By Michael
An Illinois DUI judge threw the book at 25-year-old Edward Clark after he hit and killed David Long and his dog Shadow, who were out walking early one morning last year.
The judge convicted Cook of reckless homicide, 15 counts of DUI, and one count of unlawful possession of a converted motor vehicle back in May.
Cook was driving down the residential street at a speed of about 50 miles per hour in Batavia, Illinois when he veered off the road and onto the sidewalk, hitting Long and Shadow. Cook was driving a 2003 white Ford Acura that he had borrowed from a friend without permission, according to CBS 2 Chicago.
The toxicology report showed that Cook had alcohol, marijuana, and cocaine in his system, reports the Chicago Tribune.
Cook maintains that he does not have a problem with drugs or alcohol, but his driving privileges had been revoked in 2008 due to an aggravated DUI. Cook was still on parole for that offense at the time of the crash.
Cook also has numerous drug, battery, and theft charges, but has never actually completed one of the sentences for these crimes.
The judge took that into consideration during the sentencing. The judge felt that since Cook doesn’t feel that he has any problems, he should be kept off the streets in order to keep others safe at the very least.
Long’s wife and the Illinois state prosecutors pushed for more, but the judge said case law would not support a charge of first degree murder. Instead, Cook will serve consecutive, rather than concurrent, sentences, leading to a full amount of jail time of fifteen years. He will probably be out on parole in 10 years.
Cook refrained from making a statement to the judge, but did tell his mother that he loved her as he was being led out of the courtroom. Cook has never publicly apologized for killing David Long and his best friend.
Susan Long is satisfied with the sentence, but notes “this is another one of those stories that starts with drinking alcohol and ends with tragedy.”
By Topher
A recent DUI case in San Diego was declared a mistrial after a single juror held off from deciding whether the defendant was behind the wheel when a car struck another vehicle and killed four people, according to 10 News.
Deanna Fridley was on trial in the case in which the four were killed in Pala Casino, California. Fridley claimed that she was not the driver of the car that got into the deadly December 14, 2007, accident, and one of the jurors in the case would not conclude that it was her, leading to the mistrial.
The jurors in the case informed the judge that they had reached an 11-1 deadlock. They had been apart for a holiday break, and on their return they announced that they could not come to a unanimous agreement on the charges.
Fridley was also accused of DUI causing injury and misdemeanor driving on a suspended license.
Judge Runston Maino, serving in the case, declined to enact a motion by the prosecution to replace the juror with an alternate juror. “You haven’t failed as jurors; you haven’t failed as individuals,” he told the jurors in light of their lack of unanimity.
Fridley, 26, faced four 15-years-to-life sentences if she had been convicted in the case. Her defense attorney, James Boyd, addressed the media after the mistrial was declared, saying that he was “really happy” with the result. “My question,” he said, “is how is it that 11 of them actually thought she was driving? It’s a real who-done-it. Was she driving or not?”
A retrial of the case could come in six to eight months, and there will be a status update in July.
According to prosecutors, Fridley was driving over 85 miles per hour and swerved over the lane divider before crashing into and killing Luis De Santiago, his wife Lina, and Luis Baez and his wife Rubi. They also claimed that Fridely had spent the day smoking meth and drinking with a friend. Fridley was allegedly driving a GMC Yukon, while the victims were in a Toyota Camry.
Fridley testified that she had switched seats with her friend before the crash. The friend, Anthony Boles, denies this claim.
Fridley will remain in custody, and her bail is set at $1 million.
By Michael
Joshua Salayich cried as he asked for leniency from the judge who would sentence him for DUI in the October death of a runner from Utah. The family members of the victim were also in the courthouse, and they had described the pain of losing Jeremy Kunz, a father and youth leader from Kamas, Utah.
The sentence handed down to Salayich was 7 to 20 years in prison. This was slightly more harsh than the 6 to 20 years recommended by parole and probation officials, reports the Reno Gazette-Journal.
Kunz was participating in one leg of a relay race from Valley of Fire State Park to the Red Rock Resort when Salayich hit him while driving at 4:30 a.m.
An eyewitness, another runner in the race, said that Kunz had tried to jump out of the way of the Nissan Altima that would strike and ultimately kill him.
The car rolled over in a cloud of dust. When it finally came to a stop in a lot, the driver got out, grabbed a few things, asked the witness not to call the cops, and walked away.
As a part of Salayich’s plea deal to plead guilty, prosecutors agreed to drop the felony charge of leaving the scene of the crash. Salayich was close to his home in Henderson, Nevada, when the crash occurred.
According to prosecutors, Salayich’s blood-alcohol content was measured at 0.26 percent following the crash, or over three times the legal limit.
“Jeremy’s death was entirely avoidable,” said his wife, Melinda. Jeremy left behind three children. He was what his family called an active community and family member. “My children will not be able to feel their daddy’s arms around them,” she continued in court, adding that she forgave Salayich but that she felt he should still be punished.
“I want the consequences of his actions to be fully applied to him,” she went on. “His actions and their consequences have been fully applied to me. Mercy cannot rob justice.”
“There are no words to say how sorry I am for this,” Salayich said in court. “All it takes is one horrible decision. For the rest of your life you have to live with that.”
By Morgan Brickley
After a single-vehicle drunk driving crash that sent one man to a trauma center with severe injuries, an 18-year-old was arrested on suspicion of felony DUI.
