Long Beach, Client Driving Through Front Yards, Crash

Our client, age 32, went over to a friend’s house for a small get-together with other folks and their girlfriends.  The party lasted well into the early morning and a lot of alcohol was consumed.

At about 4:15 a.m., however, our client wished the other folks good night and headed out. 

About ten minutes later, a woman was walking her dog nearby and went inside her house.  Moments later, she heard a crash and looked outside her window to see a car had crashed into a tree alongside the sidewalk at an angle, nearly parallel to the road, that suggested the driver had been using the sidewalk as a road.  She went outside to the car to see if the driver was O.K.  She saw our client behind the wheel.

The woman then looked at our client, who put the car in reverse and move the car backwards to try to get away from tree.  She then called 911 and reported the crash.

Long Beach Police arrived at the scene and found our client still behind the wheel of the car.  They asked him to get out of the car and he did by climbing our the passenger door.

Officers asked our client if he had been drinking and he denied drinking, except for a beer about 4:00 p.m. at Panama Joe’s, or twelve hours earlier.  Officers also asked our client if he had driven the car into the tree and he denied this, too.

Officers then asked him to submit to a preliminary alcohol screening (PAS) device test and he refused, so he was arrested.

Our client later agreed to submit to a blood test at the Long Beach Police Station.  His blood was later measured for its blood alcohol content (BAC) and measured at 0.21%.

After the client was held in the Long Beach Police Station and signed a promise to appear in the Long Beach Superior Court in about three months, he was released.  He discussed the case with a few friends, one of which had hired Greg Hill & Associates in the past.  That friend recommended a call to Greg Hill & Associates.

The client called Greg Hill & Associates and discussed the case facts with Greg Hill, but said he was “blacked out” for about three hours, during which he left the party and then found himself in a jail cell at the Long Beach Police Department.  He did not remember driving at all or any of the facts described above, which are from the police report.

The client explained that he had no prior criminal history and was worried about how such an arrest would affect his driver’s license.

Greg explained how a DMV hearing functioned in the context of a DUI case and how the court proceedings would take place.

The client then retained Greg Hill & Associates.  We then reserved a DMV Hearing for the client.

A few weeks later, our office received the documents the DMV intended to rely upon for the DMV hearing.  The documents included just the Age 21 and Older Officer’s Statement, which did not contain sufficient information to show the client was the driver of the car involved in the collision.

At the DMV Hearing that followed, Greg was successful in such an argument in “winning,” also known as reaching a “set aside” ruling so our client kept his driving privileges.

In court, however, the Long Beach City Prosecutor’s Office provided not only the Long Beach Police Department Police Report, but also the 911 call reporting the crash and stating our client was the driver, as well as several witness statements from party goers who said they did not see our client driving.

The initial plea bargain offered from the Long Beach City Prosecutor’s Office was that our client would plea to either a violation of Vehicle Code § 23152(a) (“Driving a Motor Vehicle While Under the Influence of Alcohol”) or § 23152(b) (“Driving a Motor Vehicle With a Blood Alcohol Content of 0.08% or Higher by Weight”) and then be placed on three years of informal, or summary probation on the following terms and conditions: 1) that he serve ten days in Los Angeles County Jail for the collision; 2) that he enroll in and complete the 9-month outpatient alcohol awareness program (AB 1353); 3) that he pay a court fine of $510, plus penalties and assessments; 4) that he enroll in and take the Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) victim impact panel; and 5) that he pay restitution, if any, claimed by the tree owner.

Greg then discussed this offer with the Long Beach City Prosecutor and how our office had won at the DMV Hearing.  Greg also discussed the offer with the client.

Our office then filed a motion to suppress evidence of our client’s BAC based on an illegal arrest since there was one witness who said she saw our client attempting to reverse the car and three other witnesses who told the police that they did not see our client driving.

The judge hearing the motion gave a tentative ruling that she was inclined to deny the motion, so Greg negotiated a slightly better plea bargain for the client: 20 day of community service rather than ten days of county jail, but all other terms of the plea bargain remained the same. 

This summary is meant as somewhat of a cautionary tale to exemplify how a prosecutor may not change the terms of a plea bargain much in response to a motion to suppress and how winning at the DMV does not necessarily mean the court proceeding will similarly resolve well.