Recently in DUI Category
BUENA PARK -- Two men died and a third man was injured and arrested on suspicion of drunken driving early Friday following a solo-car crash on the La Mirada border, authorities said.
Ryan Hernandez, 22, of Anaheim was hospitalized in unknown condition and arrested on suspicion of felony drunken driving following the 2 a.m. crash near La La Mirada Blvd. and Alondra Avenue, Buena Park police Lt. Gary Worrall said.
Hernandez was driving a 4-door Honda sedan when it crashed into a pole along the roadside, investigators said.
Two of his passengers, described initially only as men in their early 20s, died at the scene, Worrall said. Another young man riding in the car was unhurt.
After crashing in Buena Park, the car ultimately came to a rest across the city border in La Mirada.
AZUSA -- An alleged drunken driver was arrested Thursday after his speeding car crashed into another vehicle, injuring him, his passenger and a 9-year-old child.
Azusa police Sgt. Xavier Torres said Rodney Gamez, 25, of Azusa was booked on suspicion of driving under the influence causing injury.
The crash occurred at 3:53 p.m. in the 1900 block of San Gabriel Canyon Road.
Torres said Gamez was driving a Honda Civic heading south at a high rate of speed when he lost control of the car. The Civic jumped the center divider, ended up on the opposing lane and crashed into a 2008 Lexus.
Gamez sustained a minor head injury while his front passenger, a 24-year-old Covina man, suffered serious injuries including a broken ankle, according to Torres.
The passenger was taken to Los Angeles County USC Medical Center.
Torres said a 9-year-old child riding in the Lexus complained of pain and was taken to a local hospital. He didn't know if the child was a boy or a girl.
The sergeant said Gamez displayed symptoms of being intoxicated and failed a field sobriety test.
Gamez was being held at Azusa jail in lieu of $20,000 bail and has a Feb. 14 arraignment in West Covina Superior Court.
- Ruby Gonzales
PASADENA -- A Pasadena man is accused of drunken driving after backing out of a gas station and crashing through the front window of a department store late Saturday, authorities said.
William Garrett, 50, of Pasadena was booked on suspicion of driving under the influence, Pasadena police Lt. Diego Torres said.
He was backing out of a Mobile gas station at Lake Avenue and San Pasqual Street about 8:30 p.m. when he struck and shattered the window of a Ross department store across the street, the lieutenant said.
"He backed all the way across (San Pasqual Street) street into Ross," Torres said.
Officers who responded to the crash determined Garrett was drunk and arrested him on suspicion of DUI, police said.
According to county booking records, Garrett was released from jail Sunday morning on $30,000 bail pending his initial court appearance.
WHITTIER -- Police are planning to hold a sobriety and driver's license checkpoint Friday.
The checkpoint will take place from 7 p.m. Friday to 3 a.m. Saturday in the area of Whittier Boulevard and Philadelphia Street, Whittier police officials said in a written statement.
"Research shows that crashes involving alcohol drop by an average of 20 percent when well-publicized checkpoints are conducted often enough," according to the police statement.
When possible, officers will, "strive to delay motorist only momentarily," the statement added.
Funding for the checkpoint is being provided by the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
ALBANY, N.Y. -- The federal government should help police departments nationwide obtain the tools and training needed to attack a rising scourge of driving under the influence, two U.S. senators said Sunday.
Sens. Charles Schumer of New York and Mark Pryor of Arkansas proposed that federal funding in a pending transportation funding bill be used for research and to train police. They said police have no equipment and few have training in identifying drugged drivers, who don't show the same outward signs of intoxication as drunken drivers do, such as slurred speech.
"Cops need a Breathalyzer-like technology that works to identify drug-impaired drivers on-the-spot -- before they cause irreparable harm," Schumer said. "With the explosive growth of prescription drug abuse it's vital that local law enforcement have the tools and training they need to identify those driving under the influence of narcotics to get them off the road."
Schumer says drugged driving arrests rose 35 percent in New York since 2001, but he says that's a fraction of the cases.
The Democrats cited a 2009 federal report in which 10.5 million Americans acknowledged that they had driven under the influence of drugs. Schumer said the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported that in a 2007 roadside survey, more than 16 percent of weekend and night-time drivers tested positive for illegal prescription drugs or over-the-counter drugs.