Danielle Everman of Fountain Valley, Calif. was arrested in December after she crashed her Ford Explorer into a guard rail, severely injuring her passenger, 20-year-old Jacob Dearman.
According to a police report, Dearman was not wearing his seat belt at the time of the accident. He was rushed to a trauma center nearby and treated for his injuries.
Everman was arrested after the crash, and released on $100,000 bail. The Orange County Register reported that Everman was under the influence of alcohol when she was drove the Ford Explorer off the road and into the guard rail.
No further information is currently available about the incident.
By Morgan Brickley
Recently Gov. Jack A Markell signed two new bills into law to create stricter DUI penalties for people convicted of a DUI offense in Delaware.
House Bill 152: Increased Fines and Jail Time
House Bill 152 increases DUI fines for subsequent offenders, especially drivers with five previous DUI convictions. The bill also called for increased jail time for subsequent DUI offenders and creating a felony DUI for drivers with six and seven DUI convictions.
Last year there were approximately 6,916 DUI arrests, of which 59 people had been previously arrested at least five other times for drunk driving. Since January of this year, 3,213 drivers have been arrested for DUI, with 40 of those people having five or more previous DUI arrests.
House Bill 177: Strict Penalties for First DUI Offense
The second bill signed into law strengthens penalties for a first time DUI offense if the driver has a blood alcohol level of .15% or higher.
If convicted of a DUI with a BAC of .15%, the period of hard revocation for those who are mandated to have an ignition interlock device is increased from 30 to 45 days.
The driver’s license is suspended for six months instead of three, and the ignition interlock device must be used for six months.
The bill limits driving authority of an ignition interlock device licensed driver to work, home, school, alcohol treatment programs and interlock service provider appointments.
Source: Sussex Countian
By Editor
State Law Provides Illinois DUI Memorial Signs
Under a new Illinois DUI law, memorial signs for those killed in drunken driving accidents may be requested by the victims’ families. A sign with Caitlin’s name and the date of the accident that took her life was the first to be requested under “Tina’s Law.” The law is named for Tina Ball, a construction worker with seven children who was killed by a drunken driver while working on I-57 during September 2003. Read more.
Study Shows Felony Wisconsin DUI Offenders are Avoiding Prison
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that lawmakers intended to get repeat Wisconsin OWI (DUI) offenders off the road. However, an analysis of Wisconsin DUI sentencing has shown that less than half of the people who are sentenced for fifth-offense drunken-driving in Milwaukee County end up serving time in prison. View the full article.
Drug Testing Drivers Could Become as Simple as Breath Tests
The National Institute of Health has recently released research guidelines that may lead to the development of new testing methods for drug abuse that can be used as routinely as breath tests. These guidelines were published in the August journal Addiction. Read on.
By Editor
According to WTVH, 70 year-old Charles Hartmann took a detour on his way home September 27. A little before 8pm on Saturday, Hartmann drove his car through his neighbor’s house in Hastings, NY.
He drove through the front of the house, through the living room, into the bedroom and out the back. The total damage is estimated at $50,000.
Hartmann was arrested and charged with felony DUI, reckless driving and others. Luckily, no one was hurt. The owner of the house had stepped out of her bed when she heard the car enter the house.
Police reported that when the tow truck removed the car, the bed was underneath it.
By Guest Attorney
An Elgin, Ill. teenager was acquitted of murder after driving his car into a building while drunk. Brian Poliarny was charged with first-degree murder for the crash which killed his passenger, Roman Pokorny. A second passenger was badly injured in the accident.
According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Kane County prosecutors had argued that Poliarny had intentionally driven into the building in an attempt to kill himself. Judge Grant Wegner said he acquitted Poliarny of the murder charge because there wasn’t clear evidence the teen had intended to kill himself or his passengers.
Poliarny had already pled guilty to two counts of felony DUI. He faces a maximum 26-year sentence on these charges.
By Tiffany Sanders, ESQ.
Questions often arise as to how long the “look back” period is for purposes of enhancing DUI penalties or elevating DUI charges to felony status.
There’s no easy answer to that question and not only because state laws vary. The number of DUI convictions and the time period considered for enhanced penalties or felony DUI does vary from state to state. However, the realities are even more complex.
In some states, the period runs from date of charge to date of charge–in others, from date of conviction to date of charge. Further, some states have alternate time periods during which a different number of prior convictions qualifies for enhanced penalties or felony treatment.
For instance, in Ohio a drunk driver can be charged with a felony based on four offenses in six years or six offenses in twenty years, meaning that two separate calculations apply to every case.
If you’ve been charged and this is not your first DUI offense, make sure that you talk to a local DUI lawyer and fully understand how the repeat offender statutes apply in your case.
By Tiffany Sanders, ESQ.
The Illinois DUI law change that took effect in January made all DUI offenses felonies if committed by a driver who lacked either a valid driver’s license or valid automobile insurance at the time of the offense. And now, the criminal courts is flooded with new charges.
Lake County anticipates that felony DUI charges in 2006 will double the number filed in 2005 and has hired additional staff to handle the increased caseload.
Other counties have seen similar increases, but have thus far been able to handle the cases by reassigning employees and redistributing the workload.
The full impact of the increased caseload isn’t yet apparent, but Rep. William Black (R-Danville), who sponsored the bill, told the Chicago Tribune that he would ask for revisions if enforcement proved too difficult for judges and prosecutors.