Charges Dropped in "DUI On a Horse" Case

[barman]

Demonstrating that we're likely yet to see the most absurd use of police arrest power....Everytime I think the silliest abuse has occurred, I find an even more dumbass storyline somewhere else.

(hat tip to Lawrence Taylor and his DUI Blog)

http://www.duiblog.com/2009/08/02/dui-on-a-horse-2/


Charges Dropped in "DUI On Horse" Case Dalton, CA. Aug. 1 –Two men charged in for driving under the influence on a horse have had their charges dropped…
District Attorney Kermit McManus told the Citizen that it came down to distinctions in the case–between a vehicle and a horse. McManus said a horse "did not meet the definition of a vehicle."

Duh…..Lucky we have razor-sharp legal minds in the D.A.’s office to second-guess the boys in blue.

(Think this is a fluke? See my my past posts, DUI on a Horse?, DUI on a Horse, Drunk Riding and New Law: A Horse is not a Vehicle.)

 

[punter]

Why did they not do like Texas officers and file "drunk in public"?

 

[barman]

Had not visited Taylor's blog in a while. He keeps up with the more outrageous abuses of DUI laws by police.

Here's one from last week:

http://www.duiblog.com/2009/08/02/cops-frame-woman-for-dui/

How easy is it for a cop to frame someone for drunk driving? Very….if you forget there’s a video tape running in the patrol car:

Charges Dropped Against Woman Framed by Cops
Miami, FL. July 29 – Alexandra Torrensvilas was the target of cops who pinned a DUI on her for an accident they caused. Now she has been cleared of charges after the Broward State Attorney’s Office officially dropped the four DUI citations on Wednesday.
But the saga is far from over as now prosecutors turn their attention to the four Hollywood police officers who made up an intricate story to cover for a February traffic accident involving a cop car. The scheme was caught on one of the officers dashboard cameras.
The disturbing video shows Alexandra Torrensvilas, 23, handcuffed in the back of the squad car as the officers get their stories straight on what they are going to say happened.
Officer Joel Francisco crashed into the back of Torrensvilas’ vehicle at a light on February 17 at midnight. The cop radioed to other officers who converged on the scene and hatched a way to bail Francisco out.
Officer Dewey Pressley, 42, arrives and questions Torrensvilas, who tells him that she has been drinking. The 21-year veteran officer seizes the opportunity and arrests her for DUI. But the plot thickens from there.
The cops begin to brainstorm believable excuses for the accident. ..
Then, another cop debates with Pressley on who is going to write up the fabricated report to clear their police comrade…
"I’ll write the narrative," Pressley says. "We’re going to bend this a little bit."
Civilian Community Service Officer Karim Thomas joins the three senior officers and the four cops go so far as to change the angle of pictures of the accident to make it look like Torrensvilas swerved in front of the cop car and caused the accident, not Francisco.
Throughout the tape, the cops acknowledged what they are doing is illegal, but when you are the law, there is nothing wrong with bending it for a fellow cop, one says…
The cops even do a final rehearsal before Villa is taken to the city lock up.
"We’ll take care of it," one officer says. The others reply: "We’re good."
The police officers are currently on administrative duty pending a state attorney’s office investigation.

Do you really think this is an isolated event? How easy is it for a cop to simply claim that a driver drove erratically, appeared drunk, failed field sobriety tests and then "refused" a breathalyzer test — making it his word against the accused? Doesn’t it make you wonder about all those self-styled "DUI Super Cops" out there who get awards, promotions and huge overtime pay for racking up massive "drunk driving" arrests?

 

[quantumleap]

I wonder if you can get a DUI while on roller skates.

 

[ElTaino]

I wonder if you can get a DUI while on roller skates.

in HB (and most likely everywhere else) you can on a bicycle ^<<^

 

[barman]

ET, at Taylor's blog (cited above) if you scroll down about the front page of Latest Blog Posts, there's mention of a law passed in South Dakota recently that exempted bicycles...heh

 

[Presto]

The DUI industrial complex is out of control. Not only would these safety zealots like to outlaw alcohol, they would do away with cars in heartbeat given the chance.

You don't even need to start the engine to be charged with DUI. Just putting key in the ignition to listen to the radio can get you tossed in the DUI extortion system.

And the commies over at MADD want ALL new cars to have some sort of alcohol detection system installed from the factory.

 

[quantumleap]

in HB (and most likely everywhere else) you can on a bicycle ^<<^

Huntington Beach has Beach Nazis. When I lived there with my roommate he got a ticket for riding his bike in the wrong lane.

^<<^