Eleven percent of them were found to have taken illegal drugs.
The administration also found that a third of 12,055 drivers tested who died in car crashes in 2009 had used drugs.
Yet police have no approved equipment to help identify drugged drivers, though saliva tests are being researched.
Pryor wants to create federal grants so police can participate in programs that require up to 200 hours of instruction to detect drugged driving as well as to better detect drunken driving.
Schumer said the effort is prompted in part by two fatal December crashes in the New York City area in which two boys -- one 5 years old and the other, 4 -- died. Prescription drug abuse is being investigated in both cases.
-- From the Associated Press
BALDWIN PARK -- An unlicensed and drunken driver who struck and killed a 25-year-old Baldwin Park woman as she was walking to church last year was sentenced to more than 19 years in prison Tuesday, officials said.
Rafael Espinoza Moreno, 27, was sentenced to 19 years and 8 months in prison after pleading no contest to charges stemming from the Aug. 14, 2011 crash that killed Esmeralda Ramirez of Baldwin Park, according to Baldwin Park police and District Attorney's officials.
Ramirez was walking to church with her boyfriend about 2:30 p.m. when Moreno, who was later found to have a blood-alcohol level nearly twice the legal limit, lost control of the 2005 Jeep Laredo he was driving, travelling onto the sidewalk along Baldwin Park Boulevard near Stewart Street and fatally striking Ramirez, Baldwin Park police Lt. David Reynoso said.
"Alcohol and excessive speed were factors in this collision," Reynoso said. "Moreno had never been issued a California Driver's License but had previously received a citation for driving with no license and speeding. Moreno had also been previously deported and was in the country illegally at the time of the crime."
Moreno fled the crash scene and was found hiding about two blocks away and arrested, police said.
"It appears Moreno was in the process of telephoning his family members to pick him up so he can elude arrest," Reynoso said.
The crash occurred on Moreno's birthday.
In Pomona Superior Court, Moreno pleaded no contest to gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, leaving the scene of an accident, drunken driving causing injury or death and driving with a blood-alcohol level above .08 causing injury or death, District Attorney's spokeswoman Shiara Davila-Morales said.
After striking Ramirez, the Jeep Moreno was driving also struck a bus bench and a building, causing significant structural damage, officials said.
Ramirez was pronounced dead at the scene.
PHOTO of Rafael Espinoza Moreno courtesy of the Baldwin Park Police Department.
ARCADIA -- Police are planning to hold several sobriety checkpoint Saturday, officials said.
The checkpoints will take place "at multiple locations within the city, during the evening hours," Arcadia police Lt. Tom LeVeque said in a written statement.
"We would like to remind everyone of the dangers associated with drinking and driving and encourage the use of designated drivers," he said.
Anyone who spots an impaired driver on the road is encouraged to report it by calling 9-1-1.
ARCADIA -- Police arrested a man on suspicion of driving with a blood-alcohol level at twice the legal limit after he crashed and sheared of a fire hydrant at the Westfield Santa Anita shopping mall early Friday, authorities said.
Michael Frye, 25, of Ontario was booked on suspicion of drunken driving in connection with the 1 a.m. crash in a parking lot at the south end of the mall, Arcadia police Lt. Roy Nakamura said.
Officers responded to reports of a car shearing off a hydrant and found the driver, later identified as Frye, appeared to be drunk, the lieutenant said.
A breath analysis indicated Frye's blood-alcohol level was at .16 -- twice the legal limit of .08, police said.
BASSETT -- Good Samaritans captured and detained an intoxicated driver who tried to flee the scene of a crash on the 605 Freeway, authorities said.
Keith Wardell Jones, 44, of Los Angeles was booked on suspicion of felony driving under the influence, California Highway Patrol Officer Doris Peniche said. Additional charges may be added later.
The 5 a.m. crash snarled the morning commute on southbound 605 Freeway, just north of the 60 Freeway, as it prompted a Sig-Alert for the carpool and fast lane of the freeway for more than an hour, according to California Highway Patrol logs.
The suspect was driving a Chrysler Sebring at more than 100 mph when he became involved in a crash with a Honda Pilot, Peniche said.
