Tampa DUI Lawyer Blog

A 39-year-old mother was arrested and charged with DUI and DUI with property damage after crashing into another vehicle as she was pulling into a parking space. She then left the vehicle unattended, and on foot. 

Police that responded to the scene, reported that she was under the influence of a controlled substance.  She consented to a series of voluntary field sobriety exercises, where she reportedly failed.  She was then arrested and charged with DUI, DUI with property damage, leaving the scene of an accident with unattended property, and child neglect.

Setting aside the more serious charges, according to Florida Law, leaving the scene of an accident resulting only in damage to a vehicle or other property which is driven or attended by a person, shall immediately stop such vehicle at the scene of such accident, or as close there to as possible, and shall forthwith return to, and in every event shall remain at the scene. Any person failing to stop, or comply with Florida Law, shall, upon conviction, be punished by a fine of not more than $500, or by imprisonment for not more than 60 days, or by both such fine and imprisonment.

If you have been accused of driving under the influence of drugs, alcohol or other criminal offense, you should call the Law Offices of Musca Law as soon as possible.  Because Musca Law is relentless in the defense of their clients, they have effectively achieved reduced sentences, reduced charges, preservation of driver's licenses, and dismissed charges for their clients.

A taxi driver picked up an intoxicated patron at a Hernando County bar and dropped him off a local gas station. The man then started screaming obscenities towards the driver. After words had been exchanged, the intoxicated individual left on his bicycle and rode into the middle of State Road 50. Fearing for the man's safety, the taxi driver contacted the authorities to report the drunken driver.

Officers approached the rider, 45-year old Jeremy Bowen, and he immediately jumped off of the bicycle. The authorities noticed the defendant smelled of alcohol, slurred his speech and had difficulty maintaining his balance. At first Bowen denied riding the bike and then he eventually admitted to drinking 5 beers at a bar before accepting a ride from a taxi.

Continue reading "Hernando County Man Accused of DUI on Bicycle" »

Continue reading "Daycare Owner Fails to Appear on DUI Charges" »

Continue reading "Two Spring Hill Bicyclists Charged with DUI" »

Continue reading "Manatee County uses Controversial Intoxilyzer 8000 in DUI Checkpoints" »

Continue reading "Tampa Surgeon Arrested for DUI" »

Continue reading "Tampa Publisher becomes News with his own DUI Arrest" »

In the last article, we discussed the cases of two Florida men, Ryan Simmons and Joushua McKinnon, who were arrested for driving under the influence last year and refused to submit to breath tests to determine their blood alcohol content. Police officers then were issued a warrant by a judge allowing to draw the men's blood. Both men have sought to suppress the results of the blood tests at their criminal trials with opposite results. The judge in Mr. Simmons' case ruled that the blood draw violated Florida law and suppressed the results. The judge in Mr. McKinnon's case, however, ruled that the forced blood draw was permissible and denied his motion to suppress. In part one of this article we discussed the relevant case law in Florida concerning when a driver has to submit to a breath, blood or urine test and when forcible blood draws are authorized under Florida law. In this article we will examine some of the claims that each of the defendants has made about constitutionality of a forcible blood draw in a misdemeanor DUI case.

Some DUI attorneys would argue that the results of the blood test should have been suppressed because police can only receive warrants to obtain evidence in felonies under Florida, not misdemeanors such as DUI. State attorneys have countered that warrants can be issued for misdemeanor cases to obtain property used to commit a crime. Mitchell has rejected this argument, stating that while a vehicle may be considered property used to commit the crime of DUI, a driver's blood is not. Mitchell has also noted that Florida's law concerning forcible blood draws only mentions that they can be used in the event of a DUI leading to serious bodily injury of death, not in routine misdemeanor cases. A bill in the Florida legislature that would have allowed for forcible blood draws in more routine cases was defeated in committee. Despite this Assistant State Attorney Rick Mantei has argued that forcible blood draws should be permissible since there is nowhere in the Florida Constitution that explicitly forbids them. "There's nothing that says we can't," said Mantei, noting that other counties such as Broward have already permitted forcible blood draws.

Both Ryan Simmons and Joshua McKinnon were arrested last year for driving under the influence and were asked to submit to a breath test to determine their blood alcohol content. After their refusal, police officers received the permission of a county judge to issue warrants to allow them to draw the men's blood. At issue in both appeals is whether the results of the blood test should have been suppressed during their trials. In part one of this article we will examine the relevant Florida law concerning when roadside blood testing is admissible in court.

