DUI Client Age 17, Found Asleep in Car, 0.26% BAC, Fullerton

Our client from Hacienda Heights went out with friends one evening and somehow ended up in Downtown Fullerton.  He was 17 years old and decided to drink alcohol for the first time.  He would soon have an evening he’d later rather forget.

His friends and he began to drink beer because they simply wanted to get drunk.  Our client joined in the drinking and the group eventually went through a case of beer. 

At some point, our client decided to drive home.  However, he somehow drove into downtown Fullerton, where several other motorists reported him via 911 calls when they saw his car bumping into the curb multiple times.  Finally, at a red stop light, he stopped and fell asleep behind the wheel, with his foot on the brake, but the car was still in drive.

One of the 911 callers parked behind him to protect him from being rearended until the police arrived on scene.  This was significant, separately, for showing that at least one of the 911 callers was describing a motorist that really was our client and not another motorist who also may have been driving while bouncing off the curbs.

When police arrived, they attempted to open the car door, but it was locked.  Then they tried to awake our client and after about a minute of tapping on the driver’s side window, our client awoke.  

He then put the car in park and opened the car door.  Police described our client has having vomit on his shirt and emitting a strong odor of alcohol.  

Because he was underage and, separately, because he had been involved in a car accident (with the curb), police immediately arrested our client.  

He was then taken to the Fullerton Police Station, where he registered a 0.26% blood alcohol content (BAC) on a breath test.

The client was then held for several hours to sober up and then released to his surprised mom, who picked him up from the Fullerton Police Station after our client signed a promise to appear in the Lamoreaux Justice Center in Orange in about two months.  The mom was also issued a notice to appear under the Welfare & Institutions Code as the client’s parent or guardian.

The client himself (not his mom) then called Greg Hill & Associates and spoke with Greg about this arrest and how the case would proceed.  Greg explained how an under-21 DUI is handled and how it is handled in juvenile court.  Greg also discussed the DMV hearing and if his license were suspended, how he could request a critical needs restricted license from the DMV.  Greg explained how, in the past, he had filed a Motion for a Finding of Critical Need in the juvenile court and how the DMV had then acknowledged such a finding from a judge and issued the critical needs license.  This would be helpful to allowing our client to drive to and from college after he graduated from high school in a few months.

The client then retained Greg Hill & Associates after his mom also called Greg and asked many of the same questions.  The client’s father was not part of the client’s life and therefore was not involved in this case whatsoever.

Greg then appeared with the client in the Lamoreaux Justice Center with the client and his mom.  The case resolved at the second hearing, as there was really not much of any defense to the case because the 911 caller had accompanied the client from his first observation of the client to his stop and when police arrived.  In other words, our client’s driving in an unsafe manner due to impairment by alcohol was supported by the caller’s description of the client.

Probation was then transferred to the Pomona Superior Court and for sentencing as well.  It was at this courthouse that Greg filed a Motion for a Finding that the Juvenile’s Ability to Drive is a Critical Need.  The motion included exhibits printed out from Google maps showing the walking route to college and the cycling route to college from the client’s home and how walking or biking to college would be not only difficult, but time consuming for each trip.

The motion also included printouts from Uber and Lyft showing the estimated one-way fee for transportation to and from college and how the expense of such travel would be over $50 per day of school, which over nine months of school would be financially prohibitive of the client attending college.  The motion also included the time and cost of public transportation to and from college from the client’s home.

Our client supported such a motion by showing he attended 40 AA meetings and completed the Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) victim impact panel before sentencing.

The client was sentenced to home on probation (HOP) with an obligation to enroll in and complete the three-month alcohol awareness program (AB 541) and perform 50 hours of community service.  The judge also granted the motion for a finding of critical need, which our client hoped would help him obtain a critical needs license from the DMV.