"Right after the crash, he was trying to leave the scene," Officer Luis Mendoza said.
"People saw him kind of staggering, walking away from he scene," Mendoza said. "They tried to hold him in place. He became a little aggressive."
"One of the people actually handcuffed the guy with flexcuffs," Mendoza said. "They put the flexcuffs on him and they made him sit down."
Officials were also investigating witness statement that Jones had attempted to carjack another driver after the crash, Peniche said.
When CHP officers arrived, the suspect was not cooperative and refused to submit sobriety tests, she said. Officers determined he appeared to be under the influence of both alcohol and drugs.
The driver of the Honda Pilot that collided with Jones' Chrysler suffered minor-to-moderate injuries, while the passenger in the Honda suffered more serious wounds, including injuries to the head and spine, Peniche said.
LOS ANGELES COUNTY -- Arrests for suspected drunken driving were up slightly over the previous year this holiday season county-wide, officials said, though checkpoints held Friday in the San Gabriel Valley and Whittier area saw few intoxicated drivers.
Throughout Los Angeles County, police, sheriff's and California Highway Patrol officials jailed 2,433 people on suspicion of driving under the influence since Dec. 16, Avoid the 100 Task Force officials said Tuesday in a written statement. Avoid the 100 is a coalition of Southern California law enforcement agencies who take part in specialized anti-DUI campaigns.
Officials made 2,406 DUI arrests over the same time period in 2010.
At a Friday checkpoint on Washington Boulevard near Sorenson Avenue in unincorporated West Whittier, CHP Officer Al Perez was pleased to report, "We came up dry."
Officers screened 476 of the 723 cars that went through the checkpoint, but arrested or cited no one and impounded no cars, officials said.
"It's very unusual to have absolutely no DUIs, or no cars impounded whether for suspended license (or) unlicensed driver," Perez said. "Everyone was doing their part and doing the right thing out there, and we're happy to see that."
"(Drivers) took the media warnings to please don't drink and drive and all the advertising," Perez said. "I think they got the message."
In West Covina, police manned a checkpoint Friday at Azusa and Cameron avenue, where an allegedly drunken driver ran a red light and crashed Dec. 23, critically injuring a 19-year-old West Covina man.
At that checkpoint, officers screened 1,718 cars, West Covina police Sgt. Dennis Patton said. One driver was arrested on suspicion of DUI, 14 drivers received tickets and 11 vehicles were impounded to to driver's without valid licenses.
But the goal of the checkpoints is not only to remove drunken drivers from the roads, but also to inform the public about the issue and provide a deterrence, officials said.
"The whole idea is to get compliance with the law," Patton said.
And the Dec. 23 crash is a prime example of why driving under the influence should never be tolerated, the sergeant said.
Twin 19-year-old twin brothers were in a Toyota Camry that was making a left turn from Cameron Avenue onto Azusa Avenue when a Chevy Impala being driven by an allegedly drunk 23-year-old La Puente man went through a red light at "a high rate of speed" and broadsided the Toyota, Patton said. The driver was critical injured and remained hospitalized in critical condition Tuesday.
The suspect's name was not released pending booking into jail, officials said. He was initially hospitalized following the crash
"Here's kid here who's pretty severely injured because of the actions of a drunk driver," Patton said, adding that DUI often devastates families when it results in major injury or death.
At a police checkpoint in Azusa Friday, one driver was arrested on suspicion of DUI, as well as possessing a small amount of marijuana and driving without a license, Azusa police Cpl. Dean Brewer said in a written statement.
Three other drivers received tickets for driving without valid licensed, resulting in a total of four impounded cars, the corporal said. In all, 1,313 cars passed through the checkpoint, and officers screened 1,213 of them.
Police in Baldwin Park had a much busier time at their most recent holiday checkpoint late Friday.
Baldwin Park officers jailed four DUI suspects and issued a total of 89 tickets, 66 of them for driving without a valid license, Baldwin Park police Lt. David Reynoso said.
Seventy-eight vehicles were impounded altogether, with 11 of them being 30-day impounds and the rest being one-day impounds, he said.
LOS ANGELES COUNTY -- Arrests for driving under the influence rose by nearly 20 percent over the Christmas holiday season, compared with the previous year, authorities said.