Under Florida law, it is not a crime for a person to refuse to submit to a breath, blood, or urine test after his first DUI arrest, but his refusal can be used against him in court as evidence of their guilt. Refusal itself is only a crime after a person has already been convicted of a DUI or has already had a prior refusal. People who refuse DUI tests are nonetheless subject to the civil penalty of having their licenses suspended for up to a year after a first refusal and having their licenses suspended for 18 months after a second refusal. A person asked to submit to a test to determine their level of intoxication generally has the right to determine whether the officer performs a breath test, a blood test, or a urine test. Most people who decide to submit to a test will choose a breath test because it is generally less intrusive and less time consuming than the other tests. Additionally, many people are not aware of their right to choose which test they have to perform. In Florida, the forcible withdrawal of a person's blood against his will is only permitted in the cases of a DUI resulting in serious bodily injury or death or where the driver is unconscious and therefore has not withdrawn his implied consent to a blood test. In part two of this article we will discuss the various challenges of these forcible blood tests in court.

A Lakeland man has agreed to a plea deal that will close a long-running DUI Manslaughter case. Kenneth Delmar Stewart, now 38, was charged with five counts of DUI Manslaughter following an April 2006 car accident, says Tampa DUI attorney John Musca. Stewart was driving his truck at about 3:00 a.m. on April 21, 2006, when he apparently ran a red light, striking another vehicle driven by Emily Manzano, who was 61 years old. Manzano and all four of her passengers were killed as a result of the accident. All of those killed were in town for the wedding of Manzano's daughter, Cathy Manzano, on April 22. The police investigation determined that neither vehicle braked before impact. At the time of the accident, law enforcement officials determined that Stewart's blood alcohol concentration (BAC) was 0.12 percent, legally impaired. Under the terms of the plea deal, Stewart will spend 25 years in prison and 10 years on probation.

DUI Manslaughter (codified at Florida Statute 316.193) is a crime that occurs when a person is driving under the influence of alcohol or another substance and, while operating the motor vehicle, "causes or contributes to causing" the death of another person or, in some cases, a viable fetus, according the Tampa DUI lawyers at Musca Law. To be "under the influence" of alcohol, the driver must have a BAC of at least 0.08 percent or, if lower, actually be impaired. For example, if a man driving 20 miles over the speed limit, with a BAC of 0.12, runs a stop sign and crashes into a vehicle driven by a woman who is eight months pregnant and had the right of way, killing her, the man could potentially be charged with and convicted of two counts of DUI Manslaughter. Each count is punishable by up to 15 years in prison, although that figure increases if the driver failed to stop or render aid.

Another serious Florida DUI Manslaughter case:

Read the original report here.

If a police officer sees a vehicle with odd driving patterns - such as failure to maintain a single lane, swerving, or otherwise driving erratically - he will usually pull over the vehicle. Then, he inquires about the driver's sobriety and may ask the motorist to perform roadside field sobriety tests or even blow into a handheld breath test device. During all of this, he also gauges the driver's overall appearance of intoxication. Common indicators a law enforcement officer could cite that point to a decision regarding intoxication include slurred speech, bloodshot eyes, and even confusion or disorientation.

A few years ago, a serious problem with this model became known to the public when a local Orlando television news station reported on the pre-written reports. These reports covered all of the bases, describing the general conditions of the DUI arrest in a "Mad Libs" sort of fashion. For example, the pre-composed reports had fields such as "I asked the suspect how much he had been drinking tonight and he responded ________" or "I made the traffic stop when the weather was _(cool/warm)_ and it was _(dark/daylight)_ outside." These pre-made DUI arrest reports are problematic because they do not demonstrate the individualized issues with each defendant. They may also encourage officers from abandoning traditional investigative techniques and simply filling in easy answers throughout the DUI template.

When a police officer comes to court to testify against a DUI/DWI defendant, it is often many months following the actual arrest. Because law enforcement officials make such a high volume of arrests in many cases, they likely do not remember the particular details of each arrest from the prior year or six months earlier. Therefore, they refresh their memories with the reports they filed for the case before they take the stand. These reports, which may be heavily relied upon by the police officer when testifying, need to be as complete, accurate, and individualized as possible for fairness to the DUI defendant.

Breath test devices, commonly known as "breathalyzers," can be used to convict a motorist of driving under the influence of alcohol on the streets of the Tampa bay area. The Florida statute provides that driving with a blood alcohol concentration, or BAC, of 0.08 percent or higher is definitively (or "per se") driving under the influence. The language means that anyone who is driving, or otherwise in "actual physical control" of a motor vehicle, who blows a 0.08 percent BAC or higher on a breathalyzer device, can be convicted of DUI/DWI.

