DUI Blogger

It was a “freeway chase” that was more like a funeral procession involving police cars rather than a wild pursuit with unpredictable twists and turns. This July 6 pursuit lasted 90 minutes from the San Fernando Valley to Kern County and in the end of it all, police arrested 50-year-old Diane Louise Simpson of Reseda on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol.

According to an Associated Press news report, this was Simpson’s second DUI arrest in about a year. Simpson didn’t give in even after a patrol car, into an hour of pursuing her, bumped her car and spun it around. Her car came to a stop, but she started the engine and continued on, according to news reports. It all began with an illegal U-turn. Officers tried to stop her for what was a minor traffic infraction, but she refused to stop and drove away, the article reported.

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Reality television star Jessica Smith, who appeared on all three seasons of the hit show “Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County” pleaded guilty to one charge of misdemeanor drunk driving. She was sentenced on July 6 to three years of probation, ordered to perform 80 hours of community service and pay $1,300 in fines and penalties, according to an article posted on Fox News’ Web site. Smith did not appear herself in Orange County Superior Court, but her attorney entered the plea, the article said.

The 19-year-old was arrested in March on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol, a felony, after she crashed her 1999 Volkswagen Beetle into the back of an Acura on the San Diego (5) Freeway in Mission Viejo. According to a California Highway Patrol report at the time, Smith could not stop her car in time to avoid hitting the Acura and the causes for the accident included Smith’s level of intoxication, speed and the wet freeway. A March article in The Orange County Register stated the driver of the Acura suffered minor injuries, as did Smith’s passenger in the Beetle. Although Smith was arrested on suspicion of a felony DUI at the time because there were injuries involved, the charge was later reduced to a misdemeanor with the injuries being not serious, officials said. Smith, a student at Saddleback College in Mission Viejo, was only one of two cast members in the “Laguna Beach” reality show to appear in a major role in all three seasons.

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A Los Angeles Police Department officer, who does DUI and traffic enforcement himself, got arrested last week when he was off duty, on suspicion of driving under the influence of drugs, according to a news article posted in the Los Angeles Daily News.

The 27-year-old officer, Brian Lawrence Gossh, called the charges “ridiculous” and says the arresting Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies performed an unlawful arrest, which he intends to challenge in federal court. Gossh was arrested July 1 in an Arleta intersection after he reportedly swerved to avoid hitting another motorist who Gossh says, suddenly applied his brakes. A passing deputy who saw this near accident stopped Gossh’s car. No one was reportedly injured.

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This is an unusual one. Police in Orange Beach, Ala., were shocked to find that the Chevrolet Monte Carlo they were involved with in a high-speed chase was actually being driven by a 11-year-old girl, according to an Associated Press news report posted on the Seattle Times’ Web site. More unusual, the girl was obviously intoxicated, officials said. Just how drunk? Well, police say her blood alcohol level was high enough to get an adult a DUI charge.

The girl, whose name was not released because of her age was not seriously injured, but was treated at a hospital for scrapes and bruises and released to relatives, according to the article. The 8-mile pursuit reached speeds of 100 miles and ended when the girl’s vehicle flipped. Police realized who was in the vehicle only after they looked inside with guns drawn. Police said they expected to see a hardened criminal, not a young girl. The girl was charged with driving under the influence of alcohol, speeding, reckless endangerment and leaving the scene of an accident. Officials said the girl sideswiped a vehicle during the chase.

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A drunk driving arrest can affect a person’s life in ways they possibly cannot imagine – whether that person works a job at a school or a bank or whether he or she is a highly-paid athlete. NFL star Tank Johnson, formerly of the Chicago Bears, found that out for himself last month when his team kicked him out after a June 22 arrest on suspicion of speeding and driving under the influence of alcohol.

But, ironically, in a recent development police decided not to file charges in Johnson’s case because a blood test done after the arrest showed that the football player was in fact not legally drunk, according to an Associated Press news report posted in the Chicago Sun Times. His blood alcohol level was .072 and that is obviously under Arizona’s legal limit of .08, the state where he had been arrested.

Johnson was pulled over in the early morning hours of June 22 when police allegedly caught him driving 40 mph in an area where the speed limit was 25 mph. Although his blood alcohol level was below the legal limit of .08, authorities could have still charged him with a lesser misdemeanor drunk driving charge under an Arizona law that provides for such prosecutions based on overall symptoms of intoxication.

Continue reading "Johnson Not Charged With DUI, But Still Remains Fired From Team" »

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