Deputies and police officers jailed 1,506 DUI suspects in the county between Dec. 16 and Dec. 25, Los Angeles County sheriff's officials said in a written statement.
Officials reported 1,260 DUI arrests over the same time period in 2010.
The arrests are the result of an area-wide coalition of law enforcement agencies dedicated to fighting impaired driving known as Avoid the 100. Participating agencies include police department, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and the California Highway Patrol.
And the efforts are to continue through the New Year's, task force officials warned.
"All regularly scheduled traffic and patrol officers will focus their efforts at stopping and arresting DUI drivers during normal shifts," task force officials said in a written statement.
"The CHP will deploy all available officers during the final nights of the Maximum Enforcement Period this holiday weekend beginning Friday," the statement added.
Additional planned upcoming Avoid the 100 Task Force activities include:
*Friday, Dec. 30: DUI checkpoints in Azusa, West Covina, Baldwin Park and an unincorporated county area near Whittier.
*Saturday, Dec. 31: Multi-agency checkpoint involving Monterey Park, Alhambra, San Gabriel, Montebello and Bell Gardens police, as well as extra patrols with an emphasis on DUI enforcement in communities including Glendora, Covina, Azusa, La Verne, Irwindale, Pomona, South Pasadena, San Marino, Baldwin Park, West Covina, El Monte, Monrovia, Arcadia and Sierra Madre.
*Extra DUI patrols in not-yet-determined portions of the county.
Anyone who sees a drunken driver on the road is asked to report it by calling 911.
Funding for the task force is provided by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
WEST COVINA -- Three people including two brothers were injured when a car ran a red light and hit another vehicle Thursday night.
West Covina police Lt. Marty Sevilla said one of the brothers was in critical condition.
The collision was reported around 10:30 p.m. at Azusa and Cameron avenues.
He said a Chevrolet Impala heading north on Azusa Avenue and travelling at an excessive speed failed to stop at red light.
The Impala struck a car that was preparing to make a left turn from Cameron Avenue to Azusa Avenue, according to Sevilla.
The lieutenant said the Impala's driver is suspected of being under the influence. The driver sustained serious injuries and was taken to Los Angeles County USC Medical Center.
The siblings, both 19, were in the other car.
Sevilla said the one sitting in the passenger seat was taken to Citrus Valley Medical Center, Queen of the Valley campus as a precaution.
The other brother who was behind the wheel was taken to Los Angeles County USC Medical Center where he was in critical condition, Sevilla said.
- Ruby Gonzales
LOS ANGELES COUNTY -- In hopes of helping holiday revelers get home safely, Metro trains will operate free of charge on Christmas and New Year's eves, officials said.
No fare will be charged on Metro trains from 9 p.m. Saturday to 2 a.m. Sunday, or 9 p.m. Dec. 31 through 2 a.m. Jan. 1.
For more information, visit www.metro.net.
SOUTH WHITTIER -- A man and woman on a motorcycle suffered serious injuries and a driver was arrested for driving under the influence following a crash on Telegraph Road late Wednesday, authorities said.
The collision was reported about 10:45 p.m. on Telegraph Road at Victoria Avenue, in the unincorporated county area of South Whittier, Los Angeles County sheriff's Lt. Bill Evans said.
A 24-year-old man and a 22-year-old woman on the motorcycle were taken to UC Irvine Medical Center, he said. An update on their conditions was not available early Thursday.
The 18-year-old Lynwood man driving a car that was involved in the crash -- Pedro Saucedo -- was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence, the lieutenant said.
According to county booking records, he was being held in lieu of $100,000 bail and was due for arraignment Friday in Whittier Superior Court.
The crash is being investigated by the Santa Fe Springs Office of the California Highway Patrol.
CONTRIBUTORS
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| Frank Girardot, Metro Editor for the San Gabriel Valley Newspapers, brings you behind the yellow tape with takes on true crime, cold cases and more. This is also your forum to discuss crime, its impact on your neighborhood and how we cover it. Have any questions or tips? You can leave a comment here or e-mail Frank. |
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Brian Day is the crime reporter for the San Gabriel Valley Newspaper group. E-mail Brian. |
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