Unfortunately, experienced criminal defense attorneys know that DUI is more complicated. In fact, many experts in DUI dispute the accuracy of breath testing devices. These breathalyzers are known for false positives for a variety of reasons, including chemicals released from certain kinds of dental work and mouth alcohol.

The breathalyzer machine, which is imperfect, is designed to measure certain alcohol-related or alcohol-based chemicals. This is why is detected breath alcohol, but also why a person who is on a ketogenic diet (such as Atkins) can cause the breathalyzer to have a false positive. Similarly, a diabetic whose blood sugar has spiked to very high levels can also show a false positive result. Perhaps most problematically of all, however, is the fact that it is widely accepted that there is a margin of error for these devices, which is conservatively estimated at 0.01 percent BAC. This means that someone whose blood alcohol concentration registers at 0.08 percent BAC, whose reading is actually based legitimately on the consumption of alcoholic beverages, probably actually has a BAC between 0.07 and 0.09 percent.

If you have been arrested in the Tampa bay area or anywhere else in Florida for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, including prescription medications, contact the DUI lawyers at Musca Law as soon as possible to discuss your case and your rights under the law.

Two different local residents have been arrested on Tuesday after police located each in their vehicles, apparently under the influence of prescription medication. The first arrest came after a police officer observed a suspicious car parked in front of a closed business at about 4:30 in the morning. The motor on the vehicle was running and the man sitting in the driver's seat was unresponsive to knocking on the window. The man, later identified as Christopher Castorino, 30, was passed out, hunched away from his window. The officer saw a notebook in the car with a white powdery substance on it. He opened the door and was about to wake the victim by touching him on the arm.

The arrest report detailed Castorino's fuzzy condition. When he awoke, he was not particularly lucid, and could not tell the officer how he came to be parked at that location or why he was there. Eventually, he told the officer that he had taken methadone by snorting it before falling asleep. Castorino was arrested and taken into custody on charges of possession of drug paraphernalia and possession of a controlled substance. He has not at this point been charged with driving under the influence, although he probably could be at the discretion of the State Attorney's Office, as he was likely in actual physical control of the motor vehicle while under the influence of the methadone.

On the same evening, police responded to a call regarding an accident on Commercial Way, where they found Kelly Leonard, 43, in a Mini Cooper on the road. Leonard believed she was at a different location than she actually was, and according to witnesses at the scene, had been driving too fast when she hit a curb, causing a tire to burst. Leonard failed roadside sobriety tests administered at the scene. Additionally, police officers found prescription medication in the car, as well as a travel mug filled with wine. Her blood alcohol test revealed that she was at 0.045 percent, which is lower than the level at which the law presumes intoxication. Still, the state can establish intoxication by other means. She has been charged with driving under the influence and possession of a controlled substance.

The original article is available here.

If you have been arrested for a prescription drug DUI, contact the DUI lawyers in Tampa at the Musca Law office.

Tampa police officers can no longer administratively close a case - a step taken when there are no more leads to be pursued - until they have consulted with the State Attorney's Office on the case. The change was announced after criticism related to a February hit-and-run accident that left a homeless women dead. The case was administratively closed by detectives, although it could be prosecuted, even in the years to come, if the department gathered sufficient evidence against a suspect. Although hit-and-run and DUI often go hand-in-hand, there has been no allegation that the hit-and-run driver was under the influence of alcohol.

On February 8, a Nissan Murano hit Melissa Sjostrom, 33, as she crossed Hyde Park Avenue. The investigation into the hit-and-run accident centered on the prominent local Valdez family. The oldest daughter, Jordan Valdez, is believed by police to have been the driver in that accident. Jordan is 16 years old. The Valdez's Nissan Murano was impounded the night of the accident after officers observed significant body damage. Jordan did not advise her parents that she had been involved in an accident until the vehicle had been impounded by law enforcement officers. The paint chips from the scene of the accident match the paint on the Valdez vehicle.

In late April, Jordan Valdez's attorney admitted to police that Jordan had been the driver of the vehicle that evening, as opposed to one of her parents or another person. The admission was for the civil investigation and Jordan was cited for careless driving. The case was thereafter administratively closed. Last week, the careless driving citation was dropped because the police officer did not appear to testify for the case. Her attorney has stated that they believed the matter was over when the police officer issued Jordan the citation and gave her a lecture in front of her father, which reportedly reduced the teenager to tears. At this point in time, no one, including Jordan Valdez, has been charged in relation to the hit-and-run accident, and the teen's driving record is unblemished according to the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.

If you have been arrested for a hit-and-run or DUI, contact the Tampa DUI attorneys at Musca Law to discuss your legal rights.