, you are consenting to provide physical evidence," Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley said. "But if you refuse, there are very few consequences. The average citizen puts that together and says, 'Oh, I see:
The law doesn't really mean what it says.' "

Even if a drunken driver's license is suspended, most judges will issue an occupational license for work, said state Rep. Terry Keel, R-Austin. Keel, chairman of the criminal jurisprudence committee.

In addition, new surcharges that went into effect in 2003 chage a convicted drunken driver $3,000 over three years to keep a driver's license. A $6,000 surcharge over three years applies if a convicted drunken driver's blood alcohol content measures .16 or higher. Consequently, if you don't provide a breath or blood sample, you won't be exposed to the $6,000 increased surcharge.

Visit my website to learn more about what I can do for you. Click here for ==> Austin and Central Texas DWI Defense

Williamson County DA Wants Your Blood

2005-03-01T22:31:00.000-06:00

If you refuse to submit a sample of your breath, Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley wants to force you to give a blood sample.

"The law recognizes that I cannot force breath out of your body into an intoxilizer, which tests it through your breath, but I can force blood out of your body with a search warrant" says Bradley.

Officers are being trained to forcibly take a driver's blood when they refuse breathalyzer tests.

Tarrant County in North Texas is one of about a dozen counties that have recently started getting search warrants to take blood samples.

Williamson County Officers will start requesting those search warrants in the next few weeks.

Bradley also wants a law passed that would let judges issue those warrants over the phone.

Have we really reached a point where police will have the authority to hold a person down and force a needle into their arm against there will, just because they are charged with DWI.

I certainly hope the Legislature is taking note of this and will put a stop to such barbaric behavior.

Austin DWI Defense

Police Officers Know You Should Refuse The Tests

2005-02-23T10:08:00.000-06:00

Police say they couldn't legally prove deputy was intoxicated in Feb. 6 incident

An off-duty Williamson County sheriff's deputy was stopped by the Round Rock Police, but was not arrested because he refused the field sobriety tests and officers could not prove he was legally drunk, according to police reports.

Williamson Deputy, Craig Ferguson was driving home from Hooters in Round Rock, where he drank a "couple of pitchers" of beer and hung out with lieutenants and other "high on the hog" personnel, when Round Rock Sgt. Nathan Zoss noticed him weaving in a black Toyota Tacoma, the police reports show.

After pulling Ferguson over, he pulled out his driver's license. Officer Zoss saw his badge and discovered he was a sheriff's deputy. Zoss could smell alcohol on Ferguson's breath and asked him to step out of the truck and take field sobriety tests, such as standing on one leg and walking in a straight line.

The video shows Ferguson stumble as he got out of the car, and more than one officer ask him to submit to a field sobriety test.

Wisely, Officer Ferguson told the officers, "I'm not going to do any of that."

Zoss later wrote in his report that without the deputy's cooperation, he did not think he had enough proof that Ferguson was legally drunk. At that point, he called Ferguson's supervisors.

When Sgts. Sharif Mezayek and Patrick Erickson arrived, Ferguson told them he drank "a couple of pitchers" of beer at Hooters. They told him to take the sobriety test, but he continued to refuse.

On the video, Zoss tells other officers that if Ferguson were a civilian, he could call someone to take him home, or arrest him for traffic violations. But the jail might refuse a prisoner with minor charges, Zoss said.

"If he doesn't have the cooperation of the person and doesn't have enough visual, verbal and other clues to have probable cause, then it is a judgment call from the officer's standpoint," Chris Heaton, president of the Texas Municipal Police Association.

Heaton said state law does not allow the officer to confiscate a driver's license for refusing to take a field sobriety test. Officers can take away a license if the driver refuses a breath test, but only after probable cause has been established, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety.

During the traffic stop, Round Rock officers did not take Ferguson's license. Instead, Zoss issued Ferguson two traffic citations for stopping in the wrong place and disregarding traffic control devices and allowed Ferguson's wife to drive him home.

On the video, Zoss complains that Ferguson's behavior put officers in a tough spot.

"You put us in a difficult situation here," Zoss said to Ferguson.

Do not think for a moment that this officer didn't get special treatment. If you refuse the tests, odds are good you will be going to jail. However, remember you have the right to refuse to do the tests! That applies to the Breath, blood or urine tests, as well as any field tests.

If you are charged with a DWI in Austin, Travis County, or any of the surrounding Central Texas Counties, please click here ==> DWI Defense

Full Story

Another Bad Apple at the Austin Police Department

2005-02-18T10:14:00.000-06:00

Austin Police officer, Jason Lockaby, was arrested, accused of sexually harassing women during traffic stops.

Thirty-four-year old officer Jason Lockaby has been employed by the Austin Police Department for two years and has made quite a few DWI arrests during his short career.

In March of this year, a 23-year-old woman says she was gassing up her car at the Austin 7-11 when Officer Lockaby allegedly asked her to drive to the side of the building into a dark and secluded area where he allegedly asked she take off her bra for a body search.

Lockaby told her she had a warrant and then touched her inappropriately during that traffic stop.

That's not all. The woman says she was stopped by Officer Lockaby four more times in the same area of Austin. And another woman says Officer Lockaby harassed her not too far from there.

It's alleged Officer Lockaby went to the apartment of a 26-year-old woman following a disturbance call on October 1. The woman says Officer Lockaby returned less than a week later saying she had an outstanding traffic warrant for no car insurance and allegedly said he wouldn't take her to jail if she showed him her breasts.

Officer Lockaby has been charged in Travis County with official oppression and violating the civil rights of a person in custody.

Austin Police Department has placed Lockaby on temporary suspension with pay until this investigation is over.

Officer Lockaby arrested a number of my Clients in Austin. I questioned his arrests then, and I look forward to addressing my current clients' DWIs where officer Lockaby was the arresting officer.

Click here for Aggressive DWI Defense in Austin, TX