The ratings web site “Three Best Rated” has named Harold L. Wallin as one of Chicago’s Three Best DUI defense attorneys. Mr. Wallin is the only attorney to be so named each of the past nine years.
According to their site, the attorneys were “handpicked Top 3 DWI & DUI Lawyers in Chicago, Illinois. All of our DWI and DUI lawyers actually face a rigorous 50-Point Inspection, which includes customer reviews, history, complaints, ratings, satisfaction, trust, cost and general excellence. We have a strict “No Pay to Play” policy.”
According to this Fox news report, a bill passed Congress which would authorize the immediate deportation of any “illegal immigrant” charged with DUI. The story does not say that a conviction is required to trigger deportation, merely charged. This would be a major change in the law.
Currently, an undocumented person can be deported or denied re-admission to the United States if they are convicted of a felony or two or more crimes of moral turpitude. A run of the mill DUI case is neither. In Illinois, deportation would only be an issue if it was the person’s third or more drunk driving offense, or it occurred at a time when he or she did not possess a valid license, or the case involved a serious or fatal accident. Any of those factors would elevate the case to felony status, thus making the person deportable upon conviction.
I have practiced DUI defense for nearly 30 years. Over this time, I have represented police officers, lawyers, doctors, nurses, teachers, corporate executives, you name it. DUI is a very common offense. Odds are, someone you know, probably several people that you know, have been charged with a DUI. Most people who get a DUI learn from the experience, never do it again, and move on with their lives.
There would be no moving on for undocumented people if this proposed change to the immigration law goes into effect. They would lose their jobs, be ripped away from their families and the communities that they live in. Many of them were brought to this country by their parents as children. These people barely know their “home country.”
What’s disturbing to me is that, according to this article, is that deportation would be triggered upon the mere filing of a charge. A conviction would not be necessary. Everything that our legal system has been built upon – due process, the right to confront witnesses, the right to remain silent, the right to a jury trial, would be thrown out the window. A person could be deported based merely on an officer filing a charge, regardless of whether it was justified or not. All it would take is an officer saying, “I pulled over this guy and I think he’s drunk” and no one could say a word. Has everyone forgot that not too long ago, we had a Chicago Police Officer, one of AAIM’s “Top Cops,” who was caught making up field tests that he never conducted, to justify a DUI arrest?
News broke this week that Illinois Representative Justin Slaughter filed a proposed new law (HB4603) that would totally upend traffic and criminal enforcement as it is now known. The law would prohibit police from stopping vehicles based solely on violations of certain enumerated common minor traffic offenses. Further, if police were to make a traffic stop for one of those reasons, any evidence that was obtained (such as drugs, a weapon or proof that the person was intoxicated) would be barred from use at trial or any other legal proceeding. The synopsis of the bill is below:
Just to put item (iii) in perspective, speeding becomes a misdemeanor when a driver is going 26 or more miles per hour over the limit.
This bill is entitled “pretextual stops” and no doubt, in the past, police have used excuses such as a burnt license plate light or failure to use a turn signal within 100 feet of an intersection as a pre-textual basis for a stop, when the real unspoken reason was that the driver was in the wrong neighborhood at the wrong time. These pre-textual stops are perfectly legal according to the courts. Of course, most traffic stops are not pre-textual. They are simply traffic code enforcement.
My concern is that this law goes way beyond trying to disincentivize pre-textual stops. Telling officers to look the other way while people are driving up to 24 miles an hour over the speed limit would promote dangerous driving mannerisms and disrespect for the law.
I am further puzzled by the author’s choice of which traffic laws are to be ignored and which ones are not. On the one hand, several of these offenses are connected because they have something to do with a person not having the money to fix something or keep up to date (broken mirror or bumper, defective wiper, expired registration or sticker). These types of offenses have in the past contributed to a never-ending circle of poverty, as people get citations, get their vehicles impounded, get license suspensions and are forever playing catch-up. However, recently, a lot has been done in Illinois to change this. The Secretary of State no longer suspends driver’s licenses for failure to pay fines. The Cook County State’s Attorney no longer prosecutes driving while suspended tickets when the basis for the suspension is due to a financial issue. Illinois has a new law that prohibits traffic stops based on something hanging from a rear view mirror.
On the other hand, this law still allows traffic stops and seizures based on minor offenses such as stopping at an intersection in the crosswalk, rolling through a stop sign, or looking (not texting, just looking) at your cell phone at a red light.
If the law was limited to barring stops or seizures when the stop was solely based on a financially based offense, I would not have such a strong objection. But this law includes speeding and improper lane usage, which are dangerous driving offenses. It also includes excessive tinting. The tinting law was enacted for officer safety so officers can see into vehicles as they approach during a traffic stop. It also includes failure to have a license plate or registration, or having an improper plate or registration, which could be a tip-off that a vehicle was stolen or carjacked.
As a DUI defense attorney, I must acknowledge that passage of this law would certainly result in far fewer DUI arrests and prosecutions. Most DUI stops occur because a driver is pulled over for a minor traffic infraction, such as improper lane usage. Under this law, an officer would not be justified in making a traffic stop. How many more deadly crashes would occur as a result of this law, if enacted?
