Daily Oklahoman DUI Mistake

This last weekend, the Daily Oklahoman did a story about DUI and sports figures. Instead of going to a credible source, they got their information from the lobbying group MADD. The article in the paper stated that if you are arrested for DUI and your breath alcohol level is .15 or higher, you will be charged with Aggravated DUI. While Oklahoma has an Aggravated DUI Statute, not every county charges it.

The mistake in the paper was that the article stated that the penalty for Aggravated DUI was the same as a third time felony. The penalty for a third time felony is 1-10 years in the state penitentiary and/or up to a $7500.00 fine. This is incorrect.

Aggravated DUI is cover under Title 47 Section 11-902 of the Oklahoma Statutes and is as follows:

"D. Any person who is convicted of a violation of driving under the influence with a blood or breath alcohol concentration of fifteen-hundredths (0.15) or more pursuant to this section shall be deemed guilty of aggravated driving under the influence. A person convicted of aggravated driving under the influence shall participate in an assessment and evaluation by an assessment agency or assessment personnel certified by the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services pursuant to Section 3-460 of Title 43A of the Oklahoma Statutes and shall comply with all recommendations for treatment. Such person shall be sentenced to not less than one (1) year of supervision and periodic testing at the defendant’s expense, four hundred eighty (480) hours of community service, and an ignition interlock device for a minimum of thirty (30) days. Nothing in this subsection shall preclude the defendant from being charged or punished as provided in paragraph 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 of subsection C of this section."

As you can see, the Aggravated DUI language just adds additional requirements but not change the standard punishment range which for District Court cases is 10 days to one year and/or a fine up to $1000. for misdeameanor cases, 1-5 years and/or a fine of up to $2500 for first felony DUI, 1-7 years and/or fine of up to $5000 for 2nd felony, and 1-10 years and/or fine of up to $7500 for 3rd or subsequent felony DUI/

Oklahoma DUI License Suspensions

Length Of Time For Oklahoma Driver’s License DUI Suspensions.

If you are arrested for an Oklahoma DUI (driving under the influence) or APC (actual physical control), the Oklahoma Department of Public Safety (DPS) will attempt to suspend your Oklahoma driving privileges for a period of 180 days if you have not had any prior license suspensions within the previous ten years.

If you have had a previous driver’s license suspension within the previous ten years then the license suspension will be for a period of one year. If it is your third license suspension within ten years, the license suspension will be for a period of three years.

There is no such thing as a work permit in Oklahoma. It is possible to receive modified driving privileges if you only have a 180 day license suspension. This modification requires the installation of an ignition interlock device on your vehicle and can allow for driving 24 hours a day/seven days a week as long as in a vehicle with the ignition interlock device.

A CDL (commercial driver’s license) may not be modified. However, under certain circumstances, you may be allowed to drive company vehicles with an ignition interlock device.

One year and three year revocations may not be modified. The only way to keep driving is to request the hearing timely, win the DPS hearing, and avoid a conviction on the criminal charge. This is possible and Bruce and I have done this numerous times. Contact us for more information.

"DUI" ATTORNEY

John had a very good post about the DUI "Specialist".
It makes me shudder when I hear an attorney refer to a case as a "Simple DUI". That says
he does not plan to develop the case, look for weaknesses or defenses--he is going to take the money and quickly do some paper work.
Currently in Oklahoma it takes approximately 4 months to handle a DUI case properly. This is not a 'simple' DUI; it is a case that is being properly developed and defended.

I would suggest you look for the following things in deciding if someone is truly a DUI attorney or an attorney who just wants to make a quick buck from a DUI--there is a big difference:

• Will they meet you at the courthouse or interview over the phone rather than requiring a personal interview in their office?
• How many books have they authored specific to DUI?
• Are the trained as SFST (field sobriety) practitioners and Instructors?
• Have the taught SFST classes?
• Are they DRE (drugs) trained?
• Are they certified by the State BOT to operate and maintain the Intoxilyzer?
• Are they trained to operate the Intoxilyzer 8000?
• How many Intoxilyer 5000's do they own?
• How many Intoxliyer 8000's do they own?
• How many national DUI specific seminars do they attend annually?
• Have they taught other attorneys nationally regarding DUI defense?
• Have they taught Oklahoma Judges about DUI Defense?
• Have they taught police officers in CLEET academy's?
• Were they the first Oklahoma lawyers recognized as Super Lawyers and have they continued to be recognized for multiple years?
• Are they Fellows in the Litigation Counsel of America?
• Have they attended specialized training regarding the HGN test as it relates to eye movement and muscle imbalance?
• Have they attended multiple blood courses including Lab evaluations?
• Have they been trained to actually operate the GC-MS lab machine and had experience doing so?

