AP - The mayor of Colma has resigned over ethics issues after serving just three months.

Mayor Larry Formalejo told a packed public meeting last night that as a city councilman he committed an ethical breach involving the drunken-driving arrest of his son, but didn’t say what he had done.

Formalejo said that he “acted as a father, not as a councilman.”

He will remain on the city council in the small city of cemeteries and card rooms south of San Francisco.

There were almost 200,000 people arrested for DUI in California alone last year. Out of those numbers there were just over 180,000 were misdemeanor offenses and a large portion of those cases were overturned by DUI lawyers.

DUI is an acronym that stands for ‘Driving Under the Influence’. A person is guilty of a DUI if they decide to operate a motor vehicle after the consumption of alcoholic beverages or any chemical or controlled substances. In California, there are a wide variety of laws that involve intoxicated individuals. California has some of the most severe penalties for driving under the influence in all of the United States.

The two major factors in deciding the penalty for a drunken driving offense in California depends on how much alcohol was in your system and whether or not you are a repeat offender. If it is your first DUI offense, then you will most likely avoid jail time, however most counties in California will provide you with an alternative such as trash pick up. If this is your second arrest with a ten year period, then the chances of you going to jail are much higher.

In California you cannot drive a motor vehicle if your BAC (Blood Alcohol Concentration) is over .08%. After you’ve been pulled over, the officer will administer a test giving you the choice of blood, breath or urine. Breath tests are the most common, and the device used to measure your BAC with your breath is called a breathalyzer.

Many times people don’t know when ‘enough is enough’ while they’ve been drinking. Because of this, getting behind the wheel puts them in even greater jeopardy. Generally, a good rule of thumb is to limit your alcohol intake to only one drink an hour. After you’ve consumed an alcoholic drink, follow that with a full glass of water. This will help reduce your BAC and keep you under the legal limit.

New York Giants backup defensive end Adrian Awasom was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving by Arizona state police early Friday.

An officer with the Arizona Department of Public Safety stopped Awasom’s vehicle at about 3 a.m. Friday on Interstate 10 in Phoenix, said Sgt. Tim Mason.

Blood test results aren’t yet available, Mason said, but Awasom was cited on suspicion of driving under the influence and extreme DUI and was released.

Awasom, who arrived Thursday for Sunday’s Super Bowl, has been on injured reserve since Sept. 18.Giants spokesman Pat Hanlon said the team was aware of the situation but would not confirm any details.

Source

FOX LAKE, Wis. — A Wisconsin woman was ticketed after she called 911 while driving home from a bar to report that she may be too drunk to drive, authorities said.

Caller: He seems to think I am too intoxicated to drive.
911 Operator: OK, and so you called 911, or he called 911?
Caller: Well, he wanted me to call 911 because he thinks I’m too drunk to drive.

Caller: I don’t like being on the phone while I’m driving.
911 Operator: OK, well, I can certainly let you go, Pat. I don’t want to cause you …
Caller: I would appreciate that because I don’t like driving on the phone.

BRANDON — Investigators say a woman was driving under the influence when she hit a deputy’s cruiser Monday night.

They say Deputy Julie Seale was struck by Maria G. Chamorrovega.

Both vehicles reportedly were traveling westbound on Highway 60, with Deputy Seale in the center lane and the suspect vehicle in the left lane.

As both vehicles approached Mt. Carmel Road, the Chamorrovega’s vehicle started to make a left turn, and then for an unknown reason, abruptly made a right turn, turning into the deputy’s vehicle.

Her Mazda struck the deputy’s vehicle on the front driver’s corner causing approximately $1,500 in damage.

Deputy Seale was transported by Fire Rescue to Brandon Regional Hospital for evaluation. Chamorrovega was not injured, and she was taken to the Orient Road Jail and charged with DUI.

ABCNews

An Oakland man who says he was strip-searched in an Alameda County jail after a drunken-driving arrest has filed a federal class-action suit accusing the county of conducting the searches without evidence that detainees are hiding weapons or contraband.

Ron Charles Roth, 47, filed suit two months after a judge gave final approval to a $6.2 million settlement of a similar federal class-action suit claiming that Alameda County authorities had conducted illegal strip searches at two jails from 2004 to 2006.

A California Highway Patrol officer arrested Roth in front of his home Feb. 3, 2007, for allegedly being under the influence when he moved his car…

Resource

CORAOPOLIS, Pa. — Professional wrestler and Olympic gold medalist Kurt Angle has been ordered to stand trial on a drunken driving charge.

Moon Township police say they charged 39-year-old Angle on Sept. 28 after a motorist told them Angle cut her off while pulling out of a bar parking lot that afternoon.

A police officer testified Tuesday he went to Angle’s Moon Township home, where the wrestler admitted to driving the vehicle and drinking a few beers at the bar that day. Police say Angle failed field sobriety tests and refused a blood test.

Angle’s attorney says police couldn’t place Angle in the vehicle at a specific time.

Angle won a gold medal in the 1996 Summer Olympics.

Source

TV personality and actor Gary Collins checked into jail Monday to serve a four-day sentence in his drunken driving case. He chose to pay an $85 daily fee to stay in the Glendale City Jail instead of the overcrowded Los Angeles County jail, according to the Glendale Police Department.

What’s interesting here is not someone wanting to avoid LA county jail, but getting a DUI when the accident is not your fault. I don’t know what agency arrested Mr. Collins, but people should be aware that CHP is trained to treat every traffic incident as a DUI investigation. Any time you are pulled over, no matter if it’s for expired plates, a burned out tail light, failure to signal, or any other traffic infraction, CHP will investigate potential alcohol involvement.

If you are in an accident, your duty is to make sure the other party does not need medical attention. If no one needs medical attention then you should give the other party your address, insurance and registration information. Once you’ve done that, you are not required to wait until the cops arrive. If medical attention is required, you must give them your information AND render reasonable assistance, including transporting, or making arrangements for transporting, any injured person to a doctor or hospital for medical treatment, if it is apparent that treatment is necessary or if the other party requests such transportation.

The duty to stop at the scene of an accident can be found in California Vehicle Code Sections 20001, 20002, 20003 and 20004. There is also a reporting duty to DMV when someone is injured or when property damage is above $750.00.

The Academy Award-winning Screenwriter of “Pulp Fiction,” Roger Avary has been arrested for manslaughter and DUI, after crashing his car in Ojai Sunday, killing a passenger.

That’s according to the Ventura County Sheriff’s department, who say the single-vehicle crash happened around 12:30 Sunday morning on the 19-hundred block of East Ojai Avenue.

Sheriff’s deputies say Avary’s wife was ejected from the car.She’s said to be in stable condition, another passenger, 42-year-old Andreas Zini of Italy was killed.

Avary, a 42-year-old Ojai resident was released from jail on $50,000 bail.