Archive | February, 2012

Here’s a video blog I posted on DUI jury trials in Arizona. As a DUI attorney in Arizona, I feel very strongly that everyone should be entitled to a DUI jury trial. DUI is a serious offense and treating it like a traffic ticket is wrong. Either make it a civil offense, or let us try cases in front of our peers.

A brutal and nasty picture is emerging from Honduras.  A horrible prison system, coupled with overcrowded conditions and terrible training caused the death of nearly 300 souls. Looking at the prison system in Honduras, it is actually somewhat incredible that something of this magnitude had not occurred before.  Tales of guards beating prisoners in airless [...]

It looks like the prosecutor who lost the Casey Anthony homicide trial has a new gig. Tomorrow he will give opening statements in the trial to defend his son who was arrested for a DUI. This is a very unusual move.

As a DUI attorney in Phoenix, I regularly tell my friends that I will gladly pay for any taxi fare if they find themselves thinking about driving home after drinking too much. However, if they get arrested for DUI, I usually will refer close friends to other counsel. Why?

Posted by attorney Nick Alcock
OK, this story is ridiculous. LA county has approved plans to fine people $1000 for throwing a frisbee or football on the beach. You also can’t dig a hole deeper than 18 inches.

Some attorney needs to sue. Now. This is a bridge too far. The whole point of going to the beach is to throw frisbees and dig holes. I’m serious. That was me 30 years ago. I brought two things to the beach. A bucket and a frisbee.

Attorneys are busily defending a California man for feeding pigeons. The problem is that the flock happens to live right at the end of an airport runway.

Charles Douglas has pleaded not guilty to this alleged pigeon feeding. He was under an existing court order to abstain from feeding the birds. Apparently he can’t help himself. Now Mr. Douglas is in hot water.

This threat isn’t just theoretical. A Southwest Airlines flight was diverted because it hit–get this–a flock of pigeons at the airfield.

Attorneys for Arizona Governor Jan Brewer filed their opening brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in her appeal of a ruling that blocked enforcement of the most controversial portions of Arizona’s immigration enforcement law.

Governor Brewer is asking the Supreme Court to overturn a ruling that blocked sections of S.B. 1070 from coming into effect, including a provision that allows police to check the immigration status of anyone who has been arrested, stopped or detained whom an officer reasonably suspects to be in the country illegally.

Here’s exactly why people should be entitled to a trial by jury for DUI charges. In Allentown PA, a woman won her trial by jury on the equivalent of an extreme DUI, but then the judge found her guilty for a lesser form of the charge.

How is this possible? Because in PA, people charged with the lesser crime of impaired driving are not entitled to a jury trial. In Arizona, the legislature passed the same type of law that eliminates a person’s right to a jury trial. Now we are going to see similar situations in Phoenix.

Attorneys representing John Price have successfully overturned a Scottsdale ordinance that bans public drunkards from wandering the streets. Judge James Blake, in a well-reasoned opinion, held that the city had no legal grounds to enforce their law.

Here’s another story that makes you shake your head. Yet another sports figure is imperiling his future with a DUI arrest. Stanford football player Shayne Skov was recently arrested for a DUI offense in California. Last weekend, the football player was booked for DUI as he returned home to his dorm room.