Just a few days ago the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court decided the case of Commonwealth v. Smeaton, SJC-11208 a matter occurring in the vicinity of the Smith College Campus in Northampton, Massachusetts. The Court found that in October of 2010 the defendant was driving on a public way. A Smith…
According to reports in several media outlets New England Patriots starting defensive back Alfonzo Dennard was arrested earlier today. He is being charged with Drunk Driving or OUI as it is known in Massachusetts. The Motor Vehicle stop occurred just prior to 2:00 a.m. The police making the stop observed…
Lon Fuller, a legal philosopher and law professor, was known for, among other things, his careful analyses of legal fictions, which are basically assumptions in the law that something false is true. Fuller once identified the following three legal fictions surrounding the crime of drunk driving: (1) the assumption about…
The New York Police Department is going to start using the word “collision” instead of the word “accident” to describe drunk-driving crashes, a move which the New York Times described as a “symbolic semantic change” that has long been requested by OUI victims. A police commissioner explained that the term…
An Irish council passed a motion in January to permit rural drinkers to drive home on certain isolated backroads and at a restricted speed. The County Kerry Council voted 5-3, with seven members abstaining and 12 absent, to issue permits allowing those who have “two or three” drinks at pubs…
Our Supreme Judicial Court has recognized that the legislature could not have intended to make it a crime to drive after unknowingly being “slipped” drugs or alcohol. Where intoxication is an element of a crime, as it is in operating under the influence (OUI / DUI) cases, the government has…
Today, in the case of Commonwealth v. Gibson, 11-P-1107, the Massachusetts Appeals Court reversed an OUI conviction. The Court in Gibson reported the following facts: In February of 2010, the defendant went to a couple of Super Bowl parties to watch the New Orleans play the Colts. In total Gibson…
“Controversial New Group: Drunk Drivers Against Mothers,” an article by Tom McCaffrey published in the Huffington Post comedy section, is about a fictional group of 6th-year college fraternity brothers establishing DDAM while playing beer pong and watching Cinemax pornography. The group, enraged by their mothers’ concerns with their drunk-driving habits,…
Orange County, California police made 843 drunk-driving arrests between August 17 and September 3, according to the Orange County Register. Police used checkpoints and heavy patrols over the period and expect that this year’s DUI arrest numbers will be higher than last year’s numbers. The police plan to use similar…
A man was arrested in Alaska for operating under the influence Aug. 3, 2012 as he floated down a river on an inflatable raft. In Alaska, as in Massachusetts, the legal limit is 0.08. A wildlife trooper arrested William Modene, 32, after authorities received reports of a “heavily intoxicated” man…