Gold medal-winning Olympic decathlete Bill Toomey has pleaded no-contest to a charge of driving under the influence after crashing his Mercedes-Benz into two parked cars.
San Luis Obispo police arrested Toomey, who won the 1968 Olympic decathlon for the United States, after the incident on May 24, 2007.
The 69-year-old Toomey is scheduled to be sentenced on April 22.
Deputy District Attorney Sheryl Woolcott said Tuesday that the standard sentence for typical first-time DUI offenders includes two days in jail, three years of probation and attending an alcohol prevention program.
KELSO, Wash. — When a man who was suspected of drunken driving in Longview refused to give blood and urine samples he was taken to a hospital.
His lawyer says he was held down kicking and screaming for a blood draw. And a tube was inserted into his bladder to withdraw the urine.
He sued Cowlitz County. A settlement was reached Friday in which he was paid $15,000, without authorities admitting they did anything wrong.
The 37-year-old man, Matthew Clifford Arthur, was on probation at the time of the arrest in November and was required to undergo screening for drugs and alcohol. When he refused, his lawyer says he should have been taken to the jail instead of the hospital.
OAKLAND – In a wreck that shocked even police, a gusher from a fire hydrant hit by a suspected drunk driver’s car Monday almost drowned a passenger in the vehicle.
The passenger, Walker Tiller, 59, of Oakland, who was knocked unconscious by the impact, was rescued from the flooding 1993 Pontiac Bonneville by a rookie police officer and two residents of the area, police said.
Traffic Sgt. Steve Paich, a 10-year veteran, said Tuesday, “I’ve never heard of anything like this happening before.”
He polled other veteran officers, including one with 30 years experience, who said the same thing.
“For the car to be perfectly positioned over the hydrant and the water gushing in is just bizarre,” Paich said.
The driver, Drexel Mitchell, 55, of Oakland, who police said has a suspended license as the result of prior driving under the influence convictions, was arrested.
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.
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.
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…
