A 25 year old resident of Nepal is now a wanted man after police released him following a wreck that killed 3 Houston teens. This isn’t just a story about the danger of drunk driving but how law enforcement determines if someone is a “flight risk”. The college student is now facing three charges of intoxicated manslaughter and is nowhere to be found. read more

Celebrities like Lindsay Lohan aren’t the only ones being sentenced to alcohol monitoring bracelets. According to this article from the Dallas Morning News, well over 500 Texas courts are using them as sentencing tools.  read more

A US Congressman is proposing spending $40 million to investigate, research, and develop technology for cars to automatically detect alcohol consumption by the driver. The goal would be to prevent drunk driving before it happens.

According to reports, there may be multiple methods for detecting alcohol consumption, including skin sensors in the steering wheel, and other methods to analyze perspiration and breath.

Questions this raises include:

• What would happen if the car detects alcohol? Presumably the car would not start, but would police be notified and criminal action taken?
• What is the threshold for measuring alcohol? Is it set lower than the legal limit of .08% BAC?
• What is the remedy to challenge any false positives?
• Can the devices be sure that it isn’t a passenger who many be intoxicated and not the driver?

Everyone wants to prevent drunk driving, but this kind of extremely intrusive monitoring that bypasses any presumption of innocence is frightening, and could be a dangerous precedent.

According to the report by KENS 5 in San Antonio, the devices could be standard in new vehicles within 5 or 10 years.

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Update: More info on the proposed car alcohol sensors here.

Texas is one of the few states that regularly holds “no refusal” weekends of aggressive DWI enforcement and prosecution. They may be employed on holiday weekends, or anytime law enforcement believes there may be an abundance of drunk drivers on the roads.

The term “no refusal” refers to a law enforcement tactic where they are set up to forcefully take of blood evidence from a suspected drunk drivers. read more

DWI surcharges in Texas took effect in 2004, but have not brought the results the state had hoped for . The hefty fines were implemented to hopefully prevent DWI offenses by adding a further deterrent effect, and simultaneously raise money for roads and trauma care. But things didn’t work out that way and now there’s a grand total of $1 billion in unpaid surcharges according to The Dallas Morning News. read more

For those people convicted of multiple DUI’s and sent to prison, the state of Texas may be releasing them with no treatment. This is causing people to question what, if anything, would keep those newly released offenders from drinking and driving again. read more

A DWI and an accident that happened last year has now led to an intoxication manslaughter charge for 36 year old John Richard Anderson.

The accident occurred when 47 year old Vivian Bass turned in front of a speeding Anderson on FM 3005. Following the accident Anderson was originally charged with DWI and possession of a controlled substance. Once lab results were returned confirming Anderson’s intoxication, the manslaughter charge was added. read more

Houston’s Harris County is the top heavily populated counties in the nation for DWI deaths. According to this article from the Houston Chronicle, the District Attorney Pat Lykos has referred to the problem as a “pandemic plague”. According to Lykos there are an estimated 10,000 DWI charges filed every year in the county.

Like many big cities, Houston’s police department has a DWI task force credited with many arrests and taking drunk drivers off the road. They reportedly get over $480,000 annually in grants for overtime to staff the task force but the task force and all of the preventative measures aren’t doing enough to keep the DWI statistics at an acceptable level for many. read more

This past weekend proved deadly for a Houston family. Two men and six kids were piled into a car that went careening off the road into a flooded ditch. The two adults and a 10 year old child escaped, but the other 5 weren’t so lucky.

According to the Associated Press, driver Chanton Jenkins is currently in police custody facing 4 counts of intoxication manslaughter, one charge for each of the children that has been found to date. Mr. Jenkins lost control of the vehicle, according to his brother and passenger, when he was talking on his phone.

The ditch had turned into a rushing torrent with recent downpours and when the vehicle plunged into the waters, it was all the adults could do to save themselves and the one child who escaped. Police say the current was so strong, the car ended up 100 feet from its initial crash site. The rushing waters are also to blame for the still missing body of a 3 year old girl.

Jenkins is said to be father to 3 of the five victims, while the other two were cousins of the family. The children who passed were ages 1, 3, 4, 7, and 11. read more

As defense attorneys, it is our responsibility to fight for you, and try to get the best possible results in court. This means knowing all of the ins and outs of your case and ensuring your rights were protected at every stage of the game. With some Texas law enforcement agencies moving toward more and more mandatory blood draws, the job can becomes more interesting and challenging.

This article from the American Statesman outlines some of the new defense strategies coming about with this new and questionable method of getting DUI convictions. As we blogged about last week, there are several counties within our state that are moving toward mandatory blood draws when you refuse to take a breathalyzer test. These blood tests are highly invasive and their use is suspect to say the least.

As the legal landscape changes and prosecutors come up with new ways to get convictions, it is my job, and the job of every good defense attorney out there to also adjust our game plan to ensure that our clients are being treated fairly.

This new approach in DWI convictions has proven to be a difficult one to fight in court. Having said that, however, there is hope for your case. read more