Articles Posted in 1st Offense OUI DUI

A member of the Milton School Committee was sentenced this week after an arrest for operating his truck under the influence of alcohol. The Taunton Daily Gazette reported Jan. 4 that Christopher Huban and his Massachusetts OUI defense lawyer struck a deal with prosecutors in connection with a drunk-driving arrest New Year’s Day. A concerned driver called the police that day to report a possible intoxicated driver, and an off-duty police officer spotted Huban’s truck weaving into oncoming traffic and toward pedestrians. After being pulled over by an on-duty officer, Huban blew a blood-alcohol reading of .25, more than three times the legal limit of 0.08. At the hearing, Huban admitted that the facts were sufficient to convict him of drunk driving. His driver’s license was suspended for 45 days and he was placed on supervised probation, for which he will pay $65 a month. As part of the deal, the judge dismissed a negligent driving charge but let stand a citation for failure to stay within lanes.

Read article: Drunk-driving case against Milton official continued without a finding

The article mentions that this sentence is standard for first-offense OUIs. The article doesn’t specify this, but as a Massachusetts drunk driving criminal defense attorney, I strongly suspect that Huban was sentenced under the 24D/alternative disposition program. This program is indeed available for first offenses, along with some second offenses, as long as they are not responsible for any serious injury or death. Defendants who enter the 24D program typically serve up to one year of probation, a license suspension of 45 days, alcohol classes and several fines. This is in contrast to a one-year suspension and possible jail time for a first OUI conviction. And while a 24D plea doesn’t keep a prior offense off the driver’s record, an experienced Massachusetts OUI defense lawyer can often win a continuance without a finding, as in this case, that allows drivers to truthfully say they have never been convicted of a crime.

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Two women from Beverly suffered minor injuries after a crash with a drunk driver, the Boston Globe’s Metro Desk blog reported Dec. 15. The crash happened around 6:45 a.m. on that same day, on Route 128 near the Route 1A exit. According to the Globe, 19-year-old James Dexter of Danvers was driving under the influence in a stolen pickup truck when he slammed into an SUV driven by Kathleen Olivero, 57, of Beverly and occupied by passenger Tracy Olivero, 34 and also of Beverly. The women’s vehicle was pushed into an exit sign and rolled over into the grass. They went to the hospital with minor injuries. The pickup also rolled over, but Dexter and his passenger, 19-year-old Eric Banks of Danvers, were not injured. Dexter was arrested at the scene and charged with OUI and unauthorized use of a motor vehicle.

Read article: Alleged drunk driver injures two women in Beverly accident

As a Massachusetts drunk driving criminal defense attorney, I would like to know more about what signs of intoxication led to Dexter’s arrest. Massachusetts law sets a lower legal limit for drivers under the age of 21 — just 0.02 instead of the ordinary 0.08 limit. That means it takes very little alcohol to put an underage driver over the legal limit — sometimes so little that the driver shows no signs of intoxication. There are also many factors that provide false positive results to the breathalyzer test. Experienced Massachusetts OUI Defense Lawyers should be able to demonstrate this to a jury. Sometimes these machines register low readings even if no alcohol has been consumed. In that case, it might be a good to try your case. If his blood-alcohol reading was low, and this is Dexter’s first OUI, he may be a good candidate for the 24D/alternative disposition program, which offers reduced penalties for first-time offenders. If he did not consume any alcohol, he should consider going to trial on this case.

In many cases, law enforcement does not or cannot perform breath tests before an arrest. This requires prosecutors to rely on observations and field sobriety tests alone to support the OUI charge, a risky move because police observations are highly subjective and field sobriety tests are notably unreliable. If these are the only foundations of the OUI part of the case, an experienced Massachusetts OUI defense lawyer should be able to challenge them in court, potentially defeating the charge outright.

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A Centerville man was arrested for operating a vehicle under the influence of alcohol Nov. 7 after an accident that left his front bumper inside a package store. A witness called the police after seeing Bernard Kilroy, 27, drive his car through some bushes across a rotary and into the Hyannis Package Store on Main Street in Hyannis. According to the police report, Kilroy broke the front window of the building and stopped when the car was completely inside the store, but reversed and left the scene. However, he left an important piece of evidence: his front bumper, which included a license plate. The crash was also caught on a surveillance camera. The owner of the store, Cory Fitzgerald, said Kilroy broke or damaged about 2,000 bottles of wine and ruined a carpet, requiring help with the cleanup from “disaster specialists.” Kilroy was arrested in Centerville shortly after the crash.

