Florida DUI Traffic Ticket Lawyer Blog

For most of us in Florida the idea of driving around with an open container of alcohol in our cars is nothing more than a Florida DUI arrest waiting to happen. It has been many years since Floridians could drive around town with an open can of beer or a drink in a plastic cup. That isn’t the case in Montana though. Up until 2005 it was still legal to drink and drive in Montana despite the fact that Montana ranked near the top of per capita drunk driving deaths.

A recent DUI crash that took the life of a highway patrolman might finally be the catalyst for Montana to catch up with the rest of the nation when it comes to DUI penalties. According to an article on Fox News’ website, Montana’s anti-government attitude, lack of public transportation, isolated roads and a saloon era mentality toward drinking has added up to a deadly combination as far as drinking and driving is concerned. It is still common to see bars offer to go cups to patrons before they hit the road.

Continue reading "DUI News – Open Container Laws First And Now Stiffer DUI Penalties May Finally Be Coming To Montana" »

A Tampa city worker is under arrest for allegedly hitting a teenager while driving under the influence of alcohol. Both the Tampa Tribune and St. Pete Times are carrying stories about 47-year-old Richard Anthony Stephens, who according to both newspapers is a City of Tampa employee with the public works department.

There are conflicting reports on the age of the victim but all reports seem to concur that the teenager is most likely going to recover from the drunk driving accident. Camena Wiltshire was walking on the side of 17th Street with a friend when she was allegedly hit by Stephens’ car. She was thrown against the windshield and taken to St. Joseph’s hospital. Her injuries were listed as non-life threatening.

Continue reading "Tampa DUI News – Tampa Teenager Hit By Alleged Drunk Driver" »

The woman responsible for causing a fatal crash on Tampa’s Crosstown Expressway pled guilty to DUI manslaughter charges Wednesday and will now await her DUI sentence, which will be handed down October 27. Cheryl Riemann has now admitted to killing Jennifer O’Boyle and seriously injuring then-4-year-old Summer Moll. The young girl has spent most of the last two years since the crash undergoing surgeries and treatment for her injuries.

Continue reading "Tampa DUI News – Driver In Fatal Crash On Crosstown Pleads Guilty To DUI Manslaughter Charges" »

Ronald Judson Smith received a DUI sentence of 30 years for causing the death of a 7-year old girl in a drunk driving accident that took place in 2009. The Port Charlotte man was sentenced Tuesday following a denial for a new trial. Smith was convicted in April of seven charges including driving on a suspended license from a previous DUI.

Smith was accused of being drunk when he ran a red light on Toledo Blade Blvd. and State Road 776. He slammed his truck into a Ford Mustang carrying a father and his two daughters. Sarah-Dian Heineman, her father Rick Heineman and her sister Madison were all hospitalized following the crash. Sarah died ten days later.

Smith was seen throwing beer cans from his truck the night of the fatal accident and investigators also found prescription painkillers near the scene of the accident as well. His blood test results showed traces of marijuana, Xanax and oxycodone at the time of the accident. Smith blamed the brakes on his pick-up truck for being the culprit in his accident but a jury didn’t seem to buy his reasoning considering the guilty verdict.

Smith and his Florida DUI lawyer tried to get the judge to throw out the conviction and grant the man a new trial. They claimed Smith was detained with excessive force and that officers didn’t fully report details about an odor of alcohol on Smith. That request for a new trial was denied on Monday.

On top of the 30 year DUI prison sentence the judge handed down, Smith also received a lifetime license revocation. Smith is 25-years old and his DUI penalties could keep him in jail until he is in his fifties.

A University of North Florida student who was being issued a speeding ticket was told by the officer she could avoid points on her license by paying the officer a roadside fee instead of a traffic ticket. That has landed the Lawtey police officer in hot water and he is now being investigated for asking for a cash payment on the side of a road.

Twenty-year old Bonnie McCowan was pulled over for driving 55 M.P.H. in a 45 M.P.H. zone. She was pulled over on Highway 301 in North Florida between Gainesville and Jacksonville. She says when the officer pulled her over for speeding he gave her three options. He told her she could pay the ticket and get four points on her license. She could contest the Florida traffic ticket in court or she could pay a $191 roadside fee and avoid the traffic ticket and the points that go along with it.

The officer told McCOwan that the only form of payment she could make for the roadside fee was cash. Even though the college student thought it was strange, she called a friend to meet her on the road with the money. McCowan credited her trust of police officers for falling victim to what amounted to a bribe. Luckily the friend she called to bring her the money informed a police dispatcher of what was going on and they responded to the situation by showing up at the scene of the traffic stop.

