Illinois DUI Lawyer Blawg

To much fanfare, in 2009 Illinois instituted a DUI prevention program. Its publicly stated purpose was to prevent drunk driving.

Under the Monitoring Device Driving Permit (MDDP), if you are an Illinois driver arrested for DUI, your license will be suspended for 6 to 12 months if you have not been arrested for DUI in the previous 5 years. During all but the first 30 days of the suspension, you are entitled to an MDDP.

The MDDP allows you to drive for any purpose. However, at your expense, you must have a device installed in your vehicle’s ignition and blow into a tube in order to start your vehicle.

The Illinois Secretary of State receives a fee for administering the program, as do the providers of the devices. Therefore, the providers and the Secretary of State had a financial interest in seeing that this program was put in place and continue to profit from keeping it going and maximizing its usage. Under current law, installation of the device is optional.

The assertion by advocates of the MDDP program that it has been successful, as evidenced by both its level of usage (6,500 devices installed in 2009) and reductions in fatal accidents, is questionable. They credit the program with reducing the number of fatalities, ignoring the impact of the recession and the corresponding reduction in miles driven. (These are the same folks who have brought us highly questionable claims of how often a person drives under the influence without being caught).

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The consequences in Wisconsin for DUI are quite less severe than those for a DUI arrest in Illinois. What do those penalties and other consequences include?

In Illinois, DUI is a Class-A misdemeanor for a first or second offense. The punishment is up to 364 days in county jail and/or a fine of up to $2,500.

The consequences of a first offense can be lessened if you are sentenced to court supervision. Court supervision is available only once in your lifetime and only if you have not previously been convicted of DUI.

In order to receive supervision, you must plead guilty to DUI but the judge does not enter a conviction on your record provided that you complete all of the supervision requirements, which includes staying out of legal trouble during the 1-2 years your supervision is in effect, paying all fines and other fees, completing the alcohol counseling, attending a victim impact panel or other requirements that your judge might choose to impose.

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In Illinois, the county coroner’s office works with various police agencies within the coroner’s county. This recent article in the Chicago Sun-Times online concerns the deputy coroner of Will County Illinois (suburban Chicago) who was arrested on suspicion of DUI. If the police report is accurate, she seemed to imply that her position of authority justified special treatment (“Don’t you know who I am?”)

Here are some tips to keep in mind if the police stop you and you are concerned about being charged with DUI.

First, statements that imply guilt (“give me a break”, “I can’t get another DUI”, “I am only 2 blocks from home, can’t you cut me some slack”) put you in a position of having to provide the judge and jury with an innocent explanation for your statements, and there is an old saying in the law, if you are explaining, you are losing. And these pleas for mercy never work.

Likewise, being belligerent (“I will have your badge”, “I will sue you”, “I am getting railroaded”, “you guys are all on the take”) does not help. Moreover, if the arrest is taped, and most of them are, your actions will leave the judge and jury who view the video with a negative impression of you.

Furthermore, most law enforcement officers encounter so many people on the job that by the time your case gets to trial, the typical officer in the typical arrest will not remember anything about your case other than what is in his notes. But if you have gone out of your way to be rude, that officer is likely to remember you better than the other people who are polite and cooperative. (the nail that sticks out is most likely to get hammered).

In addition, police are human. If you have treated the officer fairly, he is less likely to register a protest if the state officers you a good “deal”. While the prosecuting attorney has final say in those matters, many of them take the arresting officer’s input into account.

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You can be charged in Illinois with Driving Under the Influence (DUI) even though the police may not actually observe you driving. This Chicago Sun-Times article describes a man who was charged with DUI despite the fact that at the time of the arrest, his car was pulled over and notwithstanding the fact he was rear-ended.

Blake, perhaps concerned that he was too impaired to be driving, parked his car on the shoulder. Although he failed to pull completely over, the fact remains that his vehicle was struck from behind and he was not driving at the time. However, Illinois DUI law provides that you are considered to be driving under the influence if you are in “actual physical control” of your vehicle while under the influence of alcohol.

Many DUI arrests begin when authorities find a driver asleep behind the wheel, or asleep in the back seat of the car, or even outside of the car. As long as the state can prove to a jury that the driver either had been driving or was capable of driving before he sobered up, that is enough.

Since 1984, federal law has required all 50 states to implement a drinking age of 21. Failure to do so results in a loss of federal highway funds. A recent newspaper article discusses proposed actions in the state of Virginia regarding alcohol possession by those under the age of 21. These laws, like those of many other states, go far beyond what the 1984 law requires.

Because laws in this regard vary from state to state, you should consult an Illinois DUI lawyer if you or anyone you know who is under the age of 21 receives any type of drinking ticket. In addition, even if you do not receive a ticket but have a driver’s license or ID confiscated from you, your driving privileges are in jeopardy.

This state has a Zero Tolerance Law Under that law, if you are under the age of 21 and are stopped for a traffic violation and the officer has reason to believe you have been drinking, the officer may demand that you take a breath or blood test.

If that test shows an alcohol level above zero, your driver’s license will be suspended for 3 months if this is your first zero tolerance offense. If you refuse to take the test and this is your first zero tolerance offense, the Secretary of State will suspend your license for 12 months. If you are a repeat zero tolerance offender, your license will be suspended for 6 months if you fail the test and 2 years if you refuse to take the test.

Illegal transportation of alcohol (open container in the vehicle) is a violation of the law regardless of the driver’s age. However, if you are under 21 and are convicted of illegal transportation, your license will be suspended for 12 months for a first conviction, and it will be revoked upon a second conviction.

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A much-anticipated Illinois Supreme Court opinion held that the HGN, one of three standardized field sobriety tests in Illinois DUI cases, was a valid indicator of alcohol impaired driving. What this means in practical terms that the state will not have to provide expert testimony that the HGN is some evidence of alcohol impairment every time it wishes to use the HGN in an Illinois DUI prosecution.

While this decision is helpful to the state, the Supreme Court placed limits on its use. First of all, the state cannot present the test as proof of intoxication. It will be treated like the other standardized field sobriety tests, or like an open beer can in your car, or an odor of alcohol on your breath, or your admission that you had been drinking. None of these things, standing alone, proves that you are drunk. They just tend to make it more likely that you had consumed alcohol.

The Court also held that any police officer who administers the HGN must be trained according to the student manual of the National Traffic Safety Highway Administration (NHTSA).

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The San Diego Union Tribune newspaper recently reported on a California DUI arrest with a Cook County, Illinois connection. A man in San Diego, California faces prison time of 15 years to life for a DUI arrest that led to the death of another person.

The article notes that California law, like that of many other states, including Illinois, provides for enhanced penalties when you have had previous DUI or reckless homicide convictions. It turns out that this driver had a reckless homicide conviction in Cook County, Illinois in 1952 and an Alaska DUI conviction in 1988. The California authorities are aware of these convictions, despite their age and distance from California.

There was a time that a driver could run from state to state in order to avoid the consequences of DUI convictions. A couple of things have since converged to make that more difficult. For one thing, technology had made it much easier and cost effective for agencies in the 50 states to communicate with one another.

However, while the technology constitutes a staring point, the National Driver Registry (NDR), also known as the Problem Driver Pointer System (PDPS), makes it possible for the 50 states to share information among themselves. The NDR is defined as “a central repository of information on individuals whose privilege to drive has been revoked, suspended, canceled or denied or who have been convicted of serious traffic-related offenses”.

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