Read article: Driver hits liquor store, leaves license plate

This article doesn’t specify exactly what Kilroy was charged with, but it’s safe to assume that OUI is among the charges. As a Massachusetts OUI defense attorney, the defenses I might recommend depend a lot on what evidence law enforcement has for such a charge. It sounds from the article like the evidence shows that Kilroy was responsible for the crash. However, it doesn’t necessarily follow that he was driving under the influence of alcohol during the crash. Without a breath or blood test, an experienced Massachusetts drunk driving defense lawyer might be able to show a jury that Kilroy’s actions don’t meet the legal definition of OUI in Massachusetts. If there is such a test and it implicates the defendant, a better bet might be to consider a guilty plea in exchange for participation in the 24D/alternative disposition program, which keeps defendants out of jail and substantially reduces their time without a driver’s license.

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A road repaving project in Framingham was interrupted by an apparently drunk driver, the MetroWest Daily News reported Oct. 27. Police say Rodrigo Dos Santos, 31, drove through traffic cones and onto freshly poured asphalt around 2 a.m. on the night of Oct. 24. Workers were repaving a section of Union Avenue near Wood Terrace in Framingham at the time, and the cones were set up to redirect traffic away from the project. A police officer present waved his arms at Dos Santos to indicate that he should stop, but Dos Santos continued through the work area, forcing workers to jump into vehicles in order to avoid being hit.

Dos Santos then proceeded through the hot asphalt, stopped and tried to make a three-point turn. When he came to a stop, the officer said, he smelled of liquor, had trouble standing and collapsed on his way to the police cruiser, forcing the officer to support him. He insisted that the officer call his wife to pick him up and claimed that he only had three beers. Nonetheless, he was charged with OUI, driving without a license, speeding, driving to endanger and leaving a marked lane. He pleaded not guilty Oct. 26.

Read article: Framingham man charged with drunken driving

The facts in the article may seem grim for Dos Santos. But as a Massachusetts drunk driving defense attorney, I would like to remind readers that the only evidence of drunk driving reported here is circumstantial evidence. In fact, if the article is a complete record of the arrest, the only evidence of drunken driving may be subjective observations by the officer on the scene. In order to prove an OUI charge in Massachusetts, prosecutors must provide a chemical test showing the driver had a BAC of 0.08 or greater, or was driving under the influence of intoxicating liquor. If there is no BAC reading, prosecutors may have to show that intoxication was the best explanation for the incident. In a case like this, an experienced Massachusetts OUI defense lawyer may be able to raise reasonable doubts among jurors if the case goes to trial.

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Police officers in Dedham, Massachusetts say they saw an unusually high number of arrests for operating a motor vehicle under the influence of alcohol, the Daily News Transcript reported Sept. 15. An officer said the police made three different OUI arrests in one night last weekend, including one involving a Stoughton, Massachusetts woman who was found sleeping in her vehicle. A motorist called the police around 6 a.m. to report seeing a beer bottle thrown from a Jeep parked in the road. The responding officer found the Jeep parked but running with its headlights on. A beer bottle was under the driver’s side door.

The driver, Kelly St. Martin, and her passenger, a 25-year-old man from Dedham, appeared to be sleeping. St. Martin reacted to the officer’s first two attempts to get her attention by lifting her head and then slumping over again. After the officer knocked on the door for about 30 seconds, she opened the door. She turned the vehicle off, handed the keys to the officer and said she was not driving. The officer put her through field sobriety tests, on which she did poorly, and observed a strong odor of alcohol on her breath. She was arrested and charged with OUI liquor, and pleaded not guilty at an arraignment Monday.

Read article: Cops cope with rash of OUIs

Many of my clients as a Massachusetts DUI defense attorney are surprised to find that they can be charged with drunk driving even if the vehicle was not actually moving, as in this case. In fact, law enforcement officers in Massachusetts do not need to show that the defendant was driving to make an arrest. State law prohibits “operat[ing] a motor vehicle… under the influence of intoxicating liquor…” or drugs — and officers may decide that “operating” means having the keys in the ignition. However, if the case goes to trial, a jury will have the final say on whether the defendant truly was operating a motor vehicle under the influence of alcohol, as the law requires. Experienced Massachusetts OUI defense lawyers have been able to secure not guilty verdicts for people in this situation, allowing them to avoid the severe penalties of a Massachusetts drunk driving conviction.

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