These are a few of the items that will help distinguish the professional DUI Attorney from the opportunistic pretenders.

Subsequent DUIs

Occasionally, citizens arrested for DUI are also arrested for driving under suspension. When explaining the importance of requesting an Administrative Hearing with the Department of Public Safety, the client will tell me that it doesn't matter because they are currently suspending and they don't think that there is any reason to fight the new driver's license suspension.

It is these cases where it is especially important to fight the suspension. If the client is suspended, a further suspension will be tacked on to the current suspension. If the client is on a 180 suspension from a previous DUI, then the new suspension period will be for ONE YEAR and is NOT modifiable. If the client is on a one year suspension, then the new suspension will be for THREE YEARS and is NOT midifiable. It is important to fight the license suspension EVERY time.

DUI Specialists

Over the last year, Bruce and I have seen several new "DUI Attorneys" or "DUI Specialists" popping up on the internet. These are criminal attorneys who think that DUI cases are an easy way to make money. DUI cases are an easy way to make money if you just take the case and plea it at the first opportunity. These dump truck lawyers will mislead you as they are wanting to compete with the real DUI Lawyers that have taken the time and spent the money to educate themselves to protect their clients.

How can you protect yourself? Ask questions. Do you limit your practice to DUI defense? Are you certified to not only administer field sobriety tests but are you also an Instructor? Have you ever taught DUI defense to other lawyers? Have you written any books on the subject of DUI Defense? Do you own an Intoxilyzer 5000 and 8000? Have you attended any advance blood seminars? Have you ever visited a blood lab?

Anyone can put up a website and get a vanity DUI phone number. Anyone can join the National College for DUI Defense. If they are serious about DUI Defense, then they should have and currently be attending the College's Trial College held at Harvard each summer. Several of these new "DUI Attorneys" have never been to a regional or national DUI seminar.

This is one reason Bruce and I offer free consultations as we feel it is important that you have a comparision with real DUI lawyers that practice solely DUI defense. Even if you are considering another attorney, it is worth your time to schedule your free consultation so that you can rest assured that the attorney you hire is what he or she says they are. There is nothing to lose and you will receive your free copy of the Oklahoma DUI Survival Guide that Bruce and I co-authored. To schedule your free consultation, call John at 1-888-DUI-ARREST if in Oklahoma City/Western Oklahoma or Bruce at 1-877-DUI-EDGE if in Tulsa/Eastern Oklahoma.

Saving Your Oklahoma Driver’s License

In Oklahoma, the Department of Public Safety handles all driver’s license issues. If you are arrested for DUI (driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs) or APC (actual physical control) and you refuse to take a chemical test or take a chemical test and have a BAC of .08 or higher, the officer will confiscate your driver’s license.

The officer will provide you an Officer’s Affidavit and Notice of Revocation which will serve as your temporary license. This temporary license will be valid for thirty days. To confirm that you have received the temporary license, lok at the bottom of the affidavit and there should be language stating that the form is a receipt and temporary license valid for thirty days.

If your license was previously suspended, expired, or not in your possession at the time of arrest, the paperwork will not contain this information. If license was valid at the time of arrest, any suspension will not begin for thirty days. Thus, if license was valid but you did not have it with you when you were arrested, the license is still valid for thirty days.

This Officer’s Affidavit and Notice of Revocation also has language informing you that you have 15 days to request a hearing from the Oklahoma Department of Public Safety if you wish to prevent license suspension. This notice is normally given on the same day as your arrest so Bruce and I normally inform people thay have 15 days from arrest. This 15 day rule is jurisdictional and in most instance, nothing can be done to prevent license suspension if the hearing is not requested within the 15 days.

The 15 day time frame is the same if you submitted to a blood test. However, the time frame does not begin until you receive notice from the Oklahoma Department of Public Safety that the blood test came back with a BAC of .08 or higher. This notice is a letter from DPS that is sent to your address on file with the state. Thus, if you have a old address on your license, you won’t receive the letter and will miss your time frame to request a hearing.

It is important to call Bruce or I as soon as possible after your arrest so we can prevent license suspension.

Trust Me--I'm From the Government

Following is an article dealing with prosecutorial misconduct by some of the highest ranking attorneys in the Justice Department.

What is ironic is that the people who present themselves as upholding and enforcing the law, were willing to break the law to pursue professional ambitions.


