Georgia DUI Blog

Thanks to Bruce Edge in Oklahoma for tipping me off to this one.  Had to post it because this is very valuable information.Justin M. Rohrs successfully represented himself in Tax Court after the IRS rejected a deduction that he made on his tax form and demanded that he pay additional taxes, plus a penalty.Rohrs had taken a casualty loss deduction for his 2006 Ford F-350 pickup truck after he failed to properly negotiate a turn and went off the side of the road and into an embankment, totaling his truck. He was cited for the crash when his blood alcohol limit tested at .09, just over the legal limit in California.Rohrs filed a loss with his insurance carrier, which was turned down. He then attempted to recover his loss by filing for a casualty loss deduction of $33,629 on his federal income tax return. The IRS disallowed the deduction and assessed a $6,230 federal income tax deficiency, plus a $1,246 penalty. Rohrs took the matter to court.The pivotal question of the trial was whether Rohrs’ drunk driving was considered a willful act. The IRS’s case relied on Treas. Reg. 1.165-7(a)(3), which states that you can claim a casualty loss for damage to a vehicle only if the damage is not due to the willful act or willful negligence of a taxpayer.After listening to Rohrs’ testimony, the judge found that “[w]hile petitioner’s decision to drive after drinking was negligent, that alone does not automatically rise to the level of gross negligence.” The judge also said there was no evidence that Rohrs’ drinking was the cause of the accident and ruled in his favor. (You can read the Rohrs Tax Court opinion here.)

As a follow up to the post about forced blood draws, check this out.

My friend Mark Stevens in New Hampshire writes this timely post before Memorial Day weekend.

Hello everyone.

Your chances of having an unwanted encounter with the police this Memorial Day weekend are higher than ever before. That is because the government has issued massive money for roadblocks and saturation patrols. The problem with that strategy is that roadblocks do not usually lead to many real DWI arrests. Typically, the police have to stop about 100 cars to hope to find one person who they even SUSPECT of DWI. What they end up citing though are lots of other motor vehicle arrests, people with warrants and the like so they can report “SIX ARRESTED AT DWI CHECKPOINT”, etc. If you peel back the onion you will find that only one or two were DWI arrests, and the rest were a flotsam and jetsam of sundry motor vehicle code offenses or benign inspection violations. Some points that might be helpful to bear in mind if you drive at night over this weekend are:

1. Make Sure Your Inspection Stickers and Registrations Are Valid. An important reminder if you are driving this weekend is to make sure that your car has a valid inspection sticker, as well as a valid registration. When you drive into a roadblock, or even drive by the police this weekend without a valid inspection sticker you can count on being stopped and hassled. Like all the motor vehicle code, the police often co-opt this to see if you have been drinking or have drugs in your car. The penalty for a violation of this section of the motor vehicle code is $60, but the real penalty is when the police smell alcohol or suspect that you have been drinking after stopping you for the lack of an inspection sticker. Many drivers who are initially stopped for this minor violation end up charged with DWI, DUI or OUI. AVOID one potential for this by making sure your inspection stickers are up to date.

2. Make Sure Your Plate Lights and Other Lights Work. Everyone driving at night should check their brake lights, plate lights, and other lighting, as well as their inspection stickers and license plates, to avoid some unwanted interaction with police. The cheesiest of motor vehicle stops begin with a passive equipment violation such as those I’ve just mentioned. In these types of stops, the driver is not exhibiting any signs of impairment. The driver may be obeying the speed limit, maintaining appropriate lane control, and otherwise following every rule of the road, but he finds himself in the flashing blue glow of police lighting wondering why he was stopped.

This high number of stops for equipment violations in recent years is not because the police have taken a sudden interest in the functioning of plate lights, or their concern for whether drivers are using turn signals late at night when there is no one else on the road to signal. Rather, the police have a broader goal: the police have co-opted the motor vehicle code to fight the war on drugs, and many DWI arrests ensue after these stops when the police can’t find any drugs after the stop.

Avoid giving the police some of these chances to legally stop you by making sure that all your lights are functioning, your registration and inspection stickers are up to date, and your license is valid.

PREPARATION FOR THIS WORST CASE SCENARIO. It is not a bad idea to prepare for this event. Have your license and registration in an easy place to find and an easy place to quickly and effortlessly produce upon demand. Don’t put your license in a difficult spot to pull it out quickly when you need to. Practice taking your license out of your wallet in the safety of your home. CONSIDER GETTING A REGISTRATION HOLDER TO KEEP YOUR VEHICLE REGISTRATION IN. If you do not have one send me an email with your mailing address and I will send you a registration holder for every one of your vehicles free of charge. Then practice producing your license and registration fairly frequently. It will make it easier to do if you ever have to produce them under a pressurized roadside situation.

Have a safe weekend,

Mark Stevens

http://www.ByeByeDWI.com

You have to read this one.

Case No. 1 - Plantation Florida DUI police Academy instructor Lauire Primeau was charged and convicted of DUI.  The most interesting thing about this case is that she was going 90 mph and was naked from the waist down.  She must have had a fun night.

 Case No. 2 - Pinellas Park Florida officer Jason Nosal was found passed out in his car in a driveway and was found by the homeowner.  Police had to taser the officer when he became combative.  He was found to have ecstacy in his system.

What in the world is going on in Florida?

David Harsanyi form the Denver Post wrote this interesting article on DUI roadblocks.

Lawrence Taylor’s DUI blog has a great post on this subject.  If you practice in this area and have never seen his blog, leave and go there now.

To see the study in the journal Digestive Disease Week, click here.

The general idea is that artificial sweetners do not cause the pyloric valve to stay closed as long and for the drink to be trapped in the stomach where only approximately 20% of alcohol gets absorbed into the bloodstream.  Consequently, the gastic emptying takes less time to occur and the drink gets passed into the intestine and absorbed there more quickly.  BAC’s on the test subjects were .05 for the artificial sweetners and .03 for the sucrose sweetners.

This story is from Yahoo.com. A driver in Lithuania was 18 times the legal limit. The story says that he tested .727.

Updated: Definately not the highest ever. Check out this .914 on a Bulgarian man here.