Florida DUI Traffic Ticket Lawyer Blog

A Bradenton, Florida mother was ticketed for violating Florida’s seat belt law after her son unbuckled as she was pulling up to his elementary school. Denise Muro was given a Florida traffic ticket in the amount of $116 because when she pulled up to Stewart Elementary a Manatee Sheriff saw her son was not buckled up.

According to the Bradenton Herald, sheriff’s deputies in Manatee were surrounding the school area but not on the property. Muro says when she was stopped her front two tires were on the elementary school’s property and the back two were still in the street. The Manatee mother has decided to fight the traffic ticket and hopefully she will get a qualified Florida traffic attorney to help her.

A standardized red light camera bill cleared its first hurdle in the Florida House as it moved through a House Health Care Regulation Policy Committee. The bill is sponsored by Bradenton representative Ron Reagan and it sets up standard fees for red light runners caught by the controversial cameras. The fine would be $155. The traffic fine would be split up with $75 going to the local government, $55 to the state and $25 into a Department of Health trust fund.

The state-wide red light camera system still would be a code violation rather than a traffic ticket with points assessed to your Florida driver’s license since there would still be no witness to the violation outside of the camera. The question then comes on how enforcement of the payment will be handled. Florida traffic attorneys are waiting to watch how this plays out since at the moment these code violations cannot be challenged in a court room.

Three people, two of whom were police officers, were hospitalized after a low-speed chase through the streets of Clearwater. Jonathan James Thomas-Clark was arrested on charges of DUI, aggravated fleeing and eluding, resisting arrest without violence, felony driving with license suspended, aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer and tampering with evidence once he was eventually stopped. Another man in the car was also charged.

The chase began when Thomas-Clark’s Cobalt was traveling slowly with an unassigned tag. Officers felt the driving pattern indicated the driver was under the influence. Police attempted to stop the car by pulling in front of it but the Cobalt rammed into the cruiser and kept going. The officers were not seriously injured during the chase.

A Dade City traffic stop led to the 26th arrest for Jennifer Miller for driving with a suspended license. According to a story on TBO.com Dade City police Chief Ray Velboom says Miller had 25 previous incidences of her driver’s license being suspended in about 75% of the counties in the state of Florida. This last stop resulted in Miller attempting to run down the officer after giving him a license that did not belong to her. She was also charged with aggravated battery on a law enforcement officer.

Miller has insisted she was not driving the day of her arrest. She is quoted on TBO.com as saying she was in Land O’Lakes at the time selling a truck. The incident began when police were called about cars speeding near a home known for drug use. Miller was not arrested until more than a week after the incident when she was found outside the Pasco County Courthouse.

Sunday Ronald Jodwalis was arrested for DUI after police observed him eating the wrapper of a sandwich and stumbling around with a reported blood-alcohol level of 0.31, nearly four times what is considered legal in Florida. On Tuesday he was back teaching at Venice Middle School. The fourth drunk driving arrest for the 52-year-old has not kept him from working but failing to report a previous DUI arrest may cost him his job.

According to the Sarasota Herald Tribune the Department of Education is looking into whether or not Jodwalis reported a 2009 DUI conviction. Failure to report an arrest is more damaging to a school employee’s job status than the arrest itself many times. Just recently a teacher’s aide was fired for not reporting her arrest on charges of drug possession and DUI.

A 20-year-old Port St. Lucie woman has been charged with careless driving after she crashed into a Florida Highway Patrol car parked in the median of I-95. Samone Meriweather apparently did not notice traffic slowed ahead of her and she swerved into the median to avoid a rear-end collision. She avoided one accident but got into another as she crashed into the FHP cruiser.

Meriweather had two children in the car with her at the time of the accident. According to the Sarasota Herald Tribune none of the four people involved in the car accident were hurt seriously. The car accident did back-up traffic on I-95 outside of Jupiter for several miles in each direction.

St. Petersburg is considering extending closing times at its bars from 2:00 a.m. to 3:00 a.m. to help the city compete with Tampa’s thriving nightlife. One concern voiced at yesterday’s City Council meeting was the threat of more incidents of drunk driving if Pinellas bars stay open later. The sheriff’s department has already eliminated the DUI unit due to budget cuts.