The officer in question was not named in the report but according to the department he had only been on the job for 10 weeks. They went on to say that the officer is still considered a unpaid auxiliary officer right now. Lawtey officials are looking for other drivers who were offered the same roadside fee offer.

A 19-year-old girl in Okaloosa County was arrested for popping open a Steel Reserve beer in the back of an Okaloosa County Sheriff’s cruiser. The teenager was getting a ride to her Fort Walton Beach home after her friend was arrested for a DUI when she decided she wasn’t done drinking for the night.

According to a report on the website TheSmokingGun.com, Tasha Lee Cantrell was the passenger in the car belonging to the person arrested for drunk driving. While her friend’s car was being impounded, Cantrell asked Sheriff’s Deputy Mitchell Landis for a ride home. He agreed. During the trip to her Fort Walton home he heard the teen open a can and then saw her drinking from it. He investigated and found that the can was Steel Reserve and then headed to the sheriff’s office to charge the girl with underage drinking.

A Tampa woman was arrested and charged with possession of cocaine after her son was pulled over for driving without his headlights on. During what is being described as a routine traffic stop, police discovered that 19-year-old Marcell L. Jones was driving without a license. He was issued a traffic ticket for that offense.

During the stop, police claim to have smelled marijuana and that lead to a search of the 19-year-old’s passenger, who just happened to be his mother. During that search police say they found 17 grams of coke in several small bags. She was charged with possession of drug paraphernalia as well and held in lieu of $12,000 bail.

I think everyone knows it is just a matter of time before all texting and driving is outlawed across the U.S. Florida is examining a law to ban the practice as have many other states who issue traffic citations to distracted drivers. These traffic tickets can be especially costly to those drivers who make their living behind the wheel.

The federal government has proposed a ban on all text messaging by interstate truckers and bus drivers while behind the wheel. Issuing traffic tickets for commercial drivers can be a powerful punishment for men and women whose job is dependent on a clean driving record. The biggest debate on the issue has centered on how the ban would be enforced. In Florida traffic tickets for texting and driving would be a secondary violation.

There is a long list of reasons to fight your Florida traffic tickets rather than just pay them and suffer the consequences that come with the points. One big reason is the higher insurance rates that come along with points on your license. If you live in Orlando you can add another reason to the list to fight your Florida traffic citation, long lines.

Last year budget cuts caused the Orange County Clerk of Courts to cut more than 100 jobs. Now clerk’s offices in Orange, Osceola, Seminole, Lake and Volusia Counties could lose another $5.75 million causing them to once again scale-back. The result will be longer lines according to clerks across the state of Florida.

Miami Heat forward Dorell Wright was suspended two games earlier this month after he was arrested for DUI in Miami. He also was driving with a suspended license. Now there is more bad press for the NBA player as a nude photo of him has surfaced on the Internet and been forwarded around via Twitter.

Wright issued an apology through the team saying the photo came from a private Internet chat where someone apparently captured the image from the screen. The person who circulated the photo apparently put it out for public consumption after Wright’s girlfriend commented about how great she thought the father of her child is. According to the Miami Herald Wright is the third NBA player to have nude photos surface on the Internet.

According to mysuncoast.com, a 19-year-old Lee County driver has been charged with drunk driving following an incident in Bonita Springs in which he allegedly rear-ended a bus at a railroad crossing. Lee County Sheriffs report Corey David Craft not only ran into the back of the bus he continued to accelerate until he wedged his car under the back of the bus.

Deputies arrived on the scene and started to give Craft field sobriety tests before determining the teen was unable to stand and stopping those exercises. He was then given a breath test but according to the report on mysuncoastnews.com the results were negligible. Craft then agreed to a urinalysis after a drug recognition expert was called to start a DUI drug investigation.

There were 10 Pinellas County seat belt violation citations issued Thursday in a one-day seatbelt enforcement detail. On top of the 10 Pinellas traffic tickets that deputies issued there was a criminal citation issued for possession of a controlled substance and a notice to appear for the same violation.

The fine for motorists ticketed for a seat belt violation is $116. The detail focusing on seat belt violations in Pinellas County are being funded by a $20,000 grant from the Florida Department of Transportation. The deputies will continue these details at 23 targeted intersections that have high rates of traffic crashes and fatalities.