A San Jose man has been convicted of second-degree murder and vehicular manslaughter for killing a 6-year-old boy in the fourth crash in which he was drunk while behind the wheel, prosecutors said Friday.

Gary Westover, 40,  ran a red light at Ruby Avenue and Quimby Road in San Jose shortly after 10:45 p.m. Feb. 3, 2009. His Chevrolet Silverado pickup crashed into a Chrysler minivan, killing Isaac Young, who was sitting in the back and on his way home from church.

After a three-week trial, Westover, a cement mason, was convicted Thursday in Santa Clara County Superior Court of second-degree murder and gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated. He faces 22 years to life in prison when he is sentenced.

Westover was initially tried in 2010. Although that panel convicted him of DUI causing injury, it hung on a murder charge, prompting prosecutors to retry him for murder this year.

“Time and time and time again, this man was given powerful and personal lessons in the dangers of drinking and driving,” said Deputy District Attorney Angela Bernhard, who prosecuted the case. “Time and time and time again, he stubbornly ignored those lessons. This time, Isaac Young had to pay with his life.”

Isaac, his parents and 8-year-old brother were headed home in their minivan from Light of the World Apostolic Cathedral in San Jose, where his mother was a pastor, when Westover plowed into them. The minivan was flipped onto its side, and  Isaac, who was strapped in a booster, seat, died instantly. The three other family members were hurt.

Westover had been involved in three previous DUI crashes.

In 1990, he ran into a parked car, and seven years later he crashed into a car waiting at a red light while driving with his 3-year-old son and another child.

In 1999, after Westover rear-ended a car in Livermore, officers found an open can of beer that had been disguised as a Pepsi.

In the last two cases, Westover completed mandatory DUI educational classes.

Article source: http://blog.sfgate.com/crime/2012/05/18/four-time-dui-driver-convicted-of-boys-death/?tsp=1

By KRISTEN WYATT, Associated Press
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3 hours ago 

DENVER (AP) — A marijuana blood limit for drivers was rejected Tuesday for a third time in Colorado, as lawmakers from both parties argued about how to fairly gauge whether someone is too stoned to get behind the wheel.

The bill would have made Colorado the third state in the nation with a blood-level limit for marijuana, much as the nation has a blood-alcohol limit of .08.

Currently, drugged-driving convictions depend on officer observations.

The Colorado Senate fell a single vote short on the bill setting a drivers’ blood standard for THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana. The measure failed on a 17-17 tie, one vote short of the number needed to advance it.

Earlier Tuesday, the state House signed off again on the bill that would limit drivers to 5 nanograms of THC per milliliter of blood. Sponsors talked about Colorado’s rising arrest rates for people driving under the influence of drugs, as well as data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration showing more drivers in fatal accidents test positive for marijuana.

“It is past time to get this done,” said Republican Rep. Mark Waller, sponsor of the bill.

However, marijuana activists and some lawmakers from both parties argued that the blood standard is an unfair measure of driver impairment. They pointed out that more than 90 percent of Colorado’s drugged-driving criminal cases already end in convictions, so they questioned whether the 5 nanogram limit would change behavior.

“I don’t think it’ll make our roads any safer,” argued Democratic Sen. Pat Steadman of Denver.

Some Republicans opposed the bill, arguing that the measure considered Tuesday should have targeted more than just marijuana use.

Opponents tried to amend the bill to exempt state-certified medical marijuana patients from the limit. The amendment failed.

“Impaired is impaired, whether you have a (medical marijuana) card or don’t have a card,” argued Republican Sen. Steve King.

After the amendment failed, the entire bill collapsed. Its fate appeared to hinge on the absence Tuesday of a lone senator — Republican Sen. Nancy Spence of the Denver suburb of Centennial.

Spence opposed the DUI measure last year, but changed course and gave the marijuana DUI a single-vote margin of victory in the Senate earlier this year. That bill didn’t clear the House, though, as that chamber was embroiled in a last-minute standoff over civil unions for same-sex couples.

The pot bill came back to lawmakers in a special legislative session. However, Spence has been out of town all week and didn’t make it to Denver for the vote. Her absence meant defeat for the bill.

While it’s already illegal to drive while impaired by drugs, states have taken different approaches to the issue. More than a dozen states, including Arizona, Michigan, Illinois, Iowa, and Rhode Island, have a zero-tolerance policy for driving with any presence of an illegal substance, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Minnesota has the same policy but exempts marijuana.

Nevada, which is among the 16 states that allow medical marijuana, and Ohio have a 2 nanogram THC limit for driving. Pennsylvania has a 5 nanogram limit, but that’s a state Health Department guideline, which can be introduced in driving violation cases.

Voters in Washington state will consider a 5 nanogram THC driving limit this fall on a ballot measure about marijuana legalization. A legalization ballot measure pending in Colorado specifically leaves the question to lawmakers.

Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper added drugged driving to a list of measures he asked lawmakers to consider in the special legislative session expected to end Wednesday.

The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy has asked all states to adopt blood-limit, drugged driving laws and set a goal of reducing drugged driving in the United States 10 percent by the year 2015. But the White House doesn’t tell states what nanogram limit to set for illegal drugs.

Law enforcement lobbyists in Colorado have vowed to keep trying to enact a pot DUI standard. Tom Raynes of the Colorado District Attorneys Council argues that even though medical marijuana is legal in Colorado, it’s not dosed like prescription drugs and is easily abused.