Criminal probe of lawyers who botched Stevens case

By NEDRA PICKLER and MATT APUZZO, Associated Press Writers
WASHINGTON – A seething federal judge dismissed the corruption conviction of former Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens on Tuesday and took the rare and serious step of ordering a criminal investigation into prosecutors who poisoned the case.
"In nearly 25 years on the bench, I've never seen anything approaching the mishandling and misconduct that I've seen in this case," U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan said.
Sullivan appointed a special prosecutor to investigate Justice Department lawyers who repeatedly withheld evidence from defense attorneys and the judge during the monthlong trial. Stevens was convicted in October of lying on Senate forms about home renovations and gifts he received from wealthy friends.
The case cost Stevens, 85, a Senate seat he had held for 40 years. Once the Senate's longest-serving Republican, he narrowly lost to Democrat Mark Begich soon after the verdict.
Now, the case could prove career-ending for prosecutors in the Justice Department's public corruption unit.
After Sullivan dismissed the case, Stevens turned to his friends and held up a fist in victory as his wife and daughters broke into loud sobs.
"Until recently, my faith in the criminal system, particularly the judicial system, was unwavering," Stevens told the court Tuesday, his first public comments since Attorney General Eric Holder announced he would drop the case. "But what some members of the prosecution team did nearly destroyed my faith. Their conduct had consequences for me that they will never realize and can never be reversed."
Sullivan appointed Washington attorney Henry Schuelke to investigate contempt and obstruction by the Justice Department team. Schuelke is a former prosecutor and veteran defense attorney who was tapped to oversee a Senate Ethics Committee investigation into influence-peddling allegations against former New York Sen. Alfonse D'Amato in 1989.
Sullivan said the matter was too serious to be left to an internal investigation by the Justice Department, which he said dragged its feet before looking into the misconduct. He criticized former Attorney General Michael Mukasey for not responding to complaints: "Shocking, but not surprising," Sullivan said.
He worried aloud about how often the government withholds evidence, from Guantanamo Bay terrorism cases to public corruption trials. He called on Holder to retrain all prosecutors in the department.
The decision to open a criminal case raises the question of whether the prosecutors, who include the top two officials in the department's public corruption unit, can remain on the job while under investigation. The investigation carries the threat of prison time, fines and disbarment.
It also threatens to derail the corruption investigation into other public officials, including Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, who has been under scrutiny by the same prosecutors now under investigation. Young's lawyer attended Tuesday's hearing but said nothing after it ended.
Subjects of the criminal probe are Brenda Morris, the lead prosecutor in the Stevens case and the No. 2 official in the Public Integrity Section; Public Integrity prosecutors Nicholas Marsh and Edward Sullivan; Alaska federal prosecutors Joseph Bottini and James Goeke; and William Welch, who did not participate in the trial but who supervises the Public Integrity section.
Judge Sullivan repeatedly scolded prosecutors for their behavior during trial. After the verdict, an FBI whistleblower accused the team of misconduct and Sullivan held prosecutors in contempt for ignoring a court order.
The prosecution team was replaced and, last week, the new team acknowledged that key evidence was withheld from Stevens. That evidence included notes from an interview with the government's star witness, contractor Bill Allen.
On the witness stand, Allen said a mutual friend told him not to expect Stevens to pay for the home renovation project because Stevens only wanted the bill to cover himself. It was damaging testimony that made Stevens look like a politician scheming to cover his tracks while accepting freebies.
But in the previously undisclosed meeting with prosecutors, Allen said he had no recollection of such a discussion. And he valued the renovation work at far less than what prosecutors alleged at the trial.
"I was sick in my stomach," attorney Brendan Sullivan said Tuesday, recalling seeing the new evidence for the first time. "How could they do this? How could they abandon their responsibilities? How could they take on a very decent man, Ted Stevens, who happened to be a United States senator, and do this?"
The Justice Department did not comment after court but Paul O'Brien, a federal prosecutor newly assigned to the case, apologized to the judge on behalf of the department.
Friends say Stevens owes millions of dollars in legal bills. With Tuesday's dismissal, the former senator could sue the Justice Department for malicious prosecution and try to force the government to pay some of those fees, but winning such lawsuits is difficult.
The government misconduct and the unraveling of the case overshadowed the facts of a trial in which Stevens — regardless of Allen's discredited testimony — was shown to have accepted a massage chair, a stained-glass window and an expensive sculpture but never disclosed them on Senate documents.
None of that mattered Tuesday as Stevens gave what amounted to the election victory speech he never had a chance to give. Standing at the courtroom lectern wearing a pin of the U.S. and Alaska flags on his sweater, he recounted his career in government — from flying planes in World War II to serving as U.S. attorney to his storied career in the Senate.
He thanked his friends, his supporters and his wife. And he vowed to push his friends in the Senate for tough new laws on prosecutorial misconduct.
Then, with the prosecution team feeling the scrutiny that Stevens felt for years, he smiled, posed for pictures with his family outside the courthouse and said:
"I'm going to enjoy this wonderful day."