Lomita, BAC 0.42%, Car Accident, Torrance Courthouse
Our client, age 32, had just lost her dog, who she had for over a decade. Our client was emotionally crushed by this and began drinking wine to calm herself down. The drinking continued until she got into her Audi A3 one May morning and began driving eastbound on Pacific Coast Highway from Redondo Beach into Lomita.
As she approached a red traffic light at Pacific Coast Highway and Madison Avenue, she failed to brake in time and rear-ended a BMW stopped at the light. Inside the BMW was a 69-year old woman. The collision was described as “moderate” by the Torrance Police Department and, luckily, the elderly lady in the BMW was not injured. Our client was not injured, either.
Police who arrived at the scene immediately recognized our client as drunk, which was very sad, as it was only 2:00 p.m. in the afternoon. Our client had graduated from a prestigious East Coast university and had a stable job with a well-recognized Fortune 500 company.
Our client was described as too drunk to perform any field sobriety tests. She was confused, crying hysterically and admitted to drinking “too much” wine. When asked if she would submit to a breath test at the scene with a preliminary alcohol screening (PAS) device, she declined.
After our client refused to submit to a PAS test, as is her right under Vehicle Code § 23612(i), she was arrested and taken by police officers in their car to Torrance Memorial Hospital for medical evaluation due to her being involved in a car accident.
Once at the hospital and being medically evaluated, she was asked if she would submit to a breath or blood test. Our client chose blood, so her blood was drawn at Torrance Memorial.
The client was then taken to the Torrance Police Station, where she was held into the next day before being released on her own recognizance upon signing a promise to appear in the Torrance Courthouse for her arraignment about three months later.
Within 48 hours, the client then called Greg Hill & Associates and spoke with Greg. She described the facts of the case and asked what would happen to her. Greg explained that an important factor in how her case would resolve would be whether the other individual was injured because if the other driver suffered injuries, the case could be filed as a felony. If the other driver was not injured, the case would be filed as a misdemeanor as a first-time DUI.
Greg then asked the client questions about blood abnormalities, diabetes, being on an anticoagulant, anemia and any medications she was taking that might have affected the accuracy of the ethanol measurement in her blood. The client commented that she believed her blood alcohol content (BAC) would be above 0.08%.
The client also commented that she would be entering a one-month residential alcohol treatment program, which would be followed by several months of outpatient treatment.
While the client was in the residential alcohol treatment program, our office received the blood results: 0.42%. Greg had not seen such a high BAC in any case before this and suspected the measurement may have been inaccurate, however, the client reported no blood abnormalities that might skew the BAC above the true value.
Greg then appeared at the arraignment in the Torrance Superior Court for our client while she stayed at work. Luckily, the case was filed as a misdemeanor.
The Torrance City Prosecutor noted the client’s high BAC, but did not include the SB 38 eighteen-month program as part of the plea bargain. Greg was shocked by this and realized the client was quite fortunate. Instead, he required our client to attend the nine-month, AB 1353 program.
The other terms of the plea bargain offer were no jail (which was also surprising), a $390 court fine (credited by two days in custody for our client, or $250), plus penalties and assessments, attendance at the Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) victim impact panel and the Hospital and Morgue (HAM) program, plus 80 hours of community labor, as well as restation in any amount representing out of pocket expenses incurred by the other driver (those expenses not covered by insurance).
Greg then showed the Torrance City Prosecutor our client’s proof of completion of the one-month residential alcohol treatment program and two more months of outpatient treatment and asked the prosecutor to reduce the community labor portion of the plea bargain.
The prosecutor commented that he really should have required the SB 38 program for our client and that he made a mistake in including the AB 1353 program instead. However, he was going to stick to his deal, however unintended. He also agreed to reduce the community labor portion of the plea bargain to 64 hours, commenting that while he was happy our client was taking the DUI seriously, he just could not reduce the terms too much due to the high BAC and the car accident.
Our client was extremely happy with the terms of the plea bargain reached and accepted the People’s offer, in disbelief she had no jail to serve.
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