“Folks don’t know what they’re taking,” Raynes said. “It’s like a doctor offering a bowl of drugs and saying, ‘Reach in, take what you think you need and go ahead and drive.’ … We’ve got to get a handle on this.”

Follow Kristen Wyatt at http://www.twitter.com/APkristenwyatt

• House Bill S-1005:
  http://goo.gl/uLohi

Copyright © 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Article source: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jli4oy3CRwlMWo7TK-oG8sN83dgw?docId=0399383dd3914694bb8581e356dbc022

Concord Police Department Traffic Unit will be conducting a DUI/Drivers License checkpoint on May 19, 2012 at Monument Boulevard near Erickson Road within the city limits between the hours of 7:30 p.m. and 3:30 a.m. DUI checkpoints are a proven enforcement tool effective in reducing the number of persons killed and injured in alcohol involved crashes. Research shows that crashes involving alcohol drop by an average of 20 percent when well-publicized checkpoints are conducted often enough.

Officers will be contacting drivers passing through the checkpoint for signs of alcohol and/or drug impairment. Officers will check for proper licensing and will strive to delay motorists only momentarily. Drivers caught driving impaired can expect jail, license suspension, and insurance increases, as well as fines, fees, DUI classes, other expenses that can exceed $10,000.

“Over the course of the past three years, DUI collisions have claimed 9 lives and resulted in 116 injury crashes harming 182 of our friends and neighbors,” said Traffic Sergeant John Nunes.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), checkpoints have provided the most effective documented results of any of the DUI enforcement strategies, while also yielding considerable cost savings of $6 for every $1 spent. Checkpoints are placed in locations that have the greatest opportunity for achieving drunk and drugged driving deterrence and provide the greatest safety for officers and the public.

“Deaths from drunk and drug-impaired driving are going down in California,” said Christopher J. Murphy, Director of the California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS). “But that still means that hundreds of our friends, family and co-workers are killed each year, along with tens of thousands seriously injured. We must all continue to work together to bring an end to these tragedies. If you see a Drunk Driver – Call 9-1-1.”

Funding for this checkpoint is provided to the Concord Police Department by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, targeting those who still don’t heed the message to designate a sober driver.

CLAYCORD NOTE: Don’t Drink Drive – Call a cab! If you need a cab, call Concord Express Taxi Cabs at 925-676-2222.

Article source: http://blog.sfgate.com/incontracosta/2012/05/12/duidrivers-license-checkpoint-planned-next-weekend-on-monument-boulevard/

Matthew Fox, reportedly arrested on suspicion of DUI.
(Andreas Rentz – Getty Images)
Matthew Fox — the man who saved the island on “Lost” and found himself in a dispute last year with an Ohio bus driver — has reportedly gotten into some new legal trouble.

TMZ reported earlier today that Fox, 45, was arrested over the weekend on suspicion of driving under the influence. The arrest reportedly occurred at 3:23 a.m. Friday in Bend, Ore., where Fox lives with his wife and two children. Citing Oregon law enforcement sources, the celebrity gossip site said Fox and an unidentified passenger were on a fast-food run when the incident occurred. The actor was taken into custody and released the same day; the report stated that the arrest was allegedly “alcohol-related.”

Update: The Bend Police Department issued a news release late this afternoon that confirmed that Fox was arrested in the wee hours of Friday morning. The report states that the actor’s car was stopped at the intersection of NW 14th St. and NW Jacksonville Ave., at 2:27 a.m. after failing to drive within its lane and use an appropriate signal. During the traffic stop, an officer determined that Fox was “under the influence of intoxicants”; he was subsequently detained at the Deschutes County Adult Jail. The case has been forwarded to the Deschutes County District Attorney’s Office, the news release said.

Fox’s reps have not commented on the story; a legal representative for Fox also has not responded to Celebritology’s request for comment.

A lieutenant with the Bend Police Department said via e-mail that all inquiries regarding the Fox case should be directed to the Deschutes County district attorney’s office. A representative of that office said via phone that a police report would not be shared until after the case was closed.

As noted above, Fox allegedly got into an altercation last year with a Cleveland bus driver, who claimed the actor punched her in the breast, groin, arm and legs after she refused to let him board a private party bus. No criminal charges were ever brought against Fox, but the driver, Heather Bormann, filed a civil suit seeking monetary damages, to which Fox responded with a countersuit seeking a jury trial in the case.

According to the Cuyohoga County Clerk of Court’s Web site, Bormann’s attorney has withdrawn as her counsel, and the trial, which had been scheduled to start July 30, has been canceled. The court has granted Bormann until June 13 to retain a new lawyer in the case.

As for Fox’s career, the actor formerly known as Jack Shephard recently finished shooting two films, “Alex Cross” (the one he was working on last year in Ohio and that co-stars Tyler Perry) and Brad Pitt’s “World War Z.” He also stars opposite Tommy Lee Jones in the film “Emperor,” which is slated to be shopped around for distribution at this month’s Cannes Film Festival.

This post will be updated as new information becomes available.

Article source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/celebritology/post/matthew-fox-reportedly-arrested-for-dui/2012/05/07/gIQAfBNe8T_blog.html?tid=pm_entertainment_pop