As a Massachusetts OUI defense attorney, I was interested in a story recently reported by several different news outlets in the Boston area. A grandmother arrested for drunk driving while taking her nine-year-old grandson to school last month was found in violation of her pre-trial probation conditions after she failed…
As a Massachusetts intoxicated driving criminal defense attorney, I was saddened to read about an accident in Lynn that took a young woman’s life. Julie Gauthier, 19 and of Salem, died March 21 while her allegedly drunk boyfriend was driving her home from a party. Christopher Maxson of Marblehead, also…
A woman was sentenced to six months in jail for a crash that took a man’s leg, even as the victim publicly forgave her. Marybeth Frisoli, a 33-year-old former juvenile probation officer, was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in jail for the crash, with all but six months suspended. After…
A man was charged with driving drunk for a third time after witnesses saw his car get stuck on train tracks, then drive off on the wrong side of the road. Tests showed that Donald K. Seiffert, 40, had a blood-alcohol concentration of 0.30 or 0.29 shortly after he was…
One young man from Norwell is dead and another faces prison after a bad drunk driving accident, the Quincy Patriot Ledger reported March 9. Ryan O’Donnell, 18, was killed in a rollover crash in Norwell March 7. He was a passenger in a vehicle driven by a friend and former…
A man from Charlton was sent to prison Feb. 24 after receiving his seventh conviction for operating under the influence. Jason Wetteland, 40, was arrested most recently on Aug. 1, 2009, after an Amesbury police officer witnessed him nearly causing a crash on Route 110. The officer immediately pulled him…
A driver from Everett faces criminal charges after crashing his van into a Red Line train in Cambridge early on Feb. 19. Jefferson Mondesir, 30, is accused of being intoxicated when he drove through a metal fence and into a commuter train around 12:30 a.m. Authorities say Mondesir was probably…
Last month, I wrote about the use of ignition interlock devices in Massachusetts drunk driving cases. Under Melanie’s Law, courts may order repeat OUI offenders to install these mobile breathalyzers in their vehicles, at their own expense. The devices were originally hailed as an effective way to stop drunk driving,…
A young man was arraigned for Feb. 8 driving drunk in an accident that killed another man, WCVB Boston reported. Prosecutors say David Diaz, 23, was drunk and asleep at the wheel when he hit Lay Bou, 56, on Route 110 in Methuen. Bou was jogging facing oncoming traffic, as…
Last fall, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court made a ruling with important implications for Massachusetts drunk driving criminal defense attorneys and their clients. In the case of Commonwealth v. Dennis P. Steele, the court was asked to decide whether prosecutors may introduce both blood-alcohol content test readings at OUI trials,…