Police chief Chuck Harmon was concerned about drunk drivers and expressed that at a committee meeting according to My Fox Tampa Bay. Harmon felt that if St Pete acted alone it would create problems that wouldn’t occur if all the bars in Pinellas and surrounding hours extended their closing times. Under the current proposal the number of people leaving a bar that closes at 2:00 to get to one that closes at 3:00 can dramatically increase the number of drunk drivers on St Petersburg roads.

Just before the trial of Matthew Scott Hall was set to get underway Wednesday in a community outside of Orlando, Florida, the 25-year-old pled guilty to DUI manslaughter for a drunk driving accident that took the life of his best friend. Unlike most DUI trials that involve a death, this plea agreement was met with open arms by the victim’s family who hugged the defendant following the announcement of the plea.

Hall had a blood-alcohol level of 0.15 following a night out at an Orlando bar near the UCF campus. He was driving with his best friend Christopher Avery of Altamonte Springs who was 19-years-old. Hall was said to have been speeding at 85 MPH in a 30 MPH zone when he crashed his Dodge Charger killing his best friend. Hall has remained close with Avery’s family since the fatal accident.

Continue reading "Man Pleads To DUI Manslaughter And Gets Seven Years In Jail, Hugs From Victim’s Family" »

The red-light camera debate just won’t seem to go away in Hillsborough, Tampa and Bradenton. Thanks to a ruling in Aventura that called the red-light cameras illegal, the debate is raging once again on whether these devices are legal, constitutional, money makers, safety devices or a combination of all of the above. Now comes this story from Dayton, Ohio where the city has installed cameras to catch people who run red lights and is getting ready to use those same cameras to issue speeding tickets as well.

According to the Dayton Daily News nearly 50% of the city’s red light camera tickets are unpaid. Not only that but the city, according to Dayton’s finance director, has no incentive to make the people pay the citations. The police are considering booting or towing vehicles that have not paid the tickets but is that the best way to allocate the time of a law enforcement department ready facing tight budgets? If police are spending their days booting cars that were caught on tape rolling through a red light, the cameras will cost cities more than they are generating.

Continue reading "Should You Pay Traffic Tickets Issued By Red Light Or Speeding Ticket Cameras? " »

Parrish resident April Canfield was fired from her job as a teacher’s aide at Lincoln Middle School in Manatee County Monday night. School board members approved her dismissal for not reporting a drunk driving arrest that also included a charge of prescription drug fraud. The 30-year-old’s case is ongoing in Sarasota County.

According to the HeraldTribune.com Canfield was arrested driving on I-75 in Sarasota County for DUI. During the traffic stop police discovered she was in possession of a prescription drug that did not belong to her. School employees are required to report arrests. Had she reported the arrest and went on to be convicted, she would have served just a five-day suspension.

Continue reading "DUI And Prescription Fraud End The Career Of Manatee County Teacher’s Aide" »

The North Port deputy fire chief who was arrested for driving drunk on I-75 Friday has resigned his position with the fire department. David Quaderer was arrested for DUI early Friday morning in a department issued vehicle. According to the Sarasota Herald Tribune Quaderer refused a breath test and also refused to perform field sobriety tests.

The newspaper is reporting that Quaderer resigned in a two-sentence letter that referred to recent events. The resignation letter was turned in to Chief William Taaffe. The former deputy fire chief had worked for the department since 2006. According to arrest reports he repeatedly asked police officers for professional courtesy at the time of his DUI stop.

Continue reading "DUI Arrest Causes North Port Deputy Fire Chief To Resign" »

The Orlando Sentinel is reporting a Seminole County sheriff’s deputy crashed his police cruiser into a wall while chasing a man wanted for driving with a suspended license and violation of probation. Randy Grinstead is now also facing charges of resisting arrest without violence and fleeing and eluding a law enforcement officer.

Grinstead had a warrant for his arrest issued for violating his probation on a child abuse and neglect charge. The 34-year-old is being held at the John Polk Correctional Facility in Seminole County and he is being held without bond. The deputy who was forced off the road and into a brick wall, was uninjured.

Continue reading "Driver With A Suspended License Causes Seminole County Sheriff’s Deputy Into Car Crash" »