May I propose a compromise? The Illinois Seat belt law (625 ILCS 5/12-603.1) currently prohibits officers from searching or inspecting a vehicle when that vehicle was stopped only for a seat belt violation. An earlier version of that law (no longer in effect) prohibited police from making stops solely based on a seat belt violation. Why not take that earlier version of the seat belt law, and apply it to certain limited, minor, financially-based, traffic violations, such as a cracked windshield or expired license plate? And leave the rest as it is?
What do you think?
Update: Capitol Fax is reporting that Representative Slaughter is withdrawing the proposed bill after receiving an “overwhelmingly negative” reaction.
Both WGN and the Chicago Sun-Times are reporting that an off-duty Chicago Police officer has been charged with Aggravated DUI and Aggravated use of a Communications Device related to a crash that occurred in December near the House of Blues.
The off-duty officer allegedly dropped her her phone while driving and trying to use GPS. She attempted to pick her phone up, and swerved onto the sidewalk, striking two women, including 57 year old Maria Schwab, who was pushed down to a lower level patio. A few hours later, the officer took a blood test at a hospital, with a test result of 0.093.
It should be noted that in most cases, a hospital blood tests serum blood test, instead of whole blood. In Illinois, DUI prosecutions are based on a “legal limit” of 0.08 alcohol of whole blood. Typically, to obtain a whole blood equivalent, the serum test result is reduced by 18%, which, if I am doing my math correctly, would translate to a 0.078 equivalent. Were this case to go to trial, I would anticipate that both the prosecution and defense would present expert opinions regarding not only the serum to whole blood equivalent conversion, but also about how the officer’s BAC may have risen or fallen in the time period between the crash and blood draw. There would probably also be questions raised about as the methods of preservation and testing of the sample.
Wilkerson was initially pulled over by police in Morris County, New Jersey back on Dec. 22 at 6:41 AM.
During the stop, cops suspected he was under the influence … saying a strong odor of alcohol was emanating from the former New York Jets pass rusher’s ride.
In the docs, cops say at one point during questioning, Wilkerson told them he was coming from a New York City club … and a short time later, they say he failed field sobriety tests.
According to the report, Wilkerson was also charged with being illegally in possession of a handgun. Also, this is Wilkerson’s third DUI arrest since 2019.
As President Biden was leaving an event at his re-election campaign headquarters in Delaware, a vehicle slammed into a vehicle that was part of his motorcade. According to the reports, the driver was later arrested for driving under the influence. Heavy rain may have contributed to the crash. It appears that no one was hurt but there was significant property damage to both vehicles involved. Read the entire story at ABC Chicago’s site by clicking here.
Illinois has passed a new law that will allow people with autism to provide the Secretary of State with information about their condition that police will be able to access when they check their vehicle’s plate registration. This way, a police officer will have more context and hopefully be more patient with someone that they might normally see as being defiant or uncooperative.
Illinois drivers can now disclose conditions such as autism with the Secretary of State’s Office to enhance communications with law enforcement…With the state’s new registration program, information on a person’s condition will be tied to their vehicle registration and put into the Law Enforcement Agencies Data System.
Click here to complete a certification form for impaired communication with a peace officer.
Former pro wrestler Tammy “Sunny” Sytch has been sentenced to more than 17 years in prison for drunkenly colliding with another car, killing a 75-year-old man, while her blood alcohol level was four times the legal limit, authorities in Florida said.
Sytch, who was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2011, pleaded no contest in August to driving under the influence manslaughter and other charges. She also had an unsealed bottle of vodka in her vehicle and cannabis in her system at the time of her arrest in Volusia County in March 2022, authorities said.
She had faced up to more than 25 years in prison during her sentencing hearing on Monday. During the hearing, Sytch said she felt remorse and regret “deep in my soul” for killing Julian LaFrancis Lasseter of Daytona Beach.
Actress and comedian Tiffany Haddish was arrested for another DUI last week. She was previously arrested in January of 2022 in Atlanta, Georgia, and was scheduled to go to trial for that case next Monday, December 4th.
The new arrest occurred in Beverly Hills, California, after Haddish had performed at The Laugh Factory. According to reports, she was found slumped behind the wheel with the vehicle running.
She has sent conflicting messages about the arrest since, including making jokes about having her prayers answered (to meet a man with a job, preferably one in an uniform) but later making a statement that “this will never happen again” and that she will seek help.
Some things are just inexplicable to me. How someone who has worked so hard to make it on a NFL roster could throw it away by getting high and getting behind the wheel of a car the night before a game is puzzling. How that person could do it for the same team that just recently had a high profile player get 3-10 years in prison for killing another driver in a high speed drunk driving crash only adds to my astonishment.
According to news reports, Las Vegas Raider defensive back Roderic Teamer was traveling 91 mph in a 65 mph zone. Upon approaching the vehicle, the arresting officer smelled an odor of marijuana. Teamer admitted having smoked half a joint earlier. He took several field sobriety tests, which indicated possible impairment. The Raiders